6 month old fuel

[CascoBay]

Every fall I winterize my boat.

I always run the tank down to 15-20 gallons before I have the boat hauled, the tank holds 60.

When the boat gets home I hook up an inline pump and drain the fuel tank dry. I use this fuel for my generator, snowblower, ect.

Well this year the pump died, and I never got around to sucking the fuel tank dry, I cant even remember if I stablized the fuel

My boat has a carbed 5.7L Volvo Penta year 2000, what should I do? I bought a bottle of starton and planned on adding 30 gallons before I hit the water.

Will 6 month old 10% ethanol fuel give me problems? I have a fuel water seperator and have a new filter ready to go on board.

 

[stylesabu]

Re: 6 month old fuel

youmay notice a little performace loss, but my 66 charger has gas in it from a year ago and it starts and runs ok, can't drive it tracking down brake part. or just pull a couple gallons from tank and run it in your car. do take a sample 1/2 qt of this in a glass container so you can see color and if there is anything other than gas in it. anything not gas will seperate in 10 miuntes or so water will look like globs of oil. should be ok though

 

[the_mayor]

Re: 6 month old fuel

I wouldn't worry about it. Top it off with some premium and you'll be fine.

Look on the bright side, you could be having the issue I'm having. I just bought a boat with 2, 3/4 full tanks (100 gal. or so) of 5 year old fuel. The boat actually runs fine. But I either have to run it out or drain it. Not sure what to do yet.

 

[This_lil_fishy]

Re: 6 month old fuel

Fill 'er up with fresh gas, add some seafoam and you should be fine. Run her on the muffs a bit before hitting the water to make sure she's runnin fine. You may notice some additional exhaust odor and possibly a little less performance for a while...

Ian

 

[northernmerc]

Re: 6 month old fuel

Maybe the fuel is better here in western Canada (actually I doubt it as they also add ethanol here), but I've never had fuel go bad in that period of time. I never drain my boat tanks (inboard or outboard) or other engines that will sit for a while. We never have a problem with the fuel. They start and run fine.

My suspicion is that the companies that sell fuel stablilizers like to scare us into buying their products. IMO, top up your tank with fresh fuel and things should be OK. Put in premium if you want to give the boat a treat.

 

[cribber]

Re: 6 month old fuel

6 month old fuel should be fine and I would go ahead and hit with some Sta-Bil as a precaution. 5 year old fuel I'd definitely run as much of it out of the tanks as you can and again throw in the recommended amount of Sta-Bil to each tank. Also keep an eye on your water separator and fuel filter until you get fresh fuel in the tanks.

 

[CascoBay]

Re: 6 month old fuel

Thanks guys.

I hear horror stories all the time about bad fuel due to ethanol, but I guess most of those are from outboards, not an american V8

I assume you guys are also running ethanol based fuels?

 

[180shabah]

Re: 6 month old fuel

Ethanol does create certain issues, but just run it, if everything was good before last fall you should be fine. Skip the premium though, it is just a waste of money.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: 6 month old fuel

The problems with bad fuel show up in small or sophisticated motors (outboards, injected) more than big motors (the V-8 in the old truck).

The 5 year old fuel was probably ethanol-free (relatively speaking). I'd rather have 5 year old straight gas than 1 year old E-10.

Adding stabilizer to fuel that has already broken down (phase seperation) won't do any good to the fuel. But it will help your motor.

If you put your boat away 6 months ago the fuel may be older than 6 months.

It doesn't break down as badly in cold or stable temps. Fluctuating high temps in high humidity is the worst condition b/c the tank sucks damp air in at each expansion/contraction.

Casco: pull out some of your old fuel (as suggested) and inspect it. if it's brown, or has globs and funky stuff, pitch it all. If not, filling with good fuel will dilute any problems; stabilize the new fuel, and you should be OK.* Change your seperator if it's left over from last year.

*assuming you are adding 45 gallons new to 15 gallons old, more or less.

 

[smokeonthewater]

Re: 6 month old fuel

personally I figure it's probably ok BUT if there is ever any doubt on fuel I pump it out and burn it.... On the 5 year old fuel..... A while back I severely damaged an engine with 30 gal of unknown age gas (assumed to be about 2 years)..... engine seemed to run fine on it so I added a a bit of fresh and ran it.... fouled two sets of plugs with a mostly clear coating.... looked almost like a flat crearcoat..... just wasn't thinking and added even more fresh gas because I was thinking about the cost of the fuel already in the tank.... ran it some more..... and it ran better so I got a couple weeks of little runs here and there.... engine started running hotter and losing power and smoking out of the valve covers.... it was cooking the oil...... Eventually my brain started working again and I realized that my stubborn cheap side had just varnished my valve stems and cylinders and started sticking the valves.... that engine is still sitting in the corner of my shop waiting on a rebuild....

 

[lckstckn2smknbrls]

Re: 6 month old fuel

Do a heavy application of star-tron. You should be fine.