My Corvette has been down for a little over a year now. I blew the motor and intended to have a new one in before this, but as with most things, something came up, and now it's been a little over a year. Because I never intended it to sit this long, my dumb *** never put Sta-bil or anything in the tank. Is it still okay to fire up the car this way? It's damn near full of 91 octane, so I can't just dilute it with new gas. I also would hate to just junk ~24 gallons of premium. If I put in Seafoam or Sta-bil now, would it help at all? Thanks so much in advance.

 

As gasoline ages it begins to smell, shall I say "sweeter". One year old is not terrible. I might siphon it out and use it in the mowers or a little at a time in my daily driver. I normally use the smell test. Good luck with it. mike...

 

Yeah, when gasoline begins to smell a bit like paint thinner its getting stale. Rather than throwing away stale gasoline I mix some in my lawn mower, air compressor, tractor, and whatever else where super-fresh gasoline isn't a big factor.

 

Ethanol blended fuel will be horrible after a year. Could be separated out and run like dog poo.
Non ethanol fuel and you'll be fine as long as you not getting on it real hard. I've noticed that old fuel seems to loose octane over time and will cause ping in the engine. It'll still run just not as well.

 

I just bought a Gallon of fresh premium, and it smells the exact same. I think I'll try it. If it ends up not running well I'll siphon it out

 

I've had plenty of problems from old gas, why take the chance ?

Answer this question, would you pay $100 to not have any issues ?

Happy Motoring,

Frank

 

It should be ok, not great but ok. You can syphon like mentioned or drive it out, but if your compression needs every bit of that 91oct I'd drive lightly and just keep adding fresh too dilute it. If only I had a dime for every time a car sat longer than intended, now I know after a month or so to put stabil in.

 

The inside of the gas tank of my vintage Honda motorcycle was perfect , original metal , not coated, beautiful gleaming metal.

It has been perfect for 44 years . Always clean rust free .

Then this past Thanksgiving ....I did something I'd never done . I put ethanol gasoline in it l just a 1/2 gal. It was emergency , no place to get pure gas . I thought ...it won't hurt .......WRONG !

4 months latter it nearly destroyed my gas tank , completely froze up my carb , and destroyed everything rubber .

The inside of my gas tank was coated with a heavy rust . The fuel had turned to varnish , smelled like a dead horse , and there was a yellow purple mess of skank in the bottom of tad tank that looked like rotting pasta .

So.....I ve own the motor cycle ....all these years .....left varying amounts go fuel in it for very long periods ...maybe two years .....but it was always premium PURE gas.

First time that crap azz ethanol us in it .....it goes to he'll.

Now I know that smart azz Mike Ward who lived in dry cold Canada thinks he knows everything.....but I dare him to bring his corvette to the southern humid states and put ethanol in it and leave it set for 6 months . .....his tank will be full of rust in humid south. That us the reason it's not used in boats down here .....I * ucks up everything you put it in without stabilizer additive

Mike can stick the ethanol gas he lives up his wazoo.

 

I sell gas . have a old time convenience store . none of my gas has ethanol . so it has a long shelf life . gas with ethanol can go bad in less then 60 days. my buddy goes nuts I don't add anything to any of my gas powered equip ( car, atv , chainsaw, boat , generator , and all my stuff starts right up after charging the batteries in the spring . my boat is a 78 with a 140 hp that I hardly use it ,has a 18 gallon tank at the end of each summer I add around 6 gallons of gas and it starts right up in the spring no problems been doing it for 20 years . not saying this is good or what you should do . I just make sure there full when I store them .

 

I had a car in storage for 5 years. Disconnected the coil wire and cranked it for oil pressure. Reconnected the coil and it fired and ran fine.

 

I believe light affects how long gas is good for also, storage in a plastic can is not the best.

 

about the only thing I do is on my bigger stuff I add a can of deicer incase theres any water when I start it up the first time .

 

Plastic is ok. The key is to keep the can AIR TIGHT....that is sealed shut! New cars have sealed tanks for emissions, so less of a problem during storage.

Moisture gets in, and the ethanol gets working its nasty stuff. I am not sure of the effectiveness of the new ethanol storage additives; just tried STP in my Z28, time will tell!

 

when my state inspector comes he sometime shows me gas that he picks up on some of the real small stores that sell gas that hes had complaints on ( this doesn't happen a lot hes only showed me a few times over the years ) that's has ethanol . its real cloudy looks like maple syrup . I have a couple 1000 gallon above ground tanks so the gas doesn't sit there for to long a period plus I don't have any ethanol . plus nice thing is in the winter I can't pump any water never have had a problem but in the winter if there is any its froze in the bottom of the tank and you cant pump it like underground tanks that don't get below 42 degrees .( I sell gas or snowmobiles )

 

Alright, you guys guilted me into Sucking all the old gas out. 78 tanks had a bladder, right? So I shouldn't have to deal with any corrosion. If I siphon as much as I can out, and fill it with fresh gas, do you think I'll be alright?

 

I burned up some gas in my 327 that was about 8 years old, didn't have any problems. It was not blended with ethanol. I wouldn't have done it if the engine had fuel injectors, I just think they are more sensitive to bad fuel.

It will not do any good to add stabilizer now. It is designed to prevent polymerization, so it needs to be added first, it won't "undo" whats been done.

 

Just drive it unless you like sihoning. Ive let ethanol gas sit for over a yr car almost acted like it had a slight miss at idle, stunk to high heaven but that was it ran Ok. Once burned off refilled with fresh, no issue that was a efi car
Gas (ethanol) has been in my 67 for easy 8 mos plan on firing it up next day or so bet its fine. Do keep an eye on the carb for leaks though have had an issue or two where it turns the blue holley gaskets to mush. Next time around Ill just pay more and buy a few 5 gal jugs of VP 100.

 

Low humidity and dry in Valencia?

 

I started siphoning this afternoon before work. I got about 8 gallons out, about 10 more to go. I plan to just get out as much as I can, and dilute what's left with fresh Premium gas, and hope for the best. I'll change the fuel filter after the first fill up, too. I feel like I'll be alright. I guess we'll see.