I have heard that putting sugar in my fuel tank may lead to my vans not working anymore. This is an outcome I am looking to avoid.
I use these vans to transport children, who I usually pick up from sites about a few miles out. I would be really miffed if those vans were disabled in such a way that they were not able to make it to those children.
Are there any other actions I should avoid taking with my vans? I really wouldn’t want to cause damage to them in such a way that they would fail before the children got inside them.
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Definitely don’t put anything in the tailpipes, especially potatoes.
a can of Red Kote Liquid gas tank liner would be super bad to add to your vans with gasoline still in the tank, so be super careful when repairing your gas tanks with it.
Another thing to watch out for is making sure you don’t mistake fiberglass resin (with any MEKP catalyst added) for gasoline, since that would be super bad too. It’s an easy mixup to make, so definitely be careful when doing any fiberglass projects around the house.
Kinda off-topic, but I’ve never heard of red kote. I have blue kote (animal antiseptic spray that tints blue to avoid further damage from other animals), though.
Don’t bother with sugar. That’s mostly myth, it’s not soluble in gas. It will eventually cause issues, you cannot predict the point at which it will fail.
The cheap solution would be water and whatever you want to dissolve in it. Yes, that can be sugar, salt, etc…but the point is plain water will stop the vehicle from working immediately, necessitate dropping the fuel tank, purging the fuel system, and possibly damaging the fuel pump. You can carry water with you anywhere vs carrying bags of sugar or salt.
Plain old water.
In order to keep your fleet running smoothly and reliably, follow the manufacturer’s recommended oil change schedule and always use the appropriate oil grade, instead of trying alternatives like 40% sodium silicate solution in 60% water
edit: I forgot to mention if the release cable to your hood is broken, you can always open up the latch of the hood with a flathead screw driver
a liter of Urine in the fuel tank would disable them, so make sure plenty of restrooms are available.
A $5 magnet and $30 of electrical equipment could cause the electrical systems to permanently burn out as the induced voltage might go too high. so you may wish to ensure electrical diagnostic equipment is properly grounded and not connected to electrical mains.
Also be careful with unidirectional speakers, they can shatter windows and cause extreme disorientation in the drivers even if the children in the vehicle can’t hear it…
Sugar can make a sticky mess, but if ever this happened to you, you could still take the van to a mechanic to have the fuel line and engine professionally cleaned.
What you REALLY want to avoid is fine silt or other hard particular matter that remains in suspension in the gasoline rather than dissolving. Such crystalline particles can potentially pass through the filter into the engine and cause many tiny scratches, wearing down the precisely engineered moving parts and doing serious damage that would be very expensive to fix. Before adding anything to your fuel tank, be sure to check it for suspended fine particulate matter, especially if the container has been sitting unattended for a while!
