Fuel Stabilisers for Vehicle Storage

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Honestly, for only five months of storage, try using nothing at all.
Fill the tank on your way home, put it in the garage, put the batt on a tender and leave it.
I've done this with various cars over the years including my old BMW with no issues.
I've tried fuel stabilizers in the past and they didn't seem to do anything more than stabilize the cash in my wallet at a lower level.
 
I don't understand why people fill the tank before storing a car. My Camry has been sitting for 5 months, it has less than 1/8 of a tank.

I'd park it with 1 gallon of gas in the tank and some stabilizer, then when you start it up in the spring go to the gas station and fill it up. No misfires except for maybe the 1 mile to the gas station.
 
Originally Posted By: fdcg27
Honestly, for only five months of storage, try using nothing at all.
Fill the tank on your way home, put it in the garage, put the batt on a tender and leave it.
I've done this with various cars over the years including my old BMW with no issues.
I've tried fuel stabilizers in the past and they didn't seem to do anything more than stabilize the cash in my wallet at a lower level.


Have tried running no stabiliser in my bike, ran like [censored] when I took it out of storage. Had to drain the tank and fill with fresh gas. Won't do that again. This is a modern fuel injected Vespa.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I don't understand why people fill the tank before storing a car. My Camry has been sitting for 5 months, it has less than 1/8 of a tank.

I'd park it with 1 gallon of gas in the tank and some stabilizer, then when you start it up in the spring go to the gas station and fill it up. No misfires except for maybe the 1 mile to the gas station.


Nick, it is to prevent corrosion of the parts exposed to air and condensation during storage.
 
Did you use enough Sea Foam because its 2 ounces to a gallon. The only thing I stabilize is motorcycles and ATVs and the Stabil was good for a couple months but Sea Foam easy a year + but that's 2-3 ounces a gallon too.
 
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Originally Posted By: Coprolite
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I don't understand why people fill the tank before storing a car. My Camry has been sitting for 5 months, it has less than 1/8 of a tank.

I'd park it with 1 gallon of gas in the tank and some stabilizer, then when you start it up in the spring go to the gas station and fill it up. No misfires except for maybe the 1 mile to the gas station.


Nick, it is to prevent corrosion of the parts exposed to air and condensation during storage.


There should never be air in a modern fuel tank.
 
Originally Posted By: Panzerman
Did you use enough Sea Foam because its 2 ounces to a gallon. The only thing I stabilize is motorcycles and ATVs and the Stabil was good for a couple months but Sea Foam easy a year + but that's 2-3 ounces a gallon too.


Used an entire bottle in a 55L tank.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Coprolite
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I don't understand why people fill the tank before storing a car. My Camry has been sitting for 5 months, it has less than 1/8 of a tank.

I'd park it with 1 gallon of gas in the tank and some stabilizer, then when you start it up in the spring go to the gas station and fill it up. No misfires except for maybe the 1 mile to the gas station.


Nick, it is to prevent corrosion of the parts exposed to air and condensation during storage.


There should never be air in a modern fuel tank.


Last ones I stored besides the lawn equipment were the '66 Corvette and '67 912.

I should probably read up on modern fuel tanks, but I haven't had to worry about any of those. I bet the mechanism to keep air out would be quite interesting...

When there isn't fuel in the tank, what is there? I always thought it would be air. A quick google shows that not all cars have bladder type gas tanks, so how is air prevented in the tank?
 
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The only thing worse than a tank of bad gas is a rusty tank. That is why I park a steel tanked snowblower with a full tank of gas.
 
Originally Posted By: Coprolite


I should probably read up on modern fuel tanks, but I haven't had to worry about any of those. I bet the mechanism to keep air out would be quite interesting...

When there isn't fuel in the tank, what is there? I always thought it would be air. A quick google shows that not all cars have bladder type gas tanks, so how is air prevented in the tank?


Above the fuel will be fuel vapours. Modern tanks are very well sealed from the outside, even a leak the size of a pin hole will trigger the engine light, and when driven, the tank is kept in a vacuum state. The higher volatile elements in the fuel will evaporate to fill the void. When you fill up, there is a small amount of air that enters the tank, but that is quickly pushed through the ORVR valve into the charcoal canister as the fuel level rises.
 
Originally Posted By: mightymousetech
Originally Posted By: Coprolite


I should probably read up on modern fuel tanks, but I haven't had to worry about any of those. I bet the mechanism to keep air out would be quite interesting...

When there isn't fuel in the tank, what is there? I always thought it would be air. A quick google shows that not all cars have bladder type gas tanks, so how is air prevented in the tank?


Above the fuel will be fuel vapours. Modern tanks are very well sealed from the outside, even a leak the size of a pin hole will trigger the engine light, and when driven, the tank is kept in a vacuum state. The higher volatile elements in the fuel will evaporate to fill the void. When you fill up, there is a small amount of air that enters the tank, but that is quickly pushed through the ORVR valve into the charcoal canister as the fuel level rises.


There is air...it just happens to have vapors exceeding the flashable ratio. This is just like exhaling oxygen. Below a certain percentage, the body can't extract any more so it might as well not be there but one can't say that it isn't there.

So, did you store it with a full tank? If so, why?

With my small engine fuels always stabilized, I don't pay attention to fuel level anymore. I also don't have the cars that I would worry about in storage. I do try to rotate vehicles to keep the fuel relatively fresh though.

I simply refer to gaseous state things as air...this reduces confusion with gasoline, but leads people to misunderstand what I was talking about as we can see on this thread...
 
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2oz tcw3 to 5 gallons of gas is what i recommend to everyone @ the storage facility i managed.

Only a few did it, those who did were amazed.

Other people would blindly use stabil in 10x the concentration.

It was somewhat funny and sad. Yet it worked.
 
I run the 2 oz tcw3 to 5 gallons on a regular basis. not just for storage. But when the boats sit for a year straight they fire right up. Same as the generator, pressure washer, and neighbors polaris that he never uses.

When people refer people to you about the ( special stuff ) you put in gas, there's a difference in "Stablizers"
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I don't understand why people fill the tank before storing a car. My Camry has been sitting for 5 months, it has less than 1/8 of a tank.

I'd park it with 1 gallon of gas in the tank and some stabilizer, then when you start it up in the spring go to the gas station and fill it up. No misfires except for maybe the 1 mile to the gas station.


Agreed. Then it is mostly fresh fuel.
 
Originally Posted By: rsylvstr
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
I don't understand why people fill the tank before storing a car. My Camry has been sitting for 5 months, it has less than 1/8 of a tank.

I'd park it with 1 gallon of gas in the tank and some stabilizer, then when you start it up in the spring go to the gas station and fill it up. No misfires except for maybe the 1 mile to the gas station.


Agreed. Then it is mostly fresh fuel.


IIRC the full tank reasoning goes back to when gas tanks were metal vs. plastic used today in many applications. A full tank helps prevent/reduce condensation from forming which can cause problems, especially to a metal tank. A stabilizer is also a good to add to the fuel.
 
There is a very similar topic to this going on right now in the lawnmowers and OPE section of the forum. I gave a long and detailed response about this very topic there.

Talking fuel stabilizers is almost like talking about oil choice or religion. You are going to get very differing opinions and heated responses about it.

Personally I have tried a lot of the popular stabilizers on the market and have had original red Sta-bil and Star Tron fail miserably on me.

Now I use K-100MG or Gumout Multi-System Tune up. For fuel storage, I prefer the K-100 and is available at Canadian Tire for the OP and Napa for those of us in the states.

http://k-100.com/
 
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