Any Lawyers or Chemical engineers out there?

[scouttster]

I ran out of gas the other day. Not having my little red 1 gallon gas can in the car, I used a clean 1 gallon milk jug that I happened to have in the car. I said to myself, oh well its either try to sneak a 1/2 gallon of gas in the milk jug or get ready for a long walk.. Then, I remembered it wont work because its styrene and the gas will burn right through.. But, then I remembered recycling some old gas a few months back and it never burned through.. But, then I remembered seeing someone else do it when I was a kid and burned right through.. Well, of course when I got to the station and was sneakingly putting the 1/2 gallon in someone mentioned it was going to burn through and also mentioned it was illegal.. Oh well...

So, my questions. Is it illegal? And, did they change the chemical composition of the plastic they use in 1 gal milk jugs b/c it never burned through. Worked just fine..

[splatterdog]

Unlikely that we have any lawyers on our forum.haha Try a high end euro forum if you are looking for someone to speak legalese. It may be illegal but it seems to be one of those CYA notices to protect the station from liability. Although they would need a billboard to cover all the stupidity I've witnessed at pumps. The best one was a guy who checked the pump ala "Maximum Overdrive" from Steven King. Never check a pump by staring down the nozzle. Thats gotta sting!

I doubt the police would even respond to this unless you didn't pay or had a rag hanging out the top and lighter in hand.

Oh, and I just looked at a one gallon milk jug. They are HDPE which just happens to be what gas cans are made of. Paint it red and call it good. haha

You outlaw......

[Neu]

Only way to know is to try it. go get gas in a gas can and then pour it into the milk jug.

And I somewhat recall putting it in milk jugs before, but I can't be 100%

[takza]

I think gas cans are supposed to be red...kerosene blue....never a good idea to mix the two. Milk jugs are polyethelene...they'll handle gas...just aren't red and not very heavy.

[Petros]

Any container that has gasoline by federal law has to be labled and be color coded. They also have to pass some kind of rupture or fire test, that is why they are so thick.

This law has been in place a long time. When I was about 11 (40 years ago), my younger brother and I built a go cart out of a broken lawn mower, some lumber and toy wagon wheels and other junk we had laying around (I was into rebuilding engines and motorized vehicles even back than). We walked to the corner gas station with a large glass jar to get some gas to put in it. The young gas station attendant told us he could not put gas in a glass jug and it had to be labeled, it was against the law. He said had gas cans he could sell us. When we explained our dilemma, and what we needed the gas for (we only had 25 cents between us), he helped out us by covering the glass jar with large red plastic stickers that said "gasoline" on them, and than filled our jar and we were on our way. The quart of gas only cost us about 22 cents as I recall.

Most plastic milk cartons are polyethalene and should handle gas just fine, it is just too thin for to meet safety standards. As noted above, unless you start acting in a threatening way with it, I doubt you will have any legal issues since your motivation was to get your car going again. I do not think I would try it with a waxed cardboard type carton.

[hberdan]

And gas stations don't let you use loaner gas containers anymore, either! But they're more than happy to sell you a 1 gallon plastic gas can for 5 or 6 dollars...
When I was younger, if you, unfortunately, ran out of gas, the filling stations usually would let you borrow one of their gas cans, provided you bought their gas for it, and left a deposit of some kind--cash, or your driver's license, gas card, etc. So, you bring the can back later. No big deal.
But I guess it's either too big a hassle for most stations, or they don't want a liability issue, or are just after the dough, but better have enough moola for the gas, and the can, if you run out of gas anymore.
Not that I've ever had that happen...more than once or twice.

[Neu]

People steal those cans, no joke. They'll leave their ID or whatever, and just take off or forget. It's a huge pain the ass for gas stations.

