Hi all - I did a search and did not find the exact answer I needed. My father has begun the teardown in preparation for the major service this winter on their '97 Spider. Of course, he has already started and realized only recently that the car has well over half a tank of fuel in it. At this point, a fair amount of the initial work is complete (rear bumper removed, exhaust out, ancillary systems pulled, hydraulic and electrical disconnections, etc.), so I would be wary of re-connecting the battery and either letting the fuel pump push it all out for fear of setting a code only resettable via SD1/2 or ruining something electrical that should have been plugged in but wasn't. I am not sure if this is a problem or not, and while he thinks he sees a drain plug on the tank, I seem to recall that there isn't one on this car/tank. The closest thread I could find was the one where someone needed to drain leaded fuel accidentally introduced to the car and in that case, they let the pump do the work. Will the car bleed fuel the entire time the engine is out at this tank level? Or will it leak only a certain amount and then stop? Looking at the parts diagrams, it appears that if you kept the main fuel line vertical, capped off, and above the fuel level after disconnecting it from the fuel filter, you might be OK. So, TL;DR: is there a drain on the 355 fuel tank? Can you do an engine-out major with a tank full of gas? If no, is siphoning the gas out via the filler the best option for a partially disassembled car? TIA
Matt - unless the major is going to take him years to complete, you don't need to do a thing with the gas - leave it in the tank. Just don't smoke around the car
So that’s 2 votes for “no”, and one vote for “yes, and overhaul the fuel system while you’re at it”. The engine out is not a three year saga, the car will be back on the road this spring. If leaving the fuel tank with gas in it during a major is fine, that’s what we will do. Thanks!
