I have an 1998 Ford I was trying to sell…I went to move it noticed grass dead below the gas tank and when I took the cap off it have a red pinkish stain on it. I did try to crank it and it did run…for a minute then shut off and it would not start again. Mind you the motor would turn over.
Took it to the shop…dropped the gas tank and the gas looks like cotton candyand smells like a cleaning soluition. I know I have smelled this before. Had to do the insurance thing…the adjuster here had to call the in-house adjuster “Jr” to let him know what the shop had found in the gas tank.
Jr waited more than a week to get back to us. Now it has been close to 3 weeks since whatever was put in the gas tank has been in the motor. The shop tries to start it…the motor has locked up. Insurance says sugar would not lock the motor up, he says maybe the truck got too hot and cracked the engine. The adjuster wants to send it to Ford shop…They call motor is locked up. It’s been 4 weeks now.
I would like to know if anyone might have an idea what they could have put in the gas tank…I know it was liquid…But what liquid would do that much damage.
Thanks!
What liquid could you put in a gas tank that would lock the motor up?
This is a General Question, not a question About This Message Board. Moved to General Questions.
samclem GQ moderator
Ummm, nothing?
To hydraulically lock a motor you need to add enough liquid to a cylinder that it prevents it from traveling all the way to the top of its travel (called top dead center or TDC for short)
So assuming the fuel injection system is functioning correctly, it doesn’t matter what is in the tank, not enough of it will wind up in the cylinders to hydraulically lock the engine.
Why do you want to know?
There are ways to do it, but I really don’t want to go into them until I have some clue about your motives.
It sounds to me like your insurance company is saying that whatever damage was done to this vehicle was not the result of vandalism, and are therefore not responsible for paying for the cost of repair.
I have no idea what may have caused the engine to lock up if the starter was able to crank the pistons. Normally only something severe like running the engine without oil would cause the engine to lock up.
At any rate this would be a better discussion for the General Questions forum.
Welcome to the Straight Dope firefly31601!
The other post (referenced above) says the engine still turns over, therefore, it isn’t locked up. I’ll guess it is a fuel injected engine and the substance in the gas tank has clogged the injectors. (That’s a guess) It really shouldn’t be all that hard to troubleshoot and certainly could be done in less than the few weeks the shop has had the car.
To answer your question, I can’t think of anything to put in a gas tank that would “lock up” (seize) an engine.
I had a 1998 Ford for sale and someone put something in the gas tank. I took it to a shop and they pulled the gas tank. The gas was the red and it smelled like some kind of cleaning fluid. The grass under the gas tank was dead. The insurance company is giving me a hard time and I was just wondering if anyone might know what it could be.
The engine would turn over the day it was took to the shop but the shop did not try to crank it for 3 weeks due to my lovely insurance company.
Merged similar threads (originally posted in different forums), which is why the sequence looks odd.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator