To Stabil or not to Stabil?

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Ethanol or not ethanol, gas can still evaporate over time and solids can be all that is left. I'm not trying to tell you what to do; you know you’re driving and toys storage habits and should act accordingly.

Clarification: As I said gasoline (not white gas - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_gas) can evaporate over time and it does leave a residue. If it has an oil mix as in 2-stroke fuel the mess can be worse. It has been my experience that no two cars seem to be the same when it comes to carburation and some cars can sit for long periods of time and be just fine while others seem to have troubles sitting even during short periods of time. I have a pair of Dels that one fouls on a regular basis and the other one can sit for long periods of time.

Some carburetors’ used to have foam floats which I am not sure if the manufactures still do this or not; ethanol is going to be hard on them for any length of time. Brass floats have been known to fill over long periods of time also. I don't know for sure but I think gasket materials have improved over time so I wonder if ethanol (I know, you said you don't run it) is going to be hard one them as it is everywhere else; racing fuels are pretty caustic too I think.

Like I said, you should know your machine and how often it sits and if it has any idiosyncrasy or not but I don't think it is wrong to put Stabile in just in case your toy sits longer than expected.

Lee

[turboblue]

Hmm, now I'm not sure what to do. I have added stabil to tank and turned off valve, then ran carbs dry. The gas I buy has no ethanol

Where do you live?

[mlrailguy]

Moses Lake WA

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Cool in the winter, warm in the summer and dry when compared to the other side of the hill; high desert country.

Hi neighbor!

[mlrailguy]

No, it's cold in the winter and frikken hot in the summer. But, yes, pretty much dry. Where you from? I remember seeing your posts on dune-buggy all the time.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Just north of Seattle; near Lynnwood. We used to cross over the pass and ride in Moses Lake and Vantage but not for about 10 years now. From out place the distance to Moses Lake and to Sand Lake in OR are about the same distance and time. I have heard that there is another place somewhere down by the Tri-cities and maybe by Walla Walla ("the city so nice they named it twice").

There is/was an auto museum in ML, did it shut down recently?

Then Todd started to lose interest/it got too much for him, I was one of the first who couldn't log in. I could read but not post. That was about a year before the rest of the people started having those problems. Leatherneck invited me over here just before I started having troubles with Bugg_Talk. it is a good place to be, I'm glad you found it.

In the US, Minot North Dakota gets mind numbing cold and Death Valley gets freakin' hot, all the rest are cool and warm.

Lee

[mlrailguy]

Yes, there are some trails and a couple hills, just north of the Tri-cities, but more suited for quads and bikes. Haven't heard of anything near Walla Walla.
There was a museum here, but the owner passed away, and everything has been sold off.
Our dunes here, aren't big, but they are in our backyard. The summer months, when reservoirs are opened up, we can play on the mud flats. That is a blast.
I still think Oregon dunes are most fun.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I have some good memories from ML, a lot of fun and it is the only place I have been stuck on the entrance to a dune. I was going to climb one very steep dune and the front cage jammed on the hill and the rear cage jammed on the flat and the wheels were off the ground with the paddles throwing sand probably 20' in the air. I shut the engine off and a second or two later the sand came raining down on the canvas top on my buggy. I had one of the young girls in the group with me (I could only safely take one at a time) and I thought she was hurt as it sounded like she was gagging quietly and was flopping around trying to get her breath. It turned out she was laughing so hard she was in pain. It took the four of us to lift the buggy up high enough to get it off the transition and back on the flat. I never tried that spot again.

That was about the time the farmers took back part of the dune area as the ash from Mt St. Helens turned out to enrich the soil and made growing crops so good.

Lee

[turboblue]

Hmm, now I'm not sure what to do. I have added stabil to tank and turned off valve, then ran carbs dry. The gas I buy has no ethanol

You are a lucky dog.
http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=WA

All the gas in Indiana has ethanol except some marinas and some racing fuel.
Living in the corn belt is grand I tell ya............

[Dubfreak1]

I always had topped the tank off with a gascan after shutting the car off for the last time to get it as full as possible and never had any trouble until the ethanol went to 10%. After learning the lesson the hard way, I use ethanol free gas and use Stabil in the Bugs and am back to no trouble. In more modern stuff that gets stored for the winter, I use Stabil with the ethanol blended gas and it seems OK also.

It would be really interesting to drain everything and see what would happen after a long storage period. One of the things that ethanol ruined was the carb on my 35 year old snowblower. I replaced it with one from a lawn mower engine that had been sitting 20yrs but had never seen ethanol and it worked fine. I just started using a Dellorto this summer that had been sitting on a shelf in a plastic bag since 1998 and it has not given any trouble. It had never seen ethanol either.

Its too late for this year, but my plan for next year to drain all of the gas, replace with ethanol free gas, run it to "flush" the system and then drain the remainder including blowing out the lines and then see how it goes the following spring.