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Sugar in gas tank

R

Red Mud

Member
A guy in town was telling me that someone put sugar in his gas tank and it ruined his engine. I told him that trick hadn't worked since the 40's & 50's, and then only on cars that didn't have a fuel filter. He got mad and said he knew better than that. I told him when it worked years ago it was like sand, it would eat the pistons and cylinder walls and when you shut the engine off the sugar on the pistons and walls and valves would melt then set up hard and lock the engine up. He said it didn't lock his up, but he knew someone put sugar in his tank. I guess that myth will never die.
 
Answer the question yourself; fill a jar half way with sugar and fill the rest of the way with gas. Shake it up and see how much disolves. Report it here.

Jim
 
Sorry Pard,

It's you with the "myth". :>)

If you'd ever seen one that's been sugared, you'd know better.

No, it doesn't "act like sand and eat the pistons and cylinder walls". That's pure horse hokey.

Works just like an apple pie that's boiled over in an oven. Lifters stuck, valves hang open and rings don't move after that crap cools.

Allan
 
Sugar would have to dissolve in gas to get past the filter and that ain't gonna happen, and sugar won't make it thru fuel injectors.
 
I bet a lot of you guys have used that myth because your daddy said it would trash an engine, so you tell that over and over because you just don't know any better. Sugar will not dissolve in gasoline and sugar will plug injectors.
 
You're shootin' in the dark on this one ol' Bud. :>)

Sugar doesn't 'desolve', it decomposes and it is totally heat dependant.

Bring your favorite ride over and I'll show ya how it works. :>)

Allan
 

You guys aren't paying attention..
They're saying it doesn't dissolve in gasoline,and the fuel filter will stop it from getting to the engine in todays vehicles....
 
Either that or spent a lifetime working in garages.

I'd bet I was probably turning wrenches before your folks were even born. :>)

Allan
 
We run test on this myth in the early 70's, that was a long time before mythbusters did it. I know that sugar and gas won't mix, you need to try it and get back to me. 6 months after adding sugar to gas it'll still be on bottom white as snow.
 
If a guy takes the whole derned engine and drop it in a hot tank, you can "cook" it off.

Fastest, "easiest" way I know. Still a heck of a mess tho. :>)

Allan
 
Allan, I always took you for being a lot smarter than your coming off today. Why don't you explain how it works?
 
I bought a '68 Charger that had alledgedly been "sugared" minus the engine. Didn't really buy into the "myth". The first two engines I had in it were good engines out of wrecked or rusty cars, they both started sticking valves open after they cooled off and both were stuck after sitting a couple of months. A new fuel tank went in along with the third engine and the problem was gone.
 
Fer Ke-rist's sake!

You haven't even ever seen an apple pie baked in an oven?

And it's me coming off 'dull'?

Allan
 
You're just a youngster, I'm 72 and spent at least 15 years longer that you working on automotive and heavy equipment.
 
Then,

You should know better ol' friend. You ever see it, you don't forget it.

And I don't speak from watching TV, but rather from cleaning up these things first hand.

When that sugar gets hot, it turns liquid; subequently cools off and turns to an old-fashioned crust.

I'm trying to find a picture for you as we speak. :>)

Allan
 

Heck, Allan, i got out of Army in 1946, after a guided tour of France. Came home with a wooden left foot. Started buying and selling old Fords. Mostly Tees and A's. Learned a lot from that. Then i got a job at the local Ford Dealer's Garage., worked there 3 years, then got a job at an Auto body and paint shop. Stayed there 12 years, then worked closer to home, at a Jeep dealer. Got married somewhere around the body shop gig. Stayed gainfully employed until about ten years ago. Couldn't stand the loafing, so i started fixing lawn mowers, etc!
I'm still doing it. I figger, if i had set around after i "retired", i'd of been long dead by now!
I'll be 89 in September, and i ain't slowing down! Left foot hasn't grown back, so i'm stuck with what i have. It works ok, not complaining.
Was out tonight after supper, checking out a guys lawn tractor, to repair it.
Three meals a day, don't smoke, work hard and drink a beer every night. Works fer me! RJ
 
Sticking valves was part of the test we did in the 70's. We got a 1964 chevy that was parked for over 5 years and it still had a 1/4 tank of gas. We cut the gas supply line going to the fuel pump, we added a fuel hose where we cut the line so we could use a can with fresh gas. we ran the engine on fresh gas and it ran fine. Before we closed up shop and went home we'd hook the hose to the line coming from the tank and run the engine for 30 minutes or so on the old gas. shut it down and go home, next morning hit the starter and bust or bend about 5 or 6 push rods. Tap on the valves to free them up, then replace the push rods and add different gas additives to the old gas which never worked. We'd run it on fresh gas and then the old gas before we closed and it busted push rods every morning.
 
even though all the sugar won't dissolve how much did,IE water will only absorb x amount per gallon same thing with other compounds,it only takes a small amount to wreak havoc on an engine especially a carbureted one , today's blended fuels with alcohol stand a better chance because alcohol will dissolve sugar, if you don't think alcohol will dissolve sugar get some 190 proof and pour rock candy in it,after a couple days there will still be undissolved candy in it, but but taste it, use to be used for cough syrup, as for myth busters there interesting but not ALWAYS ACCURATE,have been involved with a few of there myths in reality and they didn't turn out as they showed them
 
Allan, I said sugar would melt and stick the valves and pistons when I started this conversation, so will old gas. Maybe people was put'n apple pie in gas tanks instead of sugar, we never tried that in the 70's, I guess on one had ever heard of it.
 
