Does age ol' "sugar in the gas tank" thing work?

NYSpeed Automotive
1

in light of recent gas theft in buffalo, my father came up with a nice little karma situation for the assholes who are puncturing people’s gas tanks just to steal gas. Last week he found 5 old 5 gallon gas cans on one of his old properties, full of old gas. He’s toying with the idea of mixing sugar in the old tanks and just leaving them in the back of his truck, tempting some douche to steal them.

I’ve never actually tried it and never actually heard of it happening to anybody. The only things i can think of is watching it in the movies (i.e. King Pin)

I did a quick google search and i’m getting conflicting reports.

Does anybody ACTUALLY know? Does putting sugar in a gas tank actually ruin an engine?

YES it does: http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/msugargs.html

NO it doesn’t: http://www.snopes.com/autos/grace/sugar.asp

2

mythbusters did an episode, it never really stopped working.

3

Might clog the fuel pickup, and filter.

Bleach might be more fun.

4

They say sugar does not disolve in gasoline so it just settles in the bottom of the tank. Using a water/gas mixture would work better.

5

ACID!

6

what about just water… or oil

7

yeah, didnt it fuck shit up when they used bleach on mythbusters?

8

Bleach was the worst of the ones Mythbusters tested. Sugar did nothing.

http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2004/07/mythbusters_scuba_diver_in_a_f.html

Bleach caused everything to rust. Looking at how quickly it happened I would bet it would be a real PITA to fix since all the lines, filters, injectors etc would end up clogged and/or damaged.

9

puncture my tank.the dissapointment will be hysterical

10

I would say bleach or water. The water would at least stall their stupid car out.

If your dad doesn’t want to do I will. Give them to me.

11

but that was bleach in the oil not gas

12

water would be fine… so would acid…

13

:tup: I say DO it

14

from the link: http://kwc.org/mythbusters/2004/07/mythbusters_scuba_diver_in_a_f.html

Car caper 7: Bleach in the engine oil
Smoke/steam came pouring out of the engine. The engine got hot enough to set fire to the wood that it was sitting on. To cap it off they fried an egg on the exhaust.

Though there were no spectacular explosions, the engine was pretty well used up.confirmed

also i dont think they would ever go after my car just b/c its so low they would need to jack it up, then do it would be to much time for someone trying to get in and out quick… i hope

15

I think the obvious would be the amount of sugar, rather than the expectancy of there being a reaction to the gas. Sugar is actually used in a lot of explosives. ( Mix alkaline from a battery with sugar, and it will ignite)

16

bleach + water

17

I bet you can put all kinds of random shit in there. People will just grab the jug and dump it into their tank. Not really look to see what is in there.

Sand, pebbles, sugar, salt, bleach, maybe some detergent. :slight_smile:

18

People like that need to be shot, If I seen someone under my car, Bet theyd catch atleast one slug.

19

word sand/bleach/water!!!