Fuel for the new season

[scolil]

As the season gets closer, I was wandering through the autoparts store and wondered what things I should be doing to keep my motor running. I have an outboard two stroke. The fuel has been sitting for at least six months.

Should I use an additive? Should I just add premium fuel so I have 50/50 old and new?

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

do you have a tractor or lawn mower? If so, that's the place for the old fuel, not your outboard.

 

[Stu Jackson]

This comes up every year

around this time. Many suggest using it as Don suggests, and for four stroke guys putting it in their cars.

Do a search on "old fuel" and read it all.

I have been using year old fuel for years on our 1990 9.9 HP Evinrude with no problems. Most people call me crazy for that and many other reasons.

 

[pvanv]

Dump the old gas. You can use it in a land-based motor just fine.

In the future, add a good stabilizer, such as K100-mg religiously, in every tank, and it'll be good for a few months. That said, we fully drain all our OB tanks every fall, run the gas through the snow blower, and buy fresh in the spring.

You can even run a little 2-stroke gas through the car no problem. In fact, I ran a full 6 gallons through our old Mitsubishi Mirage, and it seemed to fix a sticky injector. Maybe the TCW-3 was good for it.

 

[Ray T]

Re: This comes up every year

Im with Stu on this one. Over the years Ive had several outboards and always used the old fuel in them with no problems.

 

[bffatcat]

Old fuel

I bought a new Tohatsu 8hp 4 stroke last season. The Dealer told me dont use fuel that is more than a month old.

 

[MoonSailer]

Use it in something. I've used gasoline over a year old. A 2 stroke engine is not too particular. But I have also dumped it in my truck . The advantage of dumping it in a car or truckis that it is diluted a lot and used quickly. we use about a tank a week in our car. Ideally you use most of it towards the end of the season in the boat. No advantage to old fuel..... Stabilizers are just stupid. Just dump it into a vehicle and burn it why the espensive of stabilizers when you can just use it now and buy fresh in the spring???

 

[Jim Kolstoe]

I have learned from unpleasant experience not to use old gas in my 2-stroke outboard. After a winter sitting in the tank, it causes the motor to run poorly if at all. But the problem immediatly clears up by getting rid of the old gas and putting new gas in. Ever since discovering this, I have always poured out any unused gas at the end of the boating season and found other uses for it.
Jim Kolstoe, h23 Kara's Boo

 

[sailingdog]

If you didn't add an additive prior to storing it, adding one now isn't going to help. I wouldn't risk using old fuel that wasn't stabilized in an outboard. That's just asking for trouble, especially since the new E10, ethanol blend fuels have a significantly shorter shelf life than the older MTBE formulations, due to ethanol's hygroscopic tendencies.

 

[sailaway78]

In agreement

I'm in agreement with those who say not to use it. This is particularly true of the newer ethanol fuels our gummint has given us. Their shelf life is not too good. A couple gallons thrown out is cheap compared to a carburetor cleaning or worse.

 

[scolil]

Thanks for the suggestions, I am sorry to beat a dead horse by bringing up such an old topic. The information shared above is greatly appreciated. I have not looked too closely into fuel stabilizers and did not realize that they are supposed to be used when the fuel goes into storage.

Stu, my outboard is a 9.9 Johnson Seahorse. I do not know how old it is, my father in law picked it up off the bottom of a lake ten years ago. He cleaned it up and tuned it. It has started on the second or third pull ever since then.

pvanv, my snow blower runs better on cheese omlets when the wife kicks me out of bed on those cold mornings. Wish I had one of those fancy gas powered ones.

Thanks again for the advice everyone.

 

[higgs]

From now on empty your outboard tank into a gas can and then run the OB until it runs dry. Put stabilizer into the gas can and sleep well until spring.