TOPIC: 18 month old gas....

plan on running my boat at silver lake next month. i have 9 gallons of 91 octane gas in my plastic tank. i added stabilizer to it 15 months ago. is it safe to use or is it a toss-up?

vuyosevich wrote:

plan on running my boat at silver lake next month. i have 9 gallons of 91 octane gas in my plastic tank. i added stabilizer to it 15 months ago. is it safe to use or is it a toss-up?

More than likely it's ok if you stabilized it.

But you know what? If your asking the question, you must not be sure in your own mind. That said, if it were me, I would chunk it.

It's easier to air on the side of caution and spend $30 and 2 min at the pump than it is to paddle 3 miles and then re build your carburetors.

ya could be rebuilding more than carbs Heather's right use the gas in your lawnmower...

I wonder if you could use it up, say a gallon of old, to five of new, and eventually use it without incident? Due to lack of use, I also have old gas and was wondering about it... And also, since the mower doesn't take 50:1 mix, how else could I dispose of it?

The big question is

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" is the oil mixed in long ago still able to do the job "

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when and if it seperates from the mixture.The motor will run on it but you MAY be doing mechanical damage. To be safe add more oil or just burn it in the lawnmower ( 4 strokes do not mind a bit of oil at all)or use it in the old pick-up truck.

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Any newer expensive outboard should be run on fresh fuel only.

I hear this all time and not just on this site. I have used old gas in my snowmobiles and my old outboars motors and never had a proplem. The gas and oil will not seperate and if it did all you need to do is shake it up. Now if you open the cap and it smells shunky then yes get rid of it. In a closed can nothing can get into it to make it go bad. If it will run in your lawn mower or old truck it should run in your motor also. Gas cost to dam much just to throw it out.
My 2 Cents worth
Mike aka pathfinderz1
PS
Been using old gas in my motors for over 20 years

I guess this is another "varied opinion" subject, add it to the list. The Stabil bottle says regular mix good for 12 mo., double the dose for extended storage up to 24 mo.

As I understand it, one of the main problems with ethanol mix gas today is that it does absorb water, including humidity from the air. If the vent on the tank was closed, that's probably not an issue. HOWEVER, the quality of the gas when originally purchased is always a question, even if you buy some today. I'm working on installing a fuel filter/water separator on my Starflite even as we speak! Why take a chance?

My two cents worth.

PS - old gas great for killing weeds (sshhhhh)

well i'm going to go half way. throw out 41/2 gallons and put in 41/2 gallons of fresh 91 octane with the new ethanol stabilizer. if it screws somethin up i'll just leave it at tim's place and throw some cash his way. probably have the lower unit painted also.

Well, ron...there are some really good uses for the old mix...

One would be a chain saw...

the other a weed eater....

little extra umph for fire wood...for a camp fire sing along....

local hazmat recovery station maybe...

i thot it could only be used in 4 cycle motor.....

nana...2 cycle's and 4 cycle's are two completely different beast...

your lawn mower...is a four cycle...my 10 horse snow blower is a four cycle, my "new-to-me" 6 horse push mower is..."new-to-me" because the soon to be son in law of the p/o ....filled it with 2 cycle oil mixed gas.

causes a world of hurt with the air adjustment needle and the spark plug fouls after about 3 or 4 min of running, didn't hurt it other than getting a good case of gumbo on the plug and a bit of of yuck on the air mixture needle.

here a little more advice....

if you can..

use an air gun to blow out the old fuel in your fuel line...look at the primer bulb, there is an arrow for the fuel direction....

that old mix has just been "sitting" in the line over the winter will separate and odds are it collected condensation...

half a pint or quart, be it so, that being sent up in to a firing motor could have you doing a number of other things, other than cursing

a water seperator ,like mark said is also a great idea,i was left out in the middle of a lake,good thing i carry a trolling motor when boating just in case,it at least got the cruiser back to the dock,what happened was i forgot to screw down and tighten the vent screw on the gas cap,and rain water got in the gas can,so from now on its a water seperator for me,lol,john

yea an ounce of prevention...

there is this guy, a friend of mine who has an employee that drives for him...in my old truck.

The employee last week, replaced a $1.00 O-ring, on the fuel filter water separator incorrectly and it resulted in the truck being towed...

