Subject: [TR] Problem gas?

From: "Rick" <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 08:38:13 -0700

Peter,

The bubbles you see in the gas are water bubbles. With a lot of water in the
gas, youll see long worms of water (2) often containing debris. This was
a common spring-time problem for me with 3 pieces of British iron as they
are all put to bed in early November and restarted in late May, when I
return to Seattle. Ive adopted the following technique that appears to
avoid the problem: From mid-summer onward I use StaBil (cant tell any
difference between the marine and automotive products) additive in the tanks
and put the car and bikes to bed in the fall with their tanks < filled. When
I return in May, I drain a pint of fuel for each tank into a clear container
and check for water. My Triumph has an electric fuel pump, so I simply
detach the hose at the carburetors and use the pump to fill the container.
My bikes always show clear fuel, but I completely drain them (the discarded
and filtered fuel goes into my pick-up) and refill with fresh fuel. The
Triumph often shows some water (and debris) in the first few pints (larger
tank with a larger liquid surface), then clear. Before using StaBil the
separated ethanol absorbed too much water over the winter, and all vehicles
contained heavily contaminated fuel by spring start-up time.

Rick in Seattle

1960 Triumph TR3A

1970 BSA 441 Victor Special

1975 Norton Commando 850 Mk3

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 01:08:48 +0000 (UTC)

Our local British Car shop is swearing that all of the problems they are experiencing is due to Ethanol.  He told me that he sees the seperation of the gas and ethenol, and that it is different colors  This can happen in a few days (shelf life of E10 is a few weeks while gas is much longer).  He says that it is gummnig up needles, damaging gas pumps and in essense making his and other garages that service our cars misserable.  I am surprised no one else has made this statement when John raised this question.  Is our local shop making way too much of this?

Scott Suhring
Mechanicsburg, PA
'70 TR6
'59 TR3