british-cars
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Old Gasoline

To: Daniel J. Dasaro <djd@aurora.arc.nasa.gov>, british-cars@encore.com
Subject: Re: Old Gasoline
From: garnett@theory.TN.CORNELL.EDU (Roger Garnett)
Date: Wed, 30 Jan 1991 08:50:03 EST
On Jan 29,  6:43pm, Daniel J. Dasaro wrote:
} I want to drain the 4 yr old stuff in my car before I start it up
} with those clean carbs I recently rebuilt.  I have about 5 gals.

I didn't used to worry too much about old petrol, but I think modern 
blends don't stand up as well to sitting around. In the past, I've
run 2-3 year old fuel with no real problems. This spring, when
I got an engine into my sprite, I fired it up and ran it on the 2 year
old stuff in the tank. This didn't burn as well as desired, and managed to
quickly coat the valves with a layer of varnish. (I pulled the head back
off shortly thereafter for other reasons, and cleaned everything up.)

I drained the tank, and ran the old fuel through the lawn tractor, which
wasn't much happier. The float valve stuck in very short time. 

So, if you're starting a car which has been stored for much more than 
a year, think about fresh petrol first.

--R. Garnett, Esq.-- 


<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>