Okay, I know I'm way WAY off topic, but as always, this BBS's clientele represents a wide cross-section of expertise, so I'm taking a stab at it.

I have a new car, a 2000 Honda Accord. Earlier this week, I purchased gas and forgot to close the gas cap. It was left parked out overnight with no gas cap on. During a pretty harsh rainstorm.

It seems to run fine, but what are the odds I am ruining my engine because some water got into the gas? What, if anything, should I do?

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Tony Fabris

i'm no expert, but i think it should be ok. unless it was an incredible amount of water that got into the tank (does the tank have one of those spring loaded disks to close the neck off?), i would think any water in the gas would simply burn off in the combustion chamber. maybe you will see some white smoke in your exhaust. again though, i'm not an expert.

jeremy

12 gig, green...

(does the tank have one of those spring loaded disks to close the neck off?)

No, it does not, I'm afraid. Actually it surprised me when I discovered this.

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Tony Fabris

I'm almost certain it won't harm your engine at all. It might make it misfire a bit until all of the water has been pumped through the system. What it will probably do though is make your fuel tank rust. In my experience some of the rust formed is quite powdery and can block the jets in your carburettor or maybe the injectors if it's a fuel injected model. Having said that though I believe most cars (particularly those which are fuel injected) have quite a fine filter in the fuel line. It might be worth your while checking this out and maybe fitting one yourself. I hope I've managed to help, and not given you any false information .

beaker
12 gig blue

...some water got into the gas?

Not a big deal.

First, if you got a lot of water in your gas tank, you would know it because the car would now be parked about a quarter mile from where you first started it up after the rainstorm. The water is heavier than the gasoline, it doesn't mix with the gasoline, and the fuel pickup is pretty close to the bottom of the tank, so after the pure water superceded the gasoline in your fuel line, the engine would have quit.

People who live in cold climates are well acquainted with moisture in the fuel. When you pull your cold (below zero) car into a warm garage, moisture condenses on the inside of the fuel tank (not so much now on newer cars with sealed fuel systems) and eventually accumulates enough that it freezes in the fuel line and fuel filter, bringing the car to a halt.

You want a product like HEET (probably not in stock anywhere in sunny California) which is simply a small bottle (half a pint, perhaps) of ethyl alcohol. Dump that in the gas tank, and it will mix with the water, and in turn mix with the gasoline, forming a combustible mixture that your car will be quite happy with (assuming we're not talking about quarts of water, here!

The HEET or just a slug of ethyl or methyl alcohol dumped into your gas tank will take care of any water that might be in there.

Alternatively, if any of your local gas stations sell gasohol, that would do the same thing.

tanstaafl.



"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch"

Heh, I thought of just asking you directly instead of throwing it out to the BBS...

Thanks for the info. I'll get a bottle of the stuff at the auto parts store this weekend.

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Tony Fabris

As everyone noted, small amounts of water will turn to steam in the engine, some of it will escape down the exhaust pipe and out. The normal combustion process in a cold engine produces quite a bit of liquid water, you might have noticed liquid leaking out of the tail pipe on normal occasions, and the design has it so that a small amount of water can flow out of the engine out the tail pipe without harm.

A lot of water though, will hydrolock the engine (like if the air intake got into a lot of water, and if the pistons tried to compress the water it will destroy the pistons). But most likely to happen in a fuel injected car is if the fuel line was all water, when the water gets to the injector and is sprayed into the chamber, it won't combust and the engine will putter out and the fuel pump will stop delivering water preventing hydrolock.

Calvin

Read the manual re: fuel additives.
I think my VW golf manual says something along the lines of dont add anything alcohol based. But dont quote me on that. You could always phone your dealer :)
but then i would guess they will charge you £50000 to replace the engine or something.

Commonly known as Gas-Line Antifreeze here in Newfoundland. :)

Good luck.

#170... I got SN: 080000101 12 gig Blue!

Blimey, don't scare the guy, will you!

I have never seen hydrolock happen, only on a test where it was deliberately induced to see if they could pop the head gasket when removing a stuck cylinder head.

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

White smoke in your exhaust smoke would imply burning brake line oil that is probably entering the intake from a busted one-way vacuum valve to your master cylinder. Highly improbable, but it does happen. You tend to notice this when your brakes stop working...

Black smoke = overfuelling (carbon)
Blue smoke = Oil burning
Steam = possibly normal moisture, accompanied by dripping exhaust
Steam plus brackish smell = possible burst head gasket (burning glycol coolant - check the radiator and oil)
White smoke = hydraulic brake oil

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Best answer of the lot - obviously a man who knows cars

In practice, only very small amount of water would enter through a 1 - 2" filler cap aperture, even if the rain was driven. The water will drop to the bottom of the tank (it's heavier) and usually remains below the intake, unless you run the car right down to the bottom of the tank (bad news for an injected cat car anyway, for other reasons). If it does come down the fuel pipe, it will bring a lot of junk with it, which will usually be caught by the filter, which you will see immediately by looking at it (if the filter is transparent, that is). The filter will not, however, stop the water - it will just get pumped into the cylinder head by the injectors (it's immiscible with petrol) as if it was fuel, and the engine will just die within a few strokes. At this point, the best thing to do is detach the fuel inlet pipe to the filter, switch on the pump to clear the tank (CAUTIOUSLY, with the help of a hygroscopic as Doug says) and then replace the filter and hoses. Refill, turn the engine a few times to pump it out, and you'll be OK.

Heck, I regularly change my bowl filter on the TR6 (which is mechanical injection) and there's always a few spoonfuls of water in there. Makes for interesting driving towards the bottom of the tank

PS. Now Doug, since you like V8 MGB's, wanna ask me about my experiences with a supercharged one with Nitrous and water injection? (tee hee)

PPS. Hint - "BANG"

One of the few remaining Mk1 owners... #00015

Over here, it typically occurs when SUV folks decide they are driving an outdoorsy vehicle and attempt to cross something silly, like a river, and end up sucking in water..

Calvin