For some reason , there ’s a common rumor aboutsugarandgasthat ’s been around for decennium . purportedly , if you pour simoleons into someone ’s gas armoured combat vehicle , you will disable thecar . The sugar is presuppose to respond with the gas and call on into a semisolid , gooey substance that totally clogs up the throttle tank , thefuellines and so on .

It may sound great , peculiarly if you have a score against someone . The trouble with this rumor is that it simply is n’t true .

How Fuel Filters Help

For starters , you have a fuel filter . This does exactly what it say : filters out any debris or impurities that might have gotten into your gas tank somehow . So if there were little sugar crystals in your gasolene , the fuel filter would blockade them before they could damage the engine .

Then there ’s the fact that plain old sugar does not dissolve in gasoline ; it just sinks to the bottom of the petrol tank .

A University of California , Berkeley researchertested this myth experimentally right smart back in 1994by putting simoleons into gasoline and then spinning it in a centrifuge . He assess how much undissolved sugar birl out of the fluid and then calculated how much sugar remained dismiss in the gasoline . It was less than a teaspoonful for 15 gallons of gas – more than a full tank in many cars .

sugar in gas tank illustration

Even if you have less than a full cooler and someone dumps bread in there , the fluid can only incorporate so much sugar . You ’ll just have more undissolved sugar sludge at the bottom of the cooler . Annoying for sure , but not damage the engine .

How Fuel Pumps Help

Back when the mythstarted in the fifties , fuel pumps were mechanical and typically hop on on the engine , drive by the camshaft . If detritus like sugar entered the fuel armored combat vehicle and clog the fuel line , it could trammel the flow of gasoline to the engine , cause functioning issues .

Modern fuel ticker are electronic , but it ’s possible they could be foiled by a clod of kale . Again , it only requires clean out the tank in either casing .

More Dangerous Than Sugar

So , what will mess up up an locomotive if it ’s total to the fuel ? piss . But it would have to be a fate of it .

think back that engines apply burning to make the cycle move , which intend thousands of footling explosion in the cylinders . If you pour a mass of water into a fuel tank , it sinks to the bottom of the tank . Thewater gets into the engineand , if there ’s enough weewee in the cylinders , the fuel does not hit the roof . The engine is numb in the water , you might say .

But even this is n’t the end of the road for your engine . Using a fuel treatment can chemically clear out the water and revive the engine .

Lots More Information