Gas in stored vehicle

[Kestas]

I'm one of those guys that is too lazy to do the seasonal fuel maintenance in my snowblower or lawnmower. I just drain the fuel before the beginning of each season or take my chances with trying to start it.

I experienced a first this season where the gas in my snowthrower gelled and corroded the aluminum fuel bowl. I'm pretty sure it's because of the alcohol in the fuel. I'm aware of the phase separation phenomenon. But this got me thinking about the cars I store. I have two convertibles that are stored in my garage over the winter. I'd hate to see the horrible gelling in these cars that I saw in my snowthrower. What seasonal regimen would make the most sense? Should I top off the tanks and call it good? Or should I take the time to siphon the gas and retop the tanks with fresh fuel every three months?

Am I worrying about this too much? Perhaps the volume to surface (gas to air) ratio was greater in the snowthrower than it would be in the gas tanks, and winter storage isn't as bad as storing a snowthrower in a humid environment.

 

[FL_Rob]

stabil

 

[FL_Rob]

run it through.

 

[yeti]

get fresh gas and fill tank. i use stabil, and about 1/2 teaspoon (eyeball it) MMO, depending on tank size.fire it up, and let it run for a few minutes, and you're good to go.this applies to snowthrower and lawnmower. it only takes a few minutes -- a 1 beer job.

 

[Bill in Utah]

When I had my Jeep and from around Oct till Mar did not use it (open top and its was dangerous in snow) I used stabil on the last fill (filled it up) then when I brought it out I'd make a run with it for 20-30 miles and go right away and fill it up with fresh gas. I'd keep doing that for the first 4-5 trips and it did well for the decades I had it.

Even with the stabil in it, while it prevented the carb from being clogged it ran poorly when compared to fresh fuel. With only a few gallons added each time the engine responded to the fresh fuel was quite positive in operating.

Take care, Bill

 

[hate2work]

You should be using one of the good fuel stabilizers on the market. Sta-bil is the one everybody mentions, but there are others as well. Lately I've been having good luck with a product called Star-tron. You can find it at startron dot com

 

[eljefino]

Are these convertibles carb'd? Since their jets are bigger than OPE you get better luck with half-clogs working themselves free.

Bill is right about stale gas doesn't have the RVP to vaporize well in carb'd stuff. It'll run but a little off base until some fresh fuel is added.

 

[JHZR2]

Ive not had issues to date with gas going bad. I use a bit of amsoil stabilizer and some mmo in the fuel. Guess that helps somewhat.

 

[Kestas]

Over the weekend it was dry and I did the fuel maintenance on my two lawnmowers. I basically drained the fuel from each - tank and carb. The fuel from my 4-cycle mower showed phase separation, even with dry winter weather.