quote:
"""""""Message #8
From: JOHNFORT@...
Date: Wed, 22 Oct 1997 19:28:36 -0400 (EDT)
Subject: Re:Gas cap sucks....(Not Charles Ruse)
When you look at the shape of the Impala gas tank, which is made out of very
flexable plastic, it starts to make sense. The tank is very flat, thin and
wide. Much like the bottom of an oil can. (The kind that you use to oil
stuff, not the kind that you fill your crankcase from). When there is very
little gas in the tank, it takes very little suction to draw the bottom up in
the middle (hence the expression "oil canning")and cause an "Island" inside,
sending the fuel to the corners where it can't be picked up. The large area
of the relatively flat bottom amplifies the "power" of the vacuum many times
over. It's something to do with that physics class that I slept through in
high school I think????
If you add the following items to the situation, it gets worse. When you
fill up at 4PM it's warm, your car is warm, the concrete is warm the fuel is
warm and your tank is warm. (The beer is cold though). You drive most of
the night for 4-500 miles sucking the gas out of the tank like it was a 7-11
Big Gulp. The temperature of everything drops 30 degrees. You're 40 miles
from home at 1 AM, the cops are at Daylight Donut (sorry chief, I saw you
there) and you're just under the rev limiter. Then it happens. The nearly
empty tank bottom pops up like an oil can, the fuel pump goes dry, the Check
Engine light comes on like a search light and your cell phone battery is
dead. The only exit near you is the one closed by the riot last week when
the gas station was looted and burned to the ground. You coast another mile
and sit on the shoulder of the road cranking the motor. The gas gage says "A
little bit left you putz" so thats not the problem. Or is it??? You take a
chance to run back to the back of the car before the strippers and looters
have a chance to make an illegal u turn on the freeway. You open the gas cap
and pray for a "whoosh', and it happens!!! You dive for the front seat and
lock the door just as a car full of unscrupulous looking characters with
wrenches pull up behind you. You crank and pray, crank and pray crank and
pray. Then It happens. That wonderful sound of pistons and injectors coming
to life!!! You drop it in D and stand on it, hoping that the transmission
is fully engaged before you hit 8 grand. As you look in the rear view mirror
at the dust, dirt and rocks peppering the guys left behind, your next thought
is, if it dies, I'm dead too!!! But it keeps running and you have time to
remember that the next exit has a big well light gas station. In the gas
station is a donut shop where all the cops hang out because the girl that
works there is a 19 year old, Mickey Spilane Knock out!!! In a voice heard
for three freeway exits, you drop to your knees and shout for all to hear,
"thank you *****, I'll never let it go under a third of a tank again"
But you will.
John (been there) Schroeer""""""""