March 15, 200620 yr i always say theres no way to get stranded in a subaru, especialy a carbureted ea81 with pushrods. say your fuel pump breaks, shorts out, falls off. theres no need to sit there like a chump and wait for the tow guy. idealy i would use an oil bottle so it doesnt disolve the glue on the paper, holding my soy milk carton together, but that was all i had. crawl under the car, and fill the container a little more than half full, use a knife, or even screw driver to bore a hole about half the size of the hose going from your fuel filter to your carburetor. shove the hose through the small hole, and it should seal pretty good. heres the crappy part, you have to vent the bottle, so poke a hole in the highest point(thats why you dont fill the bottle up all the way. so ya, you might have to do it a couple times, depending on how far you need to go, but it works! i also had a motorcycle gas tank i was going to use, but i decided i would have had to run it home with the hood in the back since it wouldnt close.
March 15, 200620 yr Author oh ya, this only works with carbureted models. and you have to have the hose draining into the carburetor, the carb wont suck it in. the needle and seat inside the carb will stop the flow of fuel into the bowl, when the carb has enough fuel inside.
March 15, 200620 yr TOO COOL! I once had a problem on a long road trip with water in the distributor. I stopped late at night to take off the cap and spray some WD-40 in, and the center button fell out. After searching for about half an hour, I made a new contact out of a Mentos wrapper. It worked so well I forgot to change it for about a week after I got home.
March 15, 200620 yr Great stories! Useful to know. This website needs a semi-permanent "quick fix" post, where useful tips like this can be sent it for all to see. If there was only one place to post, then it would stay current, and wouldn't get lost in the traffic. It could rival the "You might be Soob owner if..." thread.
March 16, 200620 yr Had a 82 gl ea81 sedan and fuel pump died 100 miles from home. took the windshield washer pump off hooked it to fuel line to tank and outlet to carb. push washer button fill carb and home i went pushing washer button evry time engine bogged!
March 16, 200620 yr I think I would keep 4 or 5 extra fire extinguishers around for running this rig! You definately get an A for effort though! BTW and sort of off the subject, appearantly Dial brand soap will work as a temporary plug if you punch a hole in your gas tank. Other soaps and surf wax do not work though. I learned this the hard way in Costa Rica.
March 16, 200620 yr There is a weird glue called "Seal-All" that is also gas-proof. I used it, along with toilet paper, photocopy paper, and duct tape to seal a BIG hole in a gas tank. The technique was to make a slurry of the glue and TP, and jam it into the hole, then cover it with several layers of glue and photocopy paper. Sort of like fiberglassing, only I used paper instead of glass, and glue instead of resin. Duct tape over the whole thing, so it would be sure to be waterproof, and to act as an abrasion guard. I drained all the gas out first, then left it sit for a week to cure while we went off canoeing. This was way out in the backwoods of British Columbia, I was lucky the car was still there when we returned. The plug held up well for several weeks, until I plugged it with a more "conventional" repair, of epoxy putty and fiberglass/epoxy over all. I learned at least 2 things on that trip: 1. Carry a tube of Seal-All in the backwoods. 2. Don't take American cars into the boonies. No ground clearance! A Subaru wouldn't even have bottomed out on that rock.
March 16, 200620 yr i had to do this on the 78 toyota caper(blunt cruiser) usinf one of the hoses from the sink and a gatorade bottle, coupled into the fuel lines with the tip end of a u-haul pen one time in the 85 "pyostey-dook" wagon the fuel lines broke off at the pup so i tore the pump out and mounted it under the hood to a 1/2 gallon gas can dont let e tell you about gas cans now..
March 16, 200620 yr you guys are a big part of the reason car insurance is so expensive for young males
March 16, 200620 yr i had to do this on the 78 toyota caper(blunt cruiser) usinf one of the hoses from the sink and a gatorade bottle, coupled into the fuel lines with the tip end of a u-haul pen one time in the 85 "pyostey-dook" wagon the fuel lines broke off at the pup so i tore the pump out and mounted it under the hood to a 1/2 gallon gas can dont let e tell you about gas cans now.. How about driving all the way to Washington from Indiana with 3 - 5 gallon gascans connected together for a gastank... I won't EVER forget that one, that ROCKED!
March 16, 200620 yr crazy freaks, you guys rock. thanks for sharing. i hate carbs, but am totally jealous that i can't do that with EFI.
March 16, 200620 yr My beater F-150 has a 2.5 gal tank strapped under the hood. It has a mechanical fuel pump, which sucks from the brass nipple JB welded into the tank. Couple of pieces of rope to hold it from getting caught in the fan, a milk jug cap to substitute for the filler spout on the can, and away she goes. For about 3/4 of an hour, that 300 I6 sucks gas fast.
March 16, 200620 yr For about 3/4 of an hour, that 300 I6 sucks gas fast. exact motor my F150 has, what kind of gas mileage you get? mine SUCKS. 15 mpg highway whether i'm towing a car or not?!!?!?
March 17, 200620 yr I lost fuel pump and blew drivers side timing belt (leaned out, i'd guess). To have ea81 with pushrods might be a prerequisite I did manager to put on a belt, change a pump, time it in...on the side of the road.
March 17, 200620 yr exact motor my F150 has, what kind of gas mileage you get? mine SUCKS. 15 mpg highway whether i'm towing a car or not?!!?!? Better than I'd expect. My dad's F-100 with the 351W only gets 11mpg average. When I first got my volkswagen running, I had the fuel line dipped into a 2 gallon container of biodiesel sitting on the tranny held in with bungy cords. Ran it for about 75 miles that way before I got around to hooking it up to the actual fuel tank. Don't know that I'd try it with gas -- alot more flamable than biodiesel.
March 17, 200620 yr the local shop uses a modifyed gascap that acseps an air chuck, then you just pump up the tank.(to aproprite levels depending on carb or FI) works awsoem and is an yeasy way to get a car into the shop that has a bad fuel pump...
March 17, 200620 yr the local shop uses a modifyed gascap that acseps an air chuck, then you just pump up the tank.(to aproprite levels depending on carb or FI) works awsoem and is an yeasy way to get a car into the shop that has a bad fuel pump... NO WAY!!!! AWESOME!!! pressurize the tank and it'll run? for how long? a mile, 10 miles, 50 miles? that's nuts!
March 17, 200620 yr NO WAY!!!! AWESOME!!! pressurize the tank and it'll run? for how long? a mile, 10 miles, 50 miles? that's nuts! I assume if the pressure runs out, just get outside and pressurize the tank again. These are so cool ways of limping a car back.
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