What Fuel Additive should I add my fuel that is over 18 months old ?

Patrick-A51

Patrick-A51

Joined
Sep 15, 2020
Messages
14
Location
San Diego, Ca.
I own a 2019 Jeep Grand Cherokee. It has a 5.7L Hemi Engine, I purchased it to replace my stolen JGC, in October 2019, we put 585 miles on it. My wife doesn’t drive it was bought basically for us to tow it behind our RV. I had a RamTruck with 6.7L IL-6 CTD I got an offer that I could not refuse for it so I sold it. Then the world caved in I got sick ended up in the hospital for an extended period time. My doctor told me yesterday that I can now drive again👍 yippie ! Now should I have my vehicle towed to a mechanic that I know and have him drain the fuel tank or just purchase a good fuel additive and stabilizer?
If I should just get a fuel stabilizer additive which ones do you folks recommend I’m looking forward to driving my vehicle and want to go on a 900 miles round trip. Thank you in advance. Simper Fi 🇺🇸
 
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Hmm. Is there room in the tank for any fresh?
I would first fire it up & idle, nothing added.
Drive around the block. Pour in some fresh, as much as you can to get it near(ish) full.
Operate it on short local trips. Chances are you will have no problems. Newer cars seal up the vapor system pretty tight at rest.
 
If it was me I'd pour a 20oz bottle or or 2x 12 oz or use 2/3 of a 32oz bottle of techron complete fuel system cleaner, and if the gas tank isn't full drive drive to a gas station and fill it up with new gas, then drive as normal. Also should check other things like the tires, oil, fluids, etc before going on the road trip.
 
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Depends on how much fuel is in the tank? If 1/2 tank or less I would fill with premium fuel (I know I know) because the old fuel loses octane as it sits. Then drive it like you stole it.

Get a quote from the mechanic to drain the fuel, inspect the tank and fuel filter.

 
Patrick-A51 said:
If I should just get a fuel stabilizer additive which ones do you folks recommend I’m looking forward to driving my vehicle and want to go on a 900 miles round trip. Thank you in advance. Simper Fi 🇺🇸
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No need to have it towed. Just get yourself some of this, add a good healthy dose, and happily motor on. Then after you burn it all off, top off with fresh.

 
Why would it need something? Drive it around the block for a while and see it there is a problem.
 
The car is so new with so few miles I doubt there is anything to clean and NO bottle of additive will restore gas that has gone bad. I doubt that the fuel is so bad it will damage the engine, the worst you might expect is that it has lost some octane and the best way to restore that is to fill it with Premium gas. If the tank is already full and you want to play it extra safe you could siphon out 10 gal or so into gas cans and add 10 gal of fresh but personally I would start it and drive it gently to see if I heard any pinging and give the computer knock sensors time to adjust the timing. Then refill with premium before climbing any mountains or towing anything.
 
Be VERY CAREFUL trying to siphon gas out of a late model Jeep Grand Cherokee with a capless fuel system. It is very easy to get a siphon hose stuck in the tank. If you do you will play hell trying to get it out. You're better off to just burn it, or else add a healthy dose of Pri-G to it. Then burn it off.
 
samven said:
The car is so new with so few miles I doubt there is anything to clean and NO bottle of additive will restore gas that has gone bad. I doubt that the fuel is so bad it will damage the engine, the worst you might expect is that it has lost some octane and the best way to restore that is to fill it with Premium gas. If the tank is already full and you want to play it extra safe you could siphon out 10 gal or so into gas cans and add 10 gal of fresh but personally I would start it and drive it gently to see if I heard any pinging and give the computer knock sensors time to adjust the timing. Then refill with premium before climbing any mountains or towing anything.
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I started the vehicle last night. Started right up. I'm going to go to Chevron Station and fuel it up, Premium Gasoline since I bought it I have only put Premium gasoline in the vehicle it seemed to run better than it did on Regular gasoline. I can buy a bottle of Chevron Techron complete fuel system cleaner, at the gas station, (there doesn't seem to be a Service Station around like there were in the 50's and 60's) Also before we go on our trip I'm going to take the car to the dealer and get it serviced and checked out.
 
It can actually be hard to drain fuel out of a tank. Aside from the restrictor flap nozzle, I don't think you can snake a siphon down into the filler neck without running into something; i could be wrong, but I've read that...??? Others????
 
Cdn17Sport6MT said:
It can actually be hard to drain fuel out of a tank. Aside from the restrictor flap nozzle, I don't think you can snake a siphon down into the filler neck without running into something; i could be wrong, but I've read that...??? Others????
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Re the above, is there a check valve (non return valve) in the filler neck to prevent fuel spills in a rollover accident?
 
I recently sold a car for my in-laws that had been sitting for 3 years. I put a fresh battery in it and it fired right up and drove fine with the old gas. I would just fill it up with super and drive it. Chances are you won't notice anything when you do.
 
Patrick-A51 said:
I started the vehicle last night. Started right up. I'm going to go to Chevron Station and fuel it up, Premium Gasoline since I bought it I have only put Premium gasoline in the vehicle it seemed to run better than it did on Regular gasoline. I can buy a bottle of Chevron Techron complete fuel system cleaner, at the gas station, (there doesn't seem to be a Service Station around like there were in the 50's and 60's) Also before we go on our trip I'm going to take the car to the dealer and get it serviced and checked out.
Click to expand...
By having premium in it already I dont think you have anything to worry about. That engine specs 87-89 so even if you lost a couple numbers you would still be in good shape. I would be trying to put some more miles on it before you take it out on the road for a long trip. I know most dont buy the break in period any more but I still believe that varying speed and load during the first 1000-1500 miles is a good idea to make sure everything is seated. Running at constant speed on the highway is a very low load on the engine and does not promote a good engine break in.
 
I would fill the tank with fresh fuel and take it for a drive. Run it on the interstate and get it hot, burn off a bunch of fuel, then fill up again. I would not add anything to the tank IMO.

just my $0.02
 
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