Sugar will not dessolve in gas. not one grain. You can bust up a grain fine enough that you can't see it, but it will not dessolve. And I doubt it would make it thru any fuel filters made in the past 30 years.
 
The sugar won't get hot in the gas tank and there and the filter is the only place it can go.
I don't know where your coming from with that TV bit, I was involved in the test with sugar first hand.
 
Sugar will not dissolve in gas . It will however dissolve in water . Most of the older cars and pre ethanol days there was usually water sitting in the bottom of gas tanks . Sugar liquified , made it up to the carb, gummed stuff up . I have seen many cases come into shop ,but never had a trashed engine. Possibly because did not work on that old of stuff , guessing started wrenching full time round 1978 . All of the fuel injected cars that I repaired I flushed tank with hot water , flushed fuel lines and rail with hot water . This was from a bulletin issued by AllState Insurance . They all ran great afterwards . Not sure what E85 will do ? But ,,try it , jar of gas , cup of sugar , no dissolving . I"m going to try e85 and sugar this weekend .
 
Allan I am with you on this one.When I was young the boys would go out sparking with little Honey Dew. Somebody got mad, A shot of sugar in the gas tank while parked on a country road usually usually left them stranded. Another favorite was to belly your way down the Bar ditch with a pair of dikes and pinch the gas line shut, AH SWEET REVENGE.gitrib
 
Between posts I've been trying to help Allan shoot me down, no where on the net can I find him any help. I did read an artical about some guy dessolving sugar in water and then adding it to gas. I don't recall us doing that in the 70's but there was several doing the tests so we might have. Anyway I'm about to dessolve sugar in water then add it to gas and I'll check it in the morning.
 
Another piece of history.... My youngest brother graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree in the late 70's and got his first real job with Hewlett Packard in Santa Rosa CA. His job involved some lab work and some desk work. So one day he asks another person in the lab to pass the "dikes". WHOA!!! He got called into personnel office and was strongly informed that from now on he was to refer to that tool as a "side cutters". He was quickly learning about California.

Paul in MN
 
Allen,Have em look at an apple pie that boiled over in the oven. Juice heated turns the overflow to (LIKE CREOSOTE) Smooth Hard texture. gummy, stickey etc. Your right !!!!!! LOU
 
Sounds like a successful approach to life in my opinion.
You probably outlived the s.o.b. that robbed you of your foot too.
 
So maybe the sugar was really added to the oil where it could be like sand till melted . then harden when cooled
 
While trying to help Allan I read what mythbusters said about sugar in gas. The part I read they said it would pass from the tank thru the engine without doing any damage. That wouldn't happen, I don't watch mythbusters, and after trying to get mythbusters to prove me wrong about the story I told on Utube about put'n 5 or 6 sticks of dynamite in a cistern that was converted to a septic tank, they won't even talk about it. I expect it would be the best mythbuster to date and they won't touch it.
 
well,try a skinned golf ball in the gas tank of a brand spankin new '72 Vette...local dealer wouldnt touch it...i drew the unlucky straw...literally picked tiny pieces of rubber band from thoughout that fuel system and engine...have seen aftermath of CloverLeaf fine going thru fuel system and engine too...filters didnt even catch a cold.
 
I just read another article about mythbusters doing the sugar in gas tank, they said it didn't do anything to the engine, then they said it actually made the car run better. That kind of crap is why I don't watch that show. course I'd watch it if that red head was the only one on the show.
 
Ok...I got this settled. Every one that thinks that suger won't hurt you engine, go to the kitchen and borrow ma's suger canister and dump a cup or two of it in you truck, car lawnmower, chainsaw, weedwhip, and your tractor. After a few weeks you can get on here and tell us that 1. everything still runs just fine or 2. your not very happy!
 
In 1/2 an hour, my work day begins. First on the agenda is starting to re-assemble a 2010 Kia Rio that got "sugared". All your theories and "myths" be danged, this engine was a flippin' MESS. Rings stuck and valve train gummed up something terrible.

The boys from Mythbusters are nowhere to be found or I'd take 'em on a tour of my workbench. It's no myth Dude!
 
Amen and another Amen,

In all my years, I've only had to deal with a dozen or so of these woes, but once you've seen one, the silly "Myth Busters" theory goes out the window in one he!! of a hurry. :>(

They wouldn't know a sugared engine if it jumped up and slapped 'em in the face with a wet dishrag. :>)

Allan
 
Sugar doesn't dissolve in gasoline. Red Mud, you're right; only way for sugar to get into the engine is with no filters, If sugar is mixed with water to become a syrup, the syrup wont burn and the engine again dies. The sugar/water won't blend with the gasoline! The biggest problem with ethanol blended gasoline is the alcohol won't stay blended. Getting a tankful of nearly pure alcohol from a station that doesn't sell much, or filling your mower with a can that sat around a few months is a recipe for failure. Congresscritters, having NO experience fixing small engines, don't 'get' this fact.
 
