Possable Sabatoge- The Clean Up

[Josh]

Well since the last thread got locked to strange ideas for preventing something that happened only once in two years, I figured I'd give it another go.

Reguardless of your opinions on what happened/crazy ideas to keep it from ever happening again, please keep the crazy ideas to yourself. Prefer not to get this one locked. I dont mind real solutions (IE - locking fuelcap), but no glueing sharp objects onto the tank.

Now that that part is over, On to the good part.

Well the day started out trying to figure out how to pump 40gallons of slop out of my tank. First I was just going to pull the plug and drain 5 gallons at a time into a bucket then I realized I had my WMO pump chilling in the garage.

Well I can say the HF air pump, pumped the tank almost dry in about 3 minutes. Suprisingly it made the entire truck bounce when it was working. That went well, until my friend pulled the hose out of the drum and started spraying a large amount of brown goo everywhere including all over himself. Well after kitty litter and some good laughter it was back to pumping out the tank.

Soons we got the tank as empty it was off to try and get the drain plug out. Took a 1/2in impact and a good 45 seconds of work to get that little plug out. Once I got that plug out, an even nastier amount of brown goo came out.

Then I proceeded to try and pour that soup into a 55gallon with out a funnel, which resulted in a really bad mess and more kitty litter.

From here I cycled 10 gallons of unleaded fuel through the tank about 10 times filling and draining it over and over. This got most of the crud out and took the color from a nasty brown to a dirty fuel look. Poured this into the drum and put another 5 gallons of fresh gas into the tank and flushed this 5-6 times, until the fuel quit getting dirtier.

Next step is cleaning the lines and replacing the fuel filters.

I took the main fuel supply line and disconected it from the fuel pump. I took a pressurized chemical sprayer and used to push clean diesel all the way to the primary filter. From here I swapped out the primary with a new napa 3511 filter. Filled the housing up with a quart and a half of some new ATF in an old metal can.

This was as far as I made it today. Plan on flushing rest of the system tomorrow and swapping out the 2 secondaries.

More will come.

 

[wyattbrown178]

Sorry man, That Sucks

 

[wsucougarx]

Gees Josh, that's too bad man. Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Glad you're on your way to victory man. Definately a wake up call to figure out fuel tank security! Could have happened to anyone. Obviously someone's got a beef with MV's.

 

[bratpackdad]

Bummer, but at least you're almost done fixing it.

 

[Josh]

Well on the bright side, I was going to do this all in 3 weeks, All it did was just accelerate my schedule a little.

What Urks me though, Is I had to resort to napa filters instead of getting the baldwins from deuceman51. Oh well, Ill just do a filter change again in a month or 2.

 

[SMOKEWAGON66]

did you find out what made your fuel gunk up? plan on taking a sample somewhere to have it analyzed? would be interesting to know what it was that made this happen.

 

[Seth_O]

did you find out what made your fuel gunk up? plan on taking a sample somewhere to have it analyzed? would be interesting to know what it was that made this happen.

x2. I was just wondering what was in there that caused the damage. I guess it's rhetorical since it doesn't make a practical difference now, but I am curious if you find out what it was; sugar, sand, molasses, flour, etc.....

 

[Josh]

Im pretty sure its water. After my landcruiser was stuck in a creek for a few hours, I changed the gear axle oil and it looked the exact same as the stuff that was in my tank.

 

[SMOKEWAGON66]

how much WMO did you have in the tank at the time? that is possible that water would do that...but itd def have to be sabotage if youve never had any problem with water in your fuel before...

 

[Josh]

how much WMO did you have in the tank at the time? that is possible that water would do that...but itd def have to be sabotage if youve never had any problem with water in your fuel before...

Aprox 40gallons of a oil/gas mix.


Never had this issue before.

 

[Varyag]

Yeah, it looks like water.... now it is REALLY hard to start

 

[Josh]

Yeah, it looks like water.... now it is REALLY hard to start

Ya dont want to know =0

It couldnt even move itself in 3rd gear lowrange.

 

[Gottlos]

I wish you luck in preventing this from happening again. A couple of years ago I was responsible for some delivery trucks for a grocery company. Our problem was gas theft. I tried locking caps which were eventually broken off with a big pipe wrench. A pair of tabs welded on either side of the cap and a cross bar with a padlock. Bolt cutters got past that. My last effort was using "uncuttable" locks in place of the others. No dice. Found them broken as well. Each time they sucked gas out of the tanks they left a bigger and bigger flammable mess. In the end it made more sense to let them take the gas and hope to catch them in the act rather than risk burning up a few $60,000 trucks.

In short if they want it or want to mess with it there is little we can legally do to prevent it.

 

[Medic5050]

I vote for an infrared motion activated trail cam, like they use for deer and elk monitoring. Mount it on the adjacent light pole, and they probably wont even pay attention to it.

Just a thought.

 

[RAYZER]

What a mess! A locking cap might not keep someone from sterling fuel,but would probably keep them from sticking a water hose in the tank. Then again, if their plan is to sabotage then they might move on to something else like slashed tires or spray paint! A locking cap if breached would at least let you know that someone had been in there.

 

[Jimma]

I agree with Rayzer. Atleast if you see the broken lock you know its been messed with and you wont start it and thereby you can prevent screwing up everything else. A lock may keep simple pranksters out.

 

[Darwin T]

2 or 3 years ago there was a locking fuel cap system on ebay. i don't remember exactly how it worked but, what i do remember you had to undo the front strap in the tank and use a pad lock.

there is also a real small trail camera that you could mount at an angle between the cab and bed up high where they probably not look up, and be looking right at the person standing at the tank.

or a pinhole camera above the slave connection, to one of the cigrette pack size portable drv.

once you find out who it is you either sue them for a new fuel system (injectors, pumps, lines, filters and tank cleaning) and engine replacement, or attach their head to a yo-yo string!

 

[bones1]

That's a good idea Darwin.

 

[davidkroberts]

I would put a motion activated light pointed at the truck. Most likelyif its going to be messed with it will be at home. A camera pointed in the same direction is just as easy they make a hard-drive version that loops back on itself so you only mess with it if you notice a problem

 

[stumps]

It takes a surprising small amount of water to turn a detergent oil into a very gloppy mayonnaise like emulsion... diesel fuel enhances the process. The end result looks like milk added to coffee. I'm guessing that you accidentally did this to yourself by pouring some WMO that had a big glob of water in the bottom into your tank. While the tank was fairly warm, the tank pump, and fuel sloshing, thoroughly churned up the mix, and later on when it cooled, it turned into the thick glop that you now are dealing with.

Before I replaced the shifter boot, and stopped leaving my tractor out in the rain, I would find the same stuff in the transmission/rear/hydraulic fluid. It got as thick as mayonnaise when it was cool. I literally had to scoop it out with my hand to get it out of the bottom of the transmission/rear/hydraulic casting.

-Chuck