$800 gas mistake

I feel pretty stupid right about now. As part of my Spring ritual, I drained any old gas from my mower and tractor and cleaned them up and got them running. I was left with about 2.5 gallons of gas that was about 4-5 months old. The general consensus among friends, neighbors and message boards was that this would be fine to burn off in the DD. Since I was on empty anyway, I dumped it in along with 5 gallons of fresh gas just in case. This fuel also had Stabil in it over the winter, so I thought it would be OK.

Well, the Kia made it about a mile before it died. On my way to work no less. Damn. AAA towed at no cost to me, but the repair will set me back about $800. They have to drop the tank and clean out all the lines and injectors. They are reporting separation between the fresh gas and the old gas, and some kind of black contamination as well. Maybe something was in the container that I was unaware of before I emptied the gas in there...I don't know.

I hate shelling out the bucks, but don't have time to deal with it myself. There goes the little bit of Christmas bonus I was saving for something fun. Damn again.

Ouch.

It's not the gas. 4-5 months is not long enough to cause a problem.

Jesus.

I always just put old gas in one of my vehicles. Usually the old, non-DD one.

Actually I am just running the old gas in my tractor, mower, and trimmer so far this season. I should probably mix it with some newer gas.....

Zomby Woof wrote: It's not the gas. 4-5 months is not long enough to cause a problem.

Exactly what I was thinking.

Not sure how they came up with the idea that the old and new gas separate... Even if it was 4-5 YEAR old gas, they would mix, and stay together- unless the old gas is actually a solid.

I once put at least 10 year old gas into a brand new pick up, after I made sure all the rust stayed back. No problems. It was about a gallon into 12 or so.

I'd wager it wasn't the old gas. I burned a whole 2+ year old tank of mystery gas out of some car and it was fine.

It IS important to run it through funnel w/ a strainer on the way into the tank - but the fuel pump generally has a mesh screen over it's pickup plus the car's fuel filter should catch anything.

Any chance there was a lot of water in it?

When my Miata comes out of winter hibernation, it will have nearly 7 month old gas in it.
I have done this same thing for 19 yrs. Never had any issue.

I have successfully burned 12 year old gas through a motor, I don't think the few month old gas was your issue...

motomoron wrote: Any chance there was a lot of water in it?

A new-ish car will still run on E36 M3-tacular gas. Definitely has little, if ANYTHING to do with the gas.

Having said that, Pat Richard had this issue with VP race fuel 109 octane at Olympus one year IIRC. Sounds exactly the same as what they describe, besides the whole race fuel vs pump gas thing.

I just crank mine up using last years gas. Checked the oil, primed the carburetor and it started on the first pull. That's with no Stabil or anything.

Ditto... I have summer and winter beaters which sit for six months of the year. They fire up no problem. Truck once took well over a year to burn through a tank.

I have only seen one car that the gas was so bad it wouldn't start, and the gas was more than 5 years old. A year or two shouldn't matter.

is it possible that there was a good amount of water in the gas can? Water and gas don't mix very well, and I don't think your engine will run on water for all that long...

I always do the opposite... I run old gas through my lawn mower. :) why'd you take it out and put it in your car?

agreed with everyone else. something else going on. 2-3 month old gas is not a problem.

Toyman01 wrote: I just crank mine up using last years gas. Checked the oil, primed the carburetor and it started on the first pull. That's with no Stabil or anything.

Dittos. I never drain E36 M3. And I have a "buy used mower for $50, never change oil or air filter" policy. It's worked way better than buying a new piece of E36 M3.

800 seems very high to just pump out whats in the tank and fuel lines and replace a filter...im thinking some jumper wires to the fuel pump and udoing the fuel lines up front would be easy enough.

I put the 914 away last November, pulled it out last weekend. No stabilizer, no Seafoam, nuttin'. Fired right up and ran like a , well you know.

You might have other problems that just happened at the same time.

Dan

I'm also in the run it through the lawn mower camp, since I can replace that for $200 if it blows itself up.

I've used gasoline of indeterminate age after straining it through a coffee filter and mixing it 25-75 with new gasoline. It worked fine.

Sorry if I wasn't clear, there was clearly SOMETHING else in that jug. I have only one jug that I don't have to use a funnel with, and that was it. I didn't see or filter the contents. DANG DANG DANG!

If I drain the mower, it goes into a big glass jar to see if there is water or any other crap. Let it settle and pour the good gas off the top...

YMMV

I just burned off 6 gallons of gas that came out of a car that has been off the road since 86. Filtered it thru some paper towels to get the chunkies out.

My van sat for over a year with gas in it. We put in a new battery and it started almost instantly and purred like q kitten. Modern EFI is amazingly tolerant.

I'm also in the "not the gas" camp.

Anybody know what happens if you put 50:1 mix in the tank?

In reply to nderwater:

blue smoke

nderwater wrote: Anybody know what happens if you put 50:1 mix in the tank?

It lubes the fuel pump. I always burn left over mix, for the chainsaw, in my trucks.