paragonspirit

I have a project that wasn't scheduled to exist for more than a few weeks...almost 3 years later and it is getting 'close.'

I finally thought about it and realized that I never put any fuel stabilizer into the gas tank.

Is it too late to add Sta-Bil or other fuel stabilizer at this point?
Is it obvious that the fuel is good or bad if I siphon some out of the tank prior to or after adding the fuel stabilizer?
If the fuel is bad, what am I in for (75 Corvette)?

Scot S.

Mike Ward

Chances are that the fuel is still good. It's too late to add anything- there's no 'undo' like on a computer.

'75

I would siphon it all out and burn it in your daily driver, a few gallons per tank full, and add new gas to the project when fire up time comes. But that's just me.

Mike Ward

If it would be harmful to his Corvette, why would it not be harmful to his daily driver?

Jud Chapin

At a minimum, I would syphon out the gas and replace with new. I would not use the old gas as it's not worth taking a chance on in another car. Three years is a long time for gas to sit. Most say gas today starts to deteriorate after a couple of months. Hopefully your car will start but you may end up having to rebuild your carb, if so equipped, as I did. Here's some info...



http://autos.aol.com/article/does-gas-go-bad/

'75

The old gas would be greatly diluted when mixed a couple gallons with a tank full of new gas in the daily driver, and it takes care of how to dispose of it. Seems like a good plan to me.

jcloving

paragon,

Depending on how much you have, you could dilute it with some new fresh premium. You should be ok.

Draining it would be fine too.

Good luck

spdrcr29

Drain it and use the old stuff in your lawn mower!

Phil Zell

fill it up and drive it.

Never used a stabilizer in my life, and I am older than dirt !

Vette5.5

I'm with '75 on this, as three year old gas may be marginal at best, especially in hot climates. Gasoline is a chemical compound, with the more volitile components tending to boil out over time. My brother in TX had 3-4 year old gas in a car, and wouldn't start worth a crap. Ended up fouling several spark plugs trying too. Syphoned all the gas into fuel jugs, put in new stuff and plugs. Runs great now. As mentioned, old fuel went into daily cars, little at a time. Why take a chance.

paragonspirit

Someone suggested Premium to top off the tank.
Why not Regular as is already in there?


As to why the DD, I think the dilution factor will be greater and somebody knows I'm trying to kill that Saturn.

KenSny

Probably the Daily Driver is a computer managed car. It will adjust itself to crap gas and live happily-ever-after on poor fuel (i.e. all the new EPA brews ).

paragonspirit

Follow up to this:

I'm going to skip the maybe rebuild the carb route, and instead take the siphon the gas out of the car route.

How does one go about emptying a gas tank without a functioning throttle pedal? I know...stupid kids...but I've always used the theory of run it till the wheels fall off, and they've never fallen off with any gas in the tank!

cv67

My gas in the 67 is less than 2 mos old and stinks of stale already.
makes good weed killer