Posted on 03/07/2008 6:33:13 AM PST by CGASMIA68
Only buy or fill up your car or truck in the early morning when the ground temperature is still cold. Remember that all service stations have their storage tanks buried below ground. The colder the ground the more dense the gasoline, when it gets warmer gasoline expands, so buying in the afternoon or in the evening....your gallon is not exactly a gallon . In the petroleum business, the specific gravity and the temperature of the gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, ethanol and temperature is a big deal for this business. But the service stations donot have temperature compensation at the pumps.
When you're filling up do not squeeze the trigger of the nozzle to a fast mode . If you look you will see that the trigger has three (3) stages: low, middle, and high. In slow mode you should be pumping on low speed, thereby minimizing the vapors that are created while you are pumping. All hoses at the pump have a vapor return. If you are pumping on the fast rate, some of the liquid that goes to your tank becomes vapor. Those vapors are being sucked up and back into the underground storage tank so you're getting less worth for your money.
One of the most important tips is to fill up when your gas tank is HALF FULL . The reason for this is, the more gas you have in your tank the less air occupying its empty space. Gasoline evaporates faster than you can imagine. Gasoline storage tanks have an internal floating roof. This roof serves as zero clearance between the gas and the atmosphere, so it minimizes the evaporation. Unlike service stations, here where I work, every truck that we load is temperature compensated so that every gallon is actually the exact amount
Another reminder, if there is a gasoline truck pumping into the storage tanks when you stop to buy gas, DO NOT fill up --most likely the gasoline is being stirred up as the gas is being delivered, and you might pick up some of the dirt that normally settles on the bottom.
Dont for get(my add on) hold the hose up to get what the meter read but didnt make it to the tank...I thing you get what the guy before didnt get?
An explosion from a passing cigarette is about as likely as your Glock leaping from its holster and blowing a hole in your head.
>>a 20 degree Fahrenheit change in ground temperature
Ground temperatures at the average burial depth of a gasoline tank doesn’t vary 20° in many parts of the country from summer to winter. Not at all from morning to afternoon.<<
I was thinking more from the truck temperature adjusting to ground temperature limited by double wall construction and modern truck temperature controls. Agreed the daily in ground flux would be small.
It happens, a lot; I can drive three miles from where I fix lawnmowers all summer and point out three stations that have sold gas containing water to over a dozen of my customers in the past five years.
They have all been cautioned to stay away from these guys.
The devices intended to isolate and minimize this problem require periodic maintenance and some places just don’t do it.
I used to own a gas station, one night our lot flooded over and we pumped over one thousand gallons the next day with contaminants and didn’t know it until the people came back with big problems.
I was also in charge of all the fuel and oil purchases for a V.A. hospital to power their equipment including power generators and I had my crew stick and water-test each tank every test run.
We routinely pumped out up to three inches of condensed water twice a year from our 18,000 gallon fiberglas new double walled tanks.
Never buy while or directly after the tanker is dropping fuel, period.
The state inspector here comes once each year or as soon as can be scheduled the following year and he always checks for water on the bottom of the tanks or in the delivery.
I keep a tube of water-finder paste in the garage all the time.
The car doesn’t burn the vapors, they are condensed back to the tank unless the carbon canister gets overloaded.
Kepp doing that, modern cars have high-pressure pumps in the tanks and running them dry shortens their life real fast.
I placed a red plasic gasoline can in the sun with a pressure gauge connected to the vent port to demonstrate to my son why he should leave the vent cap open when he put a can in his pickup bed; after 45 minutes, the can was up to 5PSI and climbing.
I only put two gallons in my 21/2 gallon can and keep it in the shade.
If you live in an area that requires a trip through the emissions testing station, you are buying gasoline with ethanol added.
Put an imaginary egg under your right foot.
I do that on my mower gas can fills; don’t want to spill a drop to stink up the trunk.
>>I keep a tube of water-finder paste in the garage all the time.<<
Isthat something that one can use to test gasoline? Is it something a normal person can buy.
That’s good advice. I may bump my ‘fill-up days’ to Wednesday evenings, instead of Thursday mornings.
However, local gas has been steady at $3.05/gal for the past three weeks. It’s been as high as $3.15, which is still do-able.
Thank you very much. That’s an interesting site in general. I hope I didn’t put you to too much trouble.
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