OntarioOrangeC3

I agree, asking Stabil themselves seems to be the best way to get your answer. Go right to the source instead getting speculative replies here. Or not.

davepl

I dunno, why do you sound so short online?

Make that SIX useless, non-Stabil related posts about me, so I'll just cheerfully put you on ignore. See ya.

davepl

I really don't think it will, but since I'm ignorant as to how Stabil actually works, I figured I'd ask. I can speculate as well as the next fellow, but was hoping someone might know how it works without me needing to research it.

Imagine, for example, fresh gasoline contains a certain about of xyzene. That xyzene deteriorates over time, and by year one, it's mostly gone. So imagine Stabil contains extra xyzene, and that's why you add it up front to make it last longer. If that were the case, you COULD add more xyzene at the one year mark and it'd be OK. But I made up xyzene, because I don't really know what the aging process is for gasoline or how Stabil affects it.

Hence, my question!

davepl

OK, I looked it up for us. Stabil works by stabilizing otherwise unstable aromatic hydrocarbons, the ones that would go bad fairly quickly. Hence the name, "Stabil". It -slows- the degeneration process, extending the shelf life from 90 days (or whatever) to 1 year. By the one year mark enough have destabilized that it's too late, you can't add more. So that's the answer.

As I understand petroleum engineering (which is to say, very little indeed) I bet synthetic gasoline would last a long time because the hydrocarbons would be stabil! But it'd be pricey :-)

FLEXjs

rogergcam

I just have to question if Stabil works at all. Is there ANY good rersearch on it? I have never used it, for any application as I am leary of putting stuff into my fuel, any fuel, that is basically unknown, to me.

Patman

My father is putting Stabil to the test, he put some in the tank of his 1983 Alfa Romeo Spyder in the fall of 2016 and hasn't driven or started the car since. If I can ever convince him to put it back on the road we'll see if it fires up and runs properly!

davepl

Just so we're all on the same page, it MIGHT help, but that's well outside the range of what it claims to be able to do (one year). I'd imagine the aromatic hydrocarbons are all destabilized a couple of years out.

That said, I had a car on the farm I'd go out and start every year for about 10 years before I left the country, using whatever gas I'd put it when I 'abandoned' it... a 413 w/ Carter AFB in my 1963 Imperial. Fired right up every year for 10 years (give or take). A tree grew up through the car in the meantime (basket case) but at that time I figured it was a good way to preserve the motor...

vettetwo

Does that mean the gasoline/Stabil will not burn satisfactorily after one year? I have always added an amount of Stabil proportionate to the amount of gasoline added to refill the gas tank assuming the mixture would last more than a year. I have not added Stabil to the tank without adding fuel so that the Stabil is mixed sufficiently with the incoming added fuel. The C7 makes this easy by displaying the amount of fuel used since the last reset of the gallons indicator.

I noticed the Stabil I bought a few days ago now says it has a shelf life of 2 years after opening. This may be to sell more product because it has been common practice to use Stabil that is several years old which is still in the original container.

MMD

Patman

What about Slick 50 and Duralube? Those products never did as they advertised, but both of those companies were in business for a long time. (I'm not saying Stabil doesn't work, just making a point that longevity of a company doesn't guarantee that their product works)

davepl

Not to mention 104+, which you'd think would have to do with octane. But a "point" is after the decimal point in their marketing, so two points of octane means from 87 to 87.2, which is pointless. All it does is clean combustion chambers (supposedly) to increase "octane effect" by reducing hot spots and compression ratio. But it doesn't do jack for the fuel octane, and you're not loaded up with carbon, does pretty much zero.

That doesn't apply to race gas concentrates, which are usually the real deal. I'm talking about the "Octane Booster" stuff.

I find old fuel does lose octane for whatever reason. So I decided the answer to this query was actually to burn the older fuel in the Tahoe instead of the Z, because the compression ratio is lower and the octane demand is thus lower as well.

Stabil seems to do what it claims, but it's hard to know for certain. No specific reason to doubt them that I know of, though.

Idaho Mark

Maxpowers

Dave - you might want to consider e-mailing Stabil directly. If anyone has a good POV on this, its them.

Skid Row Joe

Absolutely! Stabil has never let me down, regardless of the time elements. Caveat - drain that gas that has endured multiple years of Stabil treatments. Don't operate the engine without new gas.

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