This was a couple days ago, but for your reading pleasure:
Woops, sprayed gas all over the floor. I had a heck of night.
I started out with the intention to change the oil in my truck. Of course, it's a weeknight, I'm in Alaska, my truck doesn't fit in the garage and it was 5F outside. No problem, I've got an oil extractor, so I'll barely have to lay on the ground, just suck out the oil and put on a new filter. Oops, dead battery. Charging that should fix everything up. Oops, battery won't charge at all, let's buy a battery. Now let's suck out the oil, it'll be easy. Wrong! Ford 4.0's have a kink in the bottom of the dipstick so you can't use an oil extractor.
No problem, I'll just do it the old fashioned way. I drained the oil and started in the filter, but I can't fit my 5F gloves in the space, so it's down to skinny mechanics gloves. Oh god I can't get the filter off because I can't bend my fingers. Oh god I can't get the filter on because I can't bend my fingers. Oh god warming up my fingers hurts!
I figured I'd take a look at the Porsche to cool off. My plan was to set everything up for the big weekend and check the fuel system integrity over the holidays. I put in custom made hoses and hardlines, so naturally I want to put some drip pans under the fittings and open the garage door and put a bunch of extinguishers around, just to be prepared for any eventuality. Keeping that in mind, I had no intention of doing anything with the fuel system. I just wanted to sit in the cab, go over my checklist, organize some stuff and see if the battery was charged, since the cold spell was killing my batteries left and right.
I turned the key and clearly didn't think it through because as the headlights popped up, I heard the fuel pump kick on and a hiss as it pissed gas all over the front fender well.
It's just a small amount of gas, so I throw some sorbent pads down, but it's still leaking because the line is pressurized. Obviously I panic a bit, so I make a move to release fuel pressure. I still have the fuel pump exposed because I've been monitoring it for leaks (on the plus side, I can confirm that it does not leak), so I clamp off the line coming from the tank and loosen the tank to pump connection so pressure will be released.
I anticipated a bit of a dribble from the hard line, but I did not adequately clamp off the hose from the tank, so instead I get a gush as 5 gallons of gas try to fill up my pan. I frantically re clamp the hose a couple time until I get the flow stopped, while simultaneously trying to get the hose back on the pump. Eventually, I succeed.
On the plus side, the spray up front stopped immediately. I also managed to avoid spilling most of the gas on the floor, but I was down to a kinda pine-needly oil pan, so my fresh gas is now dirty and my garage is smelly.
I didn't want to irritate my wife with a smelly garage in the middle of the night, so I opened the door and brought the pans full of gas outside so I could strain them back into my frozen gas can in 5F weather. Which went ok, paper towel filters ftw! At this point, I'm a pretty tired, a little flustered and maybe a bit gas fumed out, so I leave the garage door open a couple feet so it can air out, take a shower, then go to bed.
The next morning goes regularly. I play with the baby, tell my wife all about my problems and shut the garage door. Right before I head off to work, I use the toilet and flush, but nothing. There is no water in the tank. So I turn on a faucet. No water. No running water anywhere. I realize that it's really flipping cold and leaving the garage door open must have frozen the pipes in the garage. Acting more on hope than anything I put my little electric heater near the pipes and go to work.
Fortunately it must have been a small block, because the water was back by lunch, but it was a heck of a night.
I was too busy to grab any pictures, so here's an artist's rendering:
¯_(ツ)_/¯
Anyways, since then I've checked the leaky connection, and I believe the problem was that it was just finger tight, so hopefully all fixed and I'll have a running Porsche for Xmas