The T/A in N.J. was contacted to do a roadside repair which was 350.00 that failed...

the state police ordered the truck and the trailer to be towed, 3,600.00

re-riged, for load could be completed, 600.00 + 50.00 an hour for the other rig to sit because the tow truck took the the truck and the trailer together into the shop and it had to wait for another tow truck the next mourning to come pull it out and disconnect the trailer 400.00.

due to all the attempted starts, the starter burned up, 500.00 + shop install

last but not least, the smell of surfer, removing the battery compartment revealed, 2 toasted battery's that would no longer hold charge due there plates where collapsed and the 2 others where registering 50% charge due to being cooked by a high amp generator jumper (that I suspect was used by the shop to give juice to the repair road side) 500.00 for four battery's plus shop install.

upon returning, I was called because the truck failed it's Bi-annual inspection because of a crack in the muffler where clamping band goes around it....I was called asking what would I do if...

told my friend...I would cut the top and the bottom off a soda can, get some J/B weld mix it all up smear it on and put the metal over the crack..

ok I was ask to cut a can then....and if I could help put it on...

new mufflers for my old truck run around 500.00, my soda can repair cost a $.05, funny thing is if any one wants a giggle I used a MOUNTAIN DEW can...which just says...GET THE DEW...now on the muffler.

anyways..the point I guess I am trying to make is, for one if you don't know what your doing....ask, if your unsure of something that can be replaced, replace it, if you don't..it can be extremely costly

Pour a little SeaFoam in the tank & run the snot out of it. It'll be fine. The oils we have today are superior to what it was designed to run on. The detergents in the gas keep it from varnishing as fast, and the StaBil you put in there probably has done a great job. You may want to start out on a fresh tank, then in about 20 min, switch over to the old tank. The old gas may not start the engine as easily, and it my not have as much top speed. I seriously doubt you'll even see a difference between the new & old gas. It's gonna be fine.

pathfinderz1 wrote:

I hear this all time and not just on this site. I have used old gas in my snowmobiles and my old outboars motors and never had a proplem. The gas and oil will not seperate and if it did all you need to do is shake it up. Now if you open the cap and it smells shunky then yes get rid of it. In a closed can nothing can get into it to make it go bad. If it will run in your lawn mower or old truck it should run in your motor also. Gas cost to dam much just to throw it out.
My 2 Cents worth
Mike aka pathfinderz1
PS
Been using old gas in my motors for over 20 years

Ditto...give it the sniffer test. If it smells bad, toss it...if it smells like gas, run it.

not to be funny, but....

after all the stuff gets dump into the 9 gallons of questionable gas, how much gas is there going to be?

doing this, would it also throw off the fuel/oil mix ratio that was done to the gas back when, funny as it may sound I told Ron in IM...

....after you add all the chemicals to that 9 gallons of gas, your motor may start singing the REHAB song, "gonna put me in rehab yea...yea..yea"

whats wrong with the old tried and try method, if in doubt, throw it out, in this case give it to a neighbor who does allot of weed eatting...or has a chain saw...and just get some fresh gas

doing some odd math..with the bottles of stuff he all ready added to preserve the fuel, now more another bottle to maybe make it good or marginality better...but still not peak as new, would it not be in his best intrest to just by 9 new gallons of gas...

Ron if you get new gas I got a gallon jug of oil mix oil that you can have, save your nose don't bother sniffing your tank...hate to see you go to rehab.

I tried to count up the score here, I think it's 5 to 3, with one rain out.

got in the boat this morning. slid out the tank and gave it a sniff. smells just like new gas i purchased for my power washer a few days ago. i plan to crank her up saturday at home, and run for awhile.

yup, there he goes down the crooked path to rehab....frist it sniffing gas...then off to arousal cans...

The post does bring up an interesting question; what do you do with very old gasoline that you don't want to use in any engine? My state prefers to ignore the issue . My local auto junkyard must have an answer, but won't tell me what they do with old gasoline. (Something sneaky, I suspect). These days, someone must have found a way to burn it for heat, although used motor oil furnaces are not meant for gasoline. I have several 5 gallon cans of old gasoline, plus some #2 heating oil to dispose of. I can't ask anyone connected with the government, or they might declare my property a Superfund Cleanup Site and send a team of inspectors out dressed in Hazmat suits !

well...

we have a hazmat collection point out in Henrietta where you can take old Gas and the blown "new" low wattage mercury bulbs, along with a bunch of other stuff.

you know the SOP for those new pig tail wiggle light bulbs if one breaks...

lets start by holding your breath, and opening a window..and leaving the room for 15 minutes....

so I got an Idea on how to make them safer....BIG TIME!