question for old fuels

garycorbett · #1 02-13-2009, 08:08 PM

when i lay my boat up for the summer here in florida - i am up north for May-Dec - i think i will drain all the gas - 30 gal - instead of filling the tanks and treating with stabil - in case i don't get down next winter. Tanks are aluminum. I find that the old gas don't run good in my motor so i end up syphoning it off and burning it in my ford 460 motor anyway.

reelapeelin · #2 02-13-2009, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by garycorbett

when i lay my boat up for the summer here in florida - i am up north for May-Dec - i think i will drain all the gas - 30 gal - instead of filling the tanks and treating with stabil - in case i don't get down next winter. Tanks are aluminum. I find that the old gas don't run good in my motor so i end up syphoning it off and burning it in my ford 460 motor anyway.

My only concern is from what I've HEARD (as opposed to what I've experienced) and that's condensation building up inside an empty tank...FL can be a HUMID environment and ya might be openin' up a bigger can of worms than fillin' it and addin' Stabil...

chumbucket · #3 02-13-2009, 08:50 PM

Whew! I thought the title of this thread was; question for old fools. I hate being put on the spot.

garycorbett · #4 02-13-2009, 11:26 PM

a bit of a pun

cfelton · #5 02-14-2009, 08:07 PM

Ive got 2 twenty gallon saddle tanks and I keep them almost full and add Stabil. I occasionally run mine and add new fuel during the cold months. Havent had any trouble yet! I do change my spin on gas filter a couple a times a year.

Steplift 72' · #6 02-15-2009, 05:02 PM

One point folks miss is that summer gas ain't winter gas. In the winter more lighter hydrocarbons are added to allow the motor to fire off on a cold day.

My 2 cents is to keep fuel tanks full with fuel stabilizer. I always added the old OMC 2+4 and never had problems.....except trying to run winter gas through the anti-siphon valve. In the south refiners start to add butane in November, when a vacuum is pulled by the fuel pump, it often vapor locks. I had a Grady White that would vapor lock on the main tank and the aux tank ran fine. Finally I took the spring and ball out of the anti-siphon valve, no more problems.