(quoted from post at 15:58:59 04/18/12) A guy in town was telling me that someone put sugar in his gas tank and it ruined his engine. I told him that trick hadn't worked since the 40's & 50's, and then only on cars that didn't have a fuel filter. He got mad and said he knew better than that. I told him when it worked years ago it was like sand, it would eat the pistons and cylinder walls and when you shut the engine off the sugar on the pistons and walls and valves would melt then set up hard and lock the engine up. He said it didn't lock his up, but he knew someone put sugar in his tank. I guess that myth will never die.
Click to expand...

Guys------Sugar is a CH(Carbon/Hydrogen) molecule. It is higher up in the petroleum chain. It kind of acts like a Tar Sand when introduced to gasoline. Some will dissolve in gasoline and diesel, but not all. It doesn't take much to blow thru a filter and when it does , look out valves. We see it all the time at the lab.

(fuelsandlubestechnologies.org)
 
I see two stories here.. one is sugar in the gas,, the other is sugar in the crankcase...



sugar in the gas isnt likely to coat lifters and cams.... so I smell a rat...

and a tank with water in it will not run it long enough to get into the crankcase. it would spit and sputter and then die... been there, done it too many times..

soooooooo....

I thinks we are talking apples and oranges here..

sugar in the crankcase... it a whole 'nother myth busters.. and yes,, i suspect very bad things will happen.. but you would have to run it on GOOD gas for a long time to get it there...
 
Seems like way back in the recesses of this old mind I remember someone telling me that they had to fix an engine that had been "sugared" by pouring the sugar into the carburetor.
Anybody ever heard of that method?
 
Common table sugar melts at 186 degrees F.

Ethanol boils at 172 degrees F.

Pure gasoline starts to boil at 90 degrees F.

If your gas tank is getting THAT hot, all your fuel is boiling away out the vent pipe! No wonder you're getting such lousy mileage.

There is no way the sugar is "melting" in the tank.

The sugar was introduced into these "sugared" engines through some means other than the gas tank.
 
It doesn't make a fig how it gets there....it will.

Just as soon as the stuff hits roughly 130-140° it decomposes and turns liquid. Filters are no hindrance whatsoever at that tempreature.

And before someone bellers that the fuel doesn't get hot enough, I beg to differ. Return fuel coming off that regulater is running between 230 and 250°.

Work your tractor for an hour or two, shut it off and look in the fuel tank with a flashlight. You'll notice it boiling at the bottom of the tank.

Ya don't notice much anything wrong (but, there is) until ya shut the outfit off. Once it cools, the damned stuff will jel back into a solid state where ever it is sitting; usually gobbed around the valves and rings.

Allan
 
All I am saying is they did a show on it and proved it did not harm. Now is it right wrong or some place between I do not know I am just saying what they found. Or in other words don't shoot the messenger since I am only passing on what myth buster found about sugar in the gas tank and they could not hurt the engine they ran it in
 
Well now you're drawing for straws and picking numbers out of the clear blue. For sugar to melt and decompose it has to get hotter than your 140 degrees F. And the boiling point for gasoline is even hotter. And gasoline in a car or truck does not boil going to the grocery store even on hot asphalt on the hottest days. It will however turn to vapor around the engine in older model cars and trucks, but thats another story for another day.
 
Yep,

Guess, I'm just beatin' my head against a brick wall; but I've seen it too darned many times.

Where you people been anyway? Am I the only one that's ever turned a silly wrench for a livin'?

'Course, come to think of it, out here goin' to the grocery store means an 80 mile trip. Do have to remember to pick up some sugar tho! :>)

Allan
 
Allan,

Nobody is arguing that you've seen "sugared" engines, but your claims of how the sugar gets in there are completely ludicrous.

You can sugar an engine but not by simply pouring the sugar in the gas tank.
 
(quoted from post at 11:09:25 04/19/12) Allan,

Nobody is arguing that you've seen "sugared" engines, but your claims of how the sugar gets in there are completely ludicrous.

You can sugar an engine but not by simply pouring the sugar in the gas tank.
Click to expand...

I'm with Allen on this one.

MKirsch---Go ahead and dump about a pound of sugar into the gas tank of any motorized vehicle you own. Drive it for a hundred or so miles and then shut it off for the night. Report back to us with the results.
 
Several have said dump sugar in your tank, drive around and get back to us. That just ain't gonna happen, not that it would ruin the engine but just knowing it was in the tank even 5 years from now, Me thank those that have sugested this have done a search and come up a little short on backup.
 
They like to bury quite a bit more from their history...... and then some.
Overall, interesting folks there, lots of old oil and gas money, very (southern traditional) values and ideas... if you know what I mean. Fairly closed social circles, traditional, (ultra) conservative. Competitive with OKC metroplex economically.
As locale: hilly, few straight roads, lots trees and humid (relative to my home, sw OK).
Wife likes the town, I'd rather go to OKC, Amarillo.
 
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