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Siphoning Poison

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#1 ·
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I just read a great thread about good Samaritans helping a member with his bike after he tanked up with diesel due to a mislabeled pump. I know everyone knows this, but when we are broke down along side the road, sometimes we will take chances we shouldn't to get back underway.

In this case, the diesel had to be siphoned, and having only a hose, was done by mouth. I must admit, when I was younger, I have done the same thing. Diesel and gas are toxic enough in their own form, but there are so many additives in them these days, theytruly are poisonous and it is not worth the dangers associated with siphoning either by mouth.

Either carry some type of siphoning system that works by hand or pump, (here’s one example:
http://www.aerostich.com/catalog/US/E-Fill-Siphon-p-0286.html
or use gravity and moving the tube up and down to get the fuel flowing, but not a good idea to use suction by mouth to start the fuel flow – it’s just too dangerous.

Gasoline has a lower viscosity than water meaning it is “thinner” or “slicker” than water and may surprise a siphoner by moving through the tube much faster than expected (but just the fumes are bad enough).

Somedangers from siphoning gas by mouth:[/b]

  • Swallowing gasoline may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain.
  • Gasoline contact with the skin, mouth, or eyes may result in chemical burns.
  • Inhaling high concentrations of gasoline fumes starves the body of oxygen and could result in losing consciousness, respiratory arrest, and death.
  • Aspiratingliquid gasoline into the lungs may cause dizziness, headache, coughing and shortness of breath. Victims may develop fluid build-up in the lungs and airways followed by permanent lung damage, coma, or death.
  • Because of the low viscosity of gas the main danger you worry about is gas being spread throughout the lungs and inducing a chemical pneumonia, causing acute lung damage.
Like I said, I've done it too, I just won't do it again.
 
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#2 ·
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Good safety Post. Very good. Gasoline sucked into the airway can easily kill you. Not something one thinks about much and yes I used to do it too. Now I just push the whole hose into the tank, put my thumb over the end and quickly pull the hose and let it discharge below the level of the tank.

Gas in the lungs for a young person would be bad enough, for us old farts it might be the last mistake.

Kit
 
#3 ·
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everytime I get xrays of my lungs I am reminded of the younger days of cleaning jet fuel tankers in the army. This is a good post and Kit good idea on running hose into tank:cool:

Ride Safe, Ray

:waving:
 
#4 ·
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Thank you for reminding us... From the Gasoline MSDS below...

EMERGENCY OVERVIEW

- EXTREMELY FLAMMABLE LIQUID AND VAPOR. VAPOR MAY CAUSE FLASH FIRE
- HARMFUL OR FATAL IF SWALLOWED - MAY CAUSE LUNG DAMAGE IF SWALLOWED
- VAPOR HARMFUL
- CAUSES SKIN IRRITATION
- CAUSES EYE IRRITATION
- LONG-TERM EXPOSURE TO VAPOR HAS CAUSED CANCER IN LABORATORY ANIMALS
- KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN
- TOXIC TO AQUATIC ORGANISMS
************************************************************************************************************************

IMMEDIATE HEALTH EFFECTS
Eye:
Contact with the eyes causes irritation.Symptoms may include pain, tearing, reddening, swelling and impaired vision.
Skin: Contact with the skin causes irritation.Skin contact may cause drying or defatting of the skin.Symptoms may include pain, itching, discoloration, swelling, and blistering.Contact with the skin is not expected to cause an allergic skin response.Not expected to be harmful to internal organs if absorbed through the skin.
Ingestion: Because of its low viscosity, this material can directly enter the lungs, if swallowed, or if subsequently vomited.Once in the lungs it is very difficult to remove and can cause severe injury or death.
Inhalation: The vapor or fumes from this material may cause respiratory irritation.Symptoms of respiratory irritation may include coughing and difficulty breathing.Breathing this material at concentrations above the recommended exposure limits may cause central nervous system effects. Central nervous system effects may include headache, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, weakness, loss of coordination, blurred vision, drowsiness, confusion, or disorientation.At extreme exposures, central nervous system effects may include respiratory depression, tremors or convulsions, loss of consciousness, coma or death.
 