[scouttster]

Gas cans have been pretty cheap for about the last 10 years now. Sometimes as cheap as $3 bucks.. But, when you need it and its for sale at a gas station its usually $10 to $12.00 Anyway, I ran out of gas about 5 years ago in VA on Interstate 95 heading north ( onboard computer said 10 miles to go before empty - so I pushed it ) I ran out and had to peddle ( had my bicycle on the back ) about 5 miles up the interstate to an exit with a station. Station had no loaner gas can, but did have some for sale - so I went ahead and purchased the 1 gal plasti-can by Blitz and it was $14 dollars. OUCH! Peddled back, filled up and went back to the same station took care of business with a complete fill-up. Before, I left - I took a black sharpie and wrote loaner gas can all over it and donated it to the station. I put stars on the side of it ( dont ask me why ) and the date.. 2 years ago, I was at that same station and asked if they had a loaner gas can.. They did, and it was in fact the gas can that I had given them.. It was used a bit, but surprisingly in really good shape.

As you all know ( maybe / not sure ) I am just a fly by night mechanic. Driveway Dawg! So, anyway - I needed a timing light and I hate spending $40 dollars on one that I will probably use once. I ran an advert on CL asking if someone in the neighborhood had one that I could borrow for a couple days - nobody came forward. I called Autozone and they loan just about every tool except for the timing light. I propositioned them and said that if I buy their timing light can I write LOANER all over it and give it back to them as a parking lot tool for customers or others to use. They Denied me! So, I never bought the light... What a bunch of jackbutts...

[Petros]

I had a recent experience like that on my road trip from Texas. I have not got to that part of the story in my posting yet, but I decided while at my parents house in Los Anglese to replace the head gasket on the $100 Tercel I drove from Colorado. I had all the tools I needed with me except a torque wrench, and though my dad also has a lot of tools he never owned a torque wrench, and none of the neighbors had one either (almost no one works on their own cars anymore!). I only had to pay about $18 for a fel Pro gasket from a Checkers, who also loans tools. So when I went to borrow one they said they do not loan torque wrenches! I asked why not? They said they were concerned it would not calibrate after home use, but they would sell me one for $30. I told them I already owned three torque wrenches and I was not buying another just to use for 5 min. I was on a low budget trip and that was just too much to pay for something I did not need. I considered rigging up a pulley and weight system using my socket wrench that would give me direct torque, but decided that could take all day (which I did not have since I had to drive the car 1200 miles to get home the next day).

So I worked on the parts guy to convince him to let me "borrow" their torque wrench, he was softening due to my predicament. So I asked him "how about I go ahead and buy that new torque wrench and I take home and try it out, if I do not like it I will return within the hour?" He smiled and said, "okay, I will do that [but make sure you bring it back to me]". IT was a deal. and I only had it out of the package for about 2-3 min, used it with clean hands, and wiped it off good before I returned it to the packaging, and I got my $30 plus tax back. Ha! out smarted their stupid policy by just using one of their other policies, satisfaction guarantee on everything they sell.

[scouttster]

Yea, I thought about doing that.. I guess, I'm just getting to old to fanagle with those young guys over policies, etc... Plus, the car runs and seems to be timed right, so I guess its not that important, right now...

Wow, changing a head gasket on a road trip.. Now, theres a cracker jack mechanic for ya!

[Petros]

I did it in about 3 hours, I will write about it when I get to that part of the trip over in the gallery section. I have done head gaskets a number of times on these cars, I know all the short cuts, and where NOT to make short cuts. The fastest way to fix a problem is to fix it once.

You can set the timing "By ear". You advance the timing a little at a time, and do a hard acceleration, preferably up-hill, and try bogging the engine. When you hear pre-ignition (knocking or a crackling noise in the engine), you back it off a bit to avoid the pre-ignition. The best efficiency will always come with the most advance you can run without getting the pre-ignition. The factory 5 deg BTDC is not for efficiency but emissions, it is actually best around 10 or 12 deg BTDC. Type of fuel and condition of the engine might alter that somewhat, so always best to verify that "by ear" anyway.

And it was not about arguing with their policy, it was about finding a way the employee could give me what I needed without getting in trouble for it. That is how you out smart idiot management "policy", find a way they can do it and not violate "policy", not by arguing.