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Sugar in the fuel system?-update post 28

JDNobodi

JDNobodi

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I working on ford ranger which somebody poured sugar into the fuel tank and the truck won't run.

I was told at first it was water and all I had to do was drain the tank. When I pulled the tank, that is when I found the sugar in filler neck.

sugarfuel.jpg


Also, what the OHMs for a mid nineties Ford Ranger fuel sender? She is complaining about a the fuel gauge not working. I'm looking into it while the tank is out.

Updated--go to post 28
 
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That sucks. What does it do? Clog the pickup screen and fuel filter?
 
I thought mythbusters had proven thy sugar in the gas tank wouldn't hurt anything...
 
smier said:
I thought mythbusters had proven thy sugar in the gas tank wouldn't hurt anything...
Click to expand...

Ive read somewhere that sugar wouldnt hurt either. I assume it could clog the pump, filter and who knows what else if it didnt dissolve but sugar is fairly soluble :dunno:
 
Yeah, I thought that just made cotton candy come out the tailpipe...:dunno:
 
smier said:
I thought mythbusters had proven thy sugar in the gas tank wouldn't hurt anything...
Click to expand...
x2
If the tank was really low, maybe, but they showed you would need a LARGE quantity to hurt anything, like a whole bag or so

Dunno about the OHMs on the sender. Might be able to look up autometer gauges for that truck and see what your options are :dunno:
 
A service manual should have the specs it should Ohm out at.

All Data might too. I can check that for you later I have to go to work now though.
 
time for a new locking gas cap also. :whistle:

and did you even check for fuel pressure at the test port on the engin before you pulled the tank ?

needs to be within a specific psi range.

just here luck it might be a fuel pump out at the same time and with problems of fuel level sender not working correctly time for new sending unit and flush the tame . then hook up send line only and turn key on to prime the system and blow out the junk from the lines in to a catch can. also a new fuel filter is def in order.
 
While sugar will not dissolve in gas, it will in water.
If a gas tank has some condensation in it, the sugar will dissolve in the water, and if you have enough water to get some picked up by the pump, it can get into the engine.

I have reclaimed gas by pouring a quantity of water in it and mixing it well.
Then pouring off the gas into another container.

If someone wants to try to damage an engine with sugar, make some simple syrup with it by making a saturated solution and pour enough in the tank to let the pickup get it.
Even then, the damage is often minimal.
 
Just for the hell of it we poured some sugar in the tank of my buddys Honda, it was crap except the drivetrain, ran awesome. Older civic still got 40 mpg and had decent power.

We must have poured 10 lbs in that tank over a week, it clogged the filter but did no other damage we could see I don't know if he ever pulled the tank or not, parted the car out the next week.
 
blazinzuk said:
Just for the hell of it we poured some sugar in the tank of my buddys Honda, it was crap except the drivetrain, ran awesome. Older civic still got 40 mpg and had decent power.

We must have poured 10 lbs in that tank over a week, it clogged the filter but did no other damage we could see I don't know if he ever pulled the tank or not, parted the car out the next week.
Click to expand...

We did the same thing with an old Ford Areostar with a 3.0 V6

It ran great, and we never changed the fuel filter, until it was scrapped,

We ended up thowing a washig in the engine to make some noise
 
79rustyk10 said:
A service manual should have the specs it should Ohm out at.

All Data might too. I can check that for you later I have to go to work now though.
Click to expand...
That would be great.

I was hoping the fuel filter would catch most of the sugar. I saw undissolved sugar at the bottom of the tank. I wonder why it is causing the truck not to run if it didn't dissolved. I wonder if the claim of water being in the tank is what could have dissolved some of the sugar and it was able to go though the fuel system.
 
We did the same thing with an old Ford Areostar with a 3.0 V6

It ran great, and we never changed the fuel filter, until it was scrapped,

We ended up thowing a washig in the engine to make some noise
Click to expand...


back about 30 years ago,,, we had an OLD 1949 Diamond T that was used to move 18 wheeler trailers around the shop...
It was so friken old...But still ran...

It had a huge 6 cylinder gas engine with a big 1 barrel carb on it... no air filter or anything...

We TRIED to kill that thing for like a month so the management would buy a decent tractor to move the trailers with..

we put in 2 6 oz cans of valve grinding compound in the oil,,,,still ran..
we held the throttle open and fed it handful's of sand.....still ran
we held the pedal to the floor when building air pressure cold every morning..still ran

we ended up draining the oil one evening.....cranked it up till it started screeching and making loud noises... ( but still ran ) poured the oil back into it... it knocked and raised hell for about a week before finally locking up one morning ....

a couple of days later we had an new ( old ) GMC with a 6-71 Detroit in it to play with....:D:D:D
 
What Year is the truck?

Any other drivetrain type info would help. I didnt realize you didnt state a year.
 
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