Thank you for your help oosyrag. I see I made this wayyyyyy harder than it had to be, but the knowledge you shared made all the difference.
I'll try not to overthink the process next time. (no promises) but I will try.
Meter Height > 0 metermask.Height-0.05
Player on collision with fuel * metermask.Height * min(metermask.Height+25,150)
I'll probably play around with it a little more but this will work.
Thank you...