I would put it into kitty litter, bag it and call the county recycling place and ask them if they will take it or know where to dump it. The kid was just doing what daddy does, fill the gas tank. The fun is only beginning. Heck he might be driving the car someday.

 

Water is quite a bit heavier than gasoline. Just drain out a few gallons until you are sure nothing except gasoline is coming out. Hook everything back up and don't worry about it.

Greg

 

You have to watch your kids- even when they become teenager's. You might need to watch them even more when they're teenager's because they can drive.

 

My son filled his 4-wheeler with diesel fuel when he was about 5. Didn't take me long to figure out what had happened. He comes by it naturally, though. A year ago, I completely filled my diesel pickup with gasoline!

Erik

 

This is the paybackfor all the crap you put your family trough when you were a kid. Come on, admit it, didn't you pull a few fast ones on the old folks? Why don't we all own up to one foolish, bonehead prank we pulled when we were kids? It might make you feel better.

When I was quite small, one of my older brother's friends put me up to shooting my brother with a blank pistol. This was bad enough, but it was actually a real pistol loaded with a blank. For those of you who may not know, a blank pistol has a bore larger than the caliber of the blank. This disipates the force and increases the sound. Loading a blank in a real pistol greatly increases the force of the explosion and drives the paper wad which seals the end of the blank at a high rate of force. Also, the pistol looks very real because it is real. My brothers friend and I knew it was "harmless", but of course my brother did not.

The force of the exlosion made the wad hit him in the chest, and the total experience seemed real to him when I shot him. He actually thought he had been shot. Unjustly for me, my brother chose to beat the crap out of me, but was too chicken to try to beat up his friend. It was the friend who relly deserved the beating, not the dumb little kid.

I learned a lifelong respect for firearms after that little escapade.

Robert

 

What Greg said, except change your fuel filter soon after you get it going.
And yes, he'll live to complicate your life even further.

 

..i did the same thing to my dad's 65 impala coupe.when i was 6 years old..he was away in vietnam at the time....i am 49 now..i guess i got thru it well

 

Thanks for all the responses. I thought that gas and water would not mix but would separate, but wasn't sure whether the gas or the water would settle at the bottom. By way of background, I have six kids, two of them grown, plus two teenagers. I thought that I had seen it all until the youngest came along. He has provided more excitement than the other 5 combined. I suppose that I gave my parents some excitement, and my youngest has paid me back with compound interest.
Incidentally, my 78 does not have the retrofit in tank pump, and the gas does not come out the bottom of the tank, but through a metal tube. The gas is sucked up near the top of the tank before being routed back down to the bottom of the car. Should I siphon the water out through the filler neck, or through the plug in the trunk where the gas gauge sending unit is located, or pump the water out using the fuel pump(disconnected upstream)?

 

it is going to stay in the bottom and rust the tank....
I would do what was posted above. just pump it into a jerrycan then let it settle and pull the good gas off the top. when you can not suck any more with the pump there will be about a gallon left which will be mostly water getting that out will be a pain. is there not any kind of drain on the bottom? if there is just crack it and let the water out. if not you will have to get creative

 

Dude,
At least you'll have an explanation for why your car won't run (unlike the rest of us).

 

If stock, the 78 will have spica injection The spica pump would not care for any residual water especially if allowed to linger. fwiw.

 

11 gallons to (about) 1.5 gas to water.

Don't worry about tossing it out. Just drain it into marked plastic gas cans, and give it a good shake when filling your lawnmower.....

After getting as much as you can outta the cars tank, do a full fill up and add in some of that water maker goer awayer stuff ('dry gas') you put in in the winter to absorb and burn off any residual moisture.

 

Thanks for the advice, Darren. Sounds like a simple solution that just might work.
Bob

 

You can also remove water from gasoline by adding dry isopropanol alcohol. I'm sure there are chemists on the forum that can explain better than I, but the alcohol will bond with the water and then can be burned by your engine. Search "Removing Water From Gasoline" on google and you'll see several formulas for adding the appropriate amount of alcohol.

I'd try to remove as much water as I could manually, say by putting the tainted gasoline in jugs, then pouring off as much gasoline as possible, leaving only the water behind. The poured off gasoline as others said can be used in a lawnmower or something less valuable as the car. Then I'd put some alcohol or storebought gas dryer into the tank for a few tanks just to make sure all the water is gone.