#5 ·
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For one reason or another I'll be half of the members on this forum have like me gotten a mouthful of gasoline at one time or another. This modern gasoline tastes worse than the old stuff. :cooldevil:
 
#6 ·
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exavid wrote:
For one reason or another I'll be half of the members on this forum have like me gotten a mouthful of gasoline at one time or another. This modern gasoline tastes worse than the old stuff. :cooldevil:
Can you actually taste the difference between the brands? :cheeky1:

It's a good safety alert. As others have posted there are better ways.
 
#7 ·
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There is no reason to suck a hose to siphon anyway. Just stick the whole hose except the very end of it in the upper tank fluid, stick your finger in the end of the hose to seal it, pull the fluid filled hose down to it's target tank and release the seal made with your finger when the hose is below the level of the upper tank. No problem and it doesn't have to suck.

If you can't figure that out for yourself just go get the hand pump siphon hose from Harbor Freight for 5X cheaper than the one suggested in the OP above.

Problem with ANY siphon is if you aren't carrying one and you need one, chances are you will be lucky to find ANY hose. If you do that, use the finger plug method described in my first paragraph above. A knife and someone's garden hose will get you by in the dark.
 
#9 ·
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The finger over the end method works just fine but if you're siphoning out of a tank most of the time there isn't room or depth in the tank to do that. Not to mention that one often only has a short piece of scrap tubing. It is possible to get the flow started by sucking on the end of the hose without getting more than a very Small sample in the mouth by keeping the free end of the hose above the fuel level in the tank and sucking carefully using the tongue to seal the hose end between cautious sips. Of course in the dark when one's in a hurry because the dogs are barking and the porch light just came on it's difficult to be careful.:cooldevil:This is all hypothetical and besides it was a long time ago.:cheeky1::cheeky1:Fifty years is bound to be beyond the statute of limitation... isn't it?:shock:
 
#11 ·
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Harbor freight sells siphon hoses for less then $5.I keep one in the saddle bag just in case.,,
 
#13 ·
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We'll I'm ashamed to say yes I did it in my younger days
to keep an old car going with out paying, school buses,
farm tractors, untill that night while hitting Mr. Bowles
school bus he let his Doberman's lose on us. Served us right. We were wanting to save our hard earned money
for booze and drugs. Shame shame on me. The difference
back then the gas had lead in it. Bad stuff to ingest
for sure. Acummlative brain damage for sure lead booze and drugs.
 
#14 ·
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Yep, I can't think of much that tastes worse that diesel. One of thost tastes that just doesn't go away quickly. :cheeky1:

I perfer to use the rag in the tank and try to blow enough pressure in it so get it started.

You can also take the thumb on the end method and if you time it just right, pump the hose in and out. Let the air out on the down stroke and seal it up on the up stroke.

You can actually get the hang of it and squirt the fluid out the hose.
 
#16 ·
#17 ·
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exavid wrote:
For one reason or another I'll be half of the members on this forum have like me gotten a mouthful of gasoline at one time or another. This modern gasoline tastes worse than the old stuff. :cooldevil:
Yep, I can recall lying in bed, burping gasoline all night after siphoning from my Dad's car for my bike.... :blushing::blushing:

Good times.

And before anyone asks whether it was last week; no. :cheeky1: It was 45 years ago!
 
#21 ·
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I remember siphoning by mouth when I was younger as well, one time I drew to hard on the hose nad inhaled the gas. I knew I was in trouble, no one was home, so I tried to make to the neighbors house. I made it about halfway there when I passed out between two parked cars and woke up in the emergency room, fortunately for me the neighbors had seen me coming over and collapse.

That was the LAST time I tried that trick.
 
#22 ·
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Once upon a time, when I was a young patrolman, a couple stopped at the police station, and said they were running on fumes, and needed gas. It was dead of winter, the small town I worked in didn't have any gas stations available, and so, being the good samaritian I was, I decided to siphon some gas out of the patrol car.

So, I would suck, nothing would happen, suck again, etc. Finally, I got tired of this sucking, and took a hearty deep breath while sucking on the hose. Yes, I got a mouthful and gas in the lungs. I frankly thought I was going to die.

I went inside and puked into the toilet, and once I realized I was going to immediately live, I took my stupid self into the hospital, as I knew what I did was really bad.

X-rays, the ER said that nothing was really wrong, but I would probably taste and belch gas fumes for a while.

Needless to say, I lived through it, and now, don't siphon gas by mouth anymore. I do keep a 3/8 inch clear tubing siphon hose on my bike, and the finger on the end of the tube works good.
 
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