Old fuel disposal

C4Ranch · Jun 23, 2013

Cleaning out the barn on some land I recently purchased and found two 5 gal cans full of fuel. One smells like diesel the other like unleaded. Not knowing for sure or how old it is, I would rather dispose of it properly rather than risking engine damage trying to burn it.

Any ideas how to dispose properly? 10 gal is more than I want to burn and want to reuse the cans.

TIA!

J

Jstpssng · Jun 23, 2013

Try Walmart, they generally take old engine oil. You may have to waiit until you do a couple of oil changes, and mix it in.

Also, around here a lot of garages have used engine oil furnaces. As long as the diesel isn't contaminated that may be a possibility.
I'm not sure if they could use a small amount of gas or not... it seems like it would be pretty well diluted by the time it gets mixed in a 250 gallon tank.

deerseeker001 · Jun 23, 2013

there is a garage down the road that does service work on cars and trucks he told me if i had any old gas,oil he has a tank out back that this company comes periodically and picks it up from him and pays him so much a gallon.it sounds like they take what burns.i would check with your garages.

KTurner · Jun 23, 2013

C4Ranch said:
Any ideas how to dispose properly? 10 gal is more than I want to burn and want to reuse the cans.

I had some ol crummy dirty gas from the bottom of a few cans. The county has a hazardous chemical collection every few months where they take old paint, cleaners, electronics, etc to keep the stuff out of the landfill/ground/etc. They took the old gas. I had put it in the worst can as I wasn't sure how they'd handle it. They asked if I wanted the can back. Check with your county to see if they have something similar.

Keith

murphy1244 · Jun 23, 2013

Mix the diesel with ATF for rusted bolts and such.

Bigfoot62 · Jun 23, 2013

murphy1244 said:
Mix the diesel with ATF for rusted bolts and such.

Yep, or just use it straight up for parts washing.

C4Ranch · Jun 23, 2013

Thanks everyone!

Think I found another use.... Appears you can mix it with some stuff to kill mesquite.

I got 3 small fields that are being encroached upon and need to get them under control.

I'll see what options exist for the unleaded.

J

Bigfoot62 · Jun 23, 2013

C4Ranch said:
. . . I'll see what options exist for the unleaded.

J

You can mix gas and diesel 50/50 and use it for burning fuel, like to start a brush pile.

SPIKER · Jun 23, 2013

The fuel can be mixed with some roundup type weed killers to help them if you do any parts cleaning the gas can be used for that. It also will kill weeds when sprayed onto them. agreed that they are not great for environment but the small amount will evaporate quickly out in open air.

Otherwise you can hold onto that and some old motor oil for brush removal in wet days. put into 2 liter bottles and screw on cap and drill small hole in cap. squeeze bottle to put out small stream of fuel into pile of brush/weeds with some paper or cardboard under it to catch it. you can pretty much get a roaring fire in a light steady rain... I know there are a lot of burn bans out that way so doing it while raining could fix that issue for ya maybe.

M