I recently started working on my 83 f100 that i haven't seen running in almost 3 years. after 2 days of working on it i finally get it street worthy, or so i thought. Occasionally the fuel line will clog and the engine will sputter and die. when i investigate i find that the fuel filter has no fuel in it at at! if i squeeze the tubing some of the nastiest gas i've ever seen pours into the filter and the engine will start up again for about 1/2 a mile (sometimes less). My question is, if i go ahead and fill the tank up with gas (that hasn't been sitting for 3 years) will i still be having this problem?

 

until all that bad gas is out yea you will have that problem. i would sugest drain the tank as best you can and fill it up with good gas run that tank down and fill it agian with good gas and once that is almost empty change your fuel filter.

 

Dad had this with the '79 when we switched tanks on it. he bought a used tank (late 80s, things weren't too good in our area then). we thought that we had it all cleaned out (I was 6 at the time). soon after filling the tank & driving, it sputtered around & quit. Dad checked the fuel filter. sure enough, plugged. so he kept a couple of filters on the dash, when the truck felt like it was running out of gas, he'd change the filter. this went on all summer.

so drain yr tank & change the filter it's got now. keep a couple with u. when it wants to quit, swap it out.