Puncturing a gas tank

[subversivegrrl]

I'm working on a post-apocalypse novel and need to hamstring the bad guy by having someone surreptitiously puncture the gas tank on his transport, so the gas drains out fairly slowly and leaves him unexpectedly stranded out in the middle of nowhere. (I guess it's all "nowhere" at that point.)

So my question is, how difficult would it actually be to put a hole through the metal of a gas tank? Could it be done with something like a wide-bladed knife? It would have to be some kind of human-powered action, no power tools.

There's surprisingly little information out there - the majority of it has to do with replacing a tank that *has* a hole in it, often from vandalism, so it must be not too difficult... I just don't know how much effort would be required.

Comments

[juushika]

Modern cars generally (frex. about 70% of American cars today) have plastic gas tanks; not easy but doable with something like a knife and some effort. Older cars have metal gas tanks; pointy object + rock/other impact tool could be used to puncture them.

Source: my partner knows cars, plus internet search for 70% statistic.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, I'd expect so. Grab a rock to drive the knife-point home a little harder than one could with a palm.

[subversivegrrl]

Yeah, older vehicle with a metal tank. Thanks to you and your partner!

It's the practical details like this that hang me up. Not the gas tank piece per se, but "now I need to accomplish X without up-ending all of the structure I've already written..."

[dreamtigress]

I feel like something akin to an ice pick or a marlin spike would leave a hole that would drain slower than a wide bladed knife. And possibly be able to puncture easier.

[subversivegrrl]

Ice pick was something I was considering, but I didn't think the hole would be large enough to cause it to drain faster than a drip, unless maybe the gas cap was also loosened. Looking into what a marlin spike is now.

[subversivegrrl]

Wow, those are beautiful tools! Size would be good, both diameter to make a significant hole and length to be able to conceal it. Hmmm...

[dsrtao]

Two holes! One of which is near the bottom, and one of which is near the top.

Air comes in at the top, gasoline leaves at the bottom.

Con: if this happens much before the vehicle leaves, the puddle and smell are likely to be obvious.

[full_metal_ox]

Although the querent here is talking about their own property (they need to render the gas tank nonfunctional before junking a car), this farming message board offers some suggestions, ranging from facetious to practical: https://talk.newagtalk.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=257796&DisplayType=flat&setCookie=1

Is there a reason you specifically need the gas to drain out? Adding an adulterant to the gas is the sabotage method I’ve most often heard of, although a lot of the suggested substances (sugar, wine, grain) would be probably be precious commodities in Mad Max Land; see this OSS guide to simple sabotage: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Simple_Sabotage_Field_Manual/Specific_Suggestions_for_Simple_Sabotage#:~:text=Tanks%20and%20fueling%20engines%20usually,that%20the%20engine%20will%20stop.

[subversivegrrl]

Great resources, thanks! I'm bookmarking the field manual, something tells me it will come in handy down the line.

Puncturing the gas tank seems like the easiest to implement in the heat of the moment (it's not a circumstance where there's time to plan).

[tabaqui]

Coming in late, but....
If a gas tank seems too hard or too impractical, consider them taking the plug out of the oil pan and shoving in a candle. As the person drove, the candle would heat and melt, and then the oil would drain out and the engine would seize. Totally undriveable and, post-apocalypse, probably totally unfixable, as well.

[lizvogel]

Instead of the gas tank, could your saboteur go after the gas line?

IME of older cars, the line that feeds gas from the tank to the engine is a narrow tube of bendable metal (so it can be routed around all the other stuff down there). They're prone to rusting out especially at the bends even under normal long-term use. Depending on age of vehicle and hand strength of person, they might be able to just bend it back and forth until it starts to crack at an already-weak point.

Depending on size of crack, fuel will still feed through to the engine while also dribbling quite a bit out onto the ground. Vehicle might or might not run a little rough, but it'll still run (until the fuel's gone). Ask me how I know this....

[(Anonymous)]

Okay, I like where that could go. Do newer vehicles have something non-metallic? (I'm thinking that it might have been replaced. We're talking about a 1960's military utility vehicle that has been in recent use.) If the saboteur could just nick something quickly with a blade, that would take care of the time pressure.

I need to go back and look at the diagrams to see where the gas line runs and if someone could easily roll under there and get to it before they're seen.

Dang it

[subversivegrrl]

I'm still new at Dreamwidth, that last comment was me

Re: Dang it

[lizvogel]

Do newer vehicles have something non-metallic?

This, I can't speak to; my definition of 'newer car' is still, um, old. ;-)

If it's a 1960s vehicle and you're writing contemporary/future, it's almost certainly been replaced at some point. Possibly more than once. Whether that was with original-equivalent parts or something more modern depends on model and when and on the person doing it.