Drain gas if car's been sitting?

elark0

New Member
Oct 9, 2006
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A month after my last post, and I'm finally ready to get my '99 Cobra 'Vert fixed. She's been sitting in my garage since May, waiting for me to save up enough to fix her - popular opinion is that my throwout bearing and clutch are bad.

I finally have the money I need, and plan on taking her in next week (YAY!), but a friend of mine told me that since the car's been sitting for so long, I need to empty the fuel tank, drain the lines, and run a cleaner or something, because old gas is bad for the engine. But so far, a lot of stuff he's told me about cars has not been right, so I don't know if I should believe this. And I don't want to ask the guys at my Mustang shop on the chance that they'll say yes, just to make some money. I don't think they'd do that, but I'll forever be mistrustful of auto mechanics :rolleyes:

SO...do I need to have the tank drained/lines flushed? It's 3/4 full and has been sitting since the middle of May. I started and ran it for a few minutes once in the middle of July, but since then, nothing.

Thanks!!
 
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I had to leave my car sitting once for a year and it fired right up. I wouldn't worry about it, but it wouldn't hurt to throw some octane boost in there and then go right to the gas station and top it off with fresh go juice. It also wouldn't hurt to change out the fuel filter once you've ran a few tanks of gas through it. :flag:
 
Drain Gas

The only thing u would need to worry about in that short of a time span is condensation. That isnt a problem since it was spring and summer time that it sat.
Condensation occurs more in the wet cold weather and can happen even faster then the time frame urs sat around. I guess my point is use some type of fuel treatment that avoids condensation build up if your rig is going to be sitting during the winter like many of our cars do.
 
I would dump SeaFoam in there in an approx ratio of one can to one full tank of gas (half can for half tank, quarter can for quarter tank...)

Then I would drive straight to Shell and top it off with fresh 93 octane.

Next time add a fuel stabilizer like SeaFoam when you park it.
 
Thanks guys!! I'll try to top it off on the way to the repair shop....I guess it kind of depends on how it drives over there...I may not want to stop if it's too bad, but I've been told it should be okay, so we'll see.

If I don't do it before, it'll be immediately after she's fixed, and I'm already planning a nice long drive afterward....after four months of driving only a 12 year old Honda Civic, I'm going through withdrawals! I miss driving a REAL car! Haha...

And I'll get some SeaFoam, too....and a fuel filter :)
 
My Cobra sits for 8-9 months out of the year...EVERY year. Never had a problem. The car sits in the garage with half a tank in the winter. First stop is the gas station and I fill it up.