stability of StaBil

Anyone know just how long that gasoline preservative will keep a tank of gas
from going bad (gumming up everything from the filler thru the carbs)? After
finally getting my bike together, it fired up & idled okay (considering how
long it takes to really warm up an old Honda inline 4), but regardless of
amount of choke (or none at all), any attempt at revving it up resulted in a
stall. I finally got it to rev up to about 2-3000, weakly, but it still
wanted to only idle (somewhat slowly) or die when I opened the throttles at
all. I dosed the tank with StaBil back before last winter (and tried to get
some of the mixture to run thru the carbs, reserve setting & all), but
methinks I'm looking at a serious carb cleaning (or, at the very least,
dosing the tank with a healthy jolt of lacquer thinner, my favorite cure for
gummy messes or loss of volatiles...).

 

I run lots of two-strokes that sit for considerable periods
without any kind of fuel stabilizer.

One trick is to just keep running it, if you can stand it,
for a while. Gas has detergent in it that will eventually
clean it up.

Or, get some fuel injector cleaner and put an ounce or two
in the fuel tank. One ounce per gallon is the usual dose for
we hobbyists that fly gas two-stroke engines on our planes.
It too will take a while, but it beats tearing things apart.
It should take considerably less time than running it with
straight gas. Beware that most injector cleaners are methyl
alcohol.

Ed Cregger

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It's a little late to ask this question, but did you drain your carbs? If
you had Stabl in your fuel, you ran the bike enough to get the mixture to
your carbs and then drained the carbs, you shouldn't have gumming issues now
unless they were pre-existing. Empty the tank and put a gallon or two of
fresh gas in it and see if that clears it up.

 

Wouldn't a near empty tank result in rust from condensation?

r

 

What I used to do (prior bike, before I invested in StaBil) was just park it
for the winter, and in the spring add about ½ cup of lacquer thinner to the
tank (to dissolve any crud, kill any water, and add some missing
volatiles) -- always seemed to work. Relying on StaBil doesn't seem to work
as well...
This morning I added more lacquer thinner than that to the tank, shook the
bike to slosh mix it, and walked away. This evening it fired up okay and
revved just fine (once that absurdly cold-blooded engine warmed up a bit). I
know -- there was not enough run time for the mix to get down through the
carbs, so maybe just the tank gas from the prior attempt dissolved stuff.
Whatever, it's working as well as ever now. (Maybe if I rode more and played
in the garage less, I wouldn't have these problems...) Thanks to all for
comments.

 

Small amounts of acetone work well too. I'll have to give laquer thinner a
try.

Ed Cregger

 

What I like about lacquer thinner is that includes acetone, along with
alcohol, toluol, & a couple of other strong organic solvents. It's less
brutal than straight acetone, but also less volatile (it won't evaporate in
the time it takes to close the can) and sorta attacks problems from a
variety of directions. (Read the ingredients label on a can -- some brands
have different formulas than others, but all are a real witches brew.) The
alcohol component will take care of any water in the gasoline. I've never
had it dissolve any fuel system components when mixed into gasoline (that I
could tell), but don't spill any on any real cheap plastic things around the
house... I always keep some around on the basis that if it can't be cured
with denatured alcohol, lacquer thinner will do it. (Spray brake cleaner
comes close to being aerosol lacquer thinner. I tried to fill one of those
do-it-yourself spray cans with it, and all the fittings melted together...)

 

The Berryman's liquid contains a witches brew of stuff like that including
MEK. MEK is some pretty potent stuff. It will remove some paints in a
flash, instantly lifting the paint from the surface. I was duly impressed
the first time I spilled some on a painted surface. It worked quicker than
any paint remover I have ever seen. Granted the paint was likely cheap
spray paint, but it was still pretty amazing. It doesn't work as well with
baked enamel paints.

pierce