How long does petrol last?

[Viirin]

I've got 5 litres of petrol in a jerry tank in my shed just in case i run out one day and need some as back up - just wondering does it go off? - reading all those posts about bad petrol in the tank after being stored for the winter is making me worry - is something to do with the tank or being exposed to air and is there any way to test if your petrol has gone bad?

My jerry tank is a small, plastic, air tight one.

Thanks

Vii

[blaine]

Put some STA-BIL fuel stabilizer in your can of fuel and it will be fine for up to 12 months. :roll: :)

[Viirin]

Cool man thanks - so 12 months is pretty much it's limit with stabilizer? Think mines been in there about 14 and without any - haha, ah well guess it's gotta go

[blaine]

Cool man thanks - so 12 months is pretty much it's limit with stabilizer? Think mines been in there about 14 and without any - haha, ah well guess it's gotta go


Yea,It's history.Get some fresh gas and stabilizer and your good to go.
http://www.postimage.org/templates/images/smiley/sporty/46.gif (http://www.postimage.org/)

[alantf]

Cool man thanks - so 12 months is pretty much it's limit with stabilizer? Think mines been in there about 14 and without any - haha, ah well guess it's gotta go

Don't waste it! Have you got a car? If so, when you've used up 5 litres of a full tank, add this canful. Should be o.k. mixed with the 30 to 40 litres already in the tank. :2tup:

[dhgeyer]

Viirin,

Do you have alcohol in your gas in Ireland? If not, I wouldn't worry about it too much, and I certainly wouldn't throw it away. The danger of leaving it in the bike is more that if it gums up, then it gums up the fuel system. Sitting in a can it's not hurting the bike. If it looks OK and pours OK then it probably is OK. Possibly it's lost some of its potency, but that's no reason to throw it out. Back before I knew better, I left untreated gas in all our power equipment for long periods of disuse, and never had a problem. That was before the days of gasahol though. Alan's suggestion of using it in a car, or even a little at a time mixed with fresh gas in your bike or whatever else you have is good, too.

Dave

[alantf]

If I remember right, you've got around €7 ($10?) worth of petrol in that can! :cry:

[Viirin]

Yeah i got a car - though i can seldom afford to fill the tank completely thanks to petrol prices and thats one of the reasons i got the bike

€7 euro is about right - figured i'd fill up just before the budget hiked the prices again so i think it was €1.15/1.20 per litre at the time - now it's nearly €1.50!

I think the EU brought in a 5% ethanol mixture in petrol now and are looking to increase it but i'm not 100% sure - say it'll be alright in cars but i doubt it'll do the GZ any favours

I'll mix it in with the car so - i didn't want to waste it - even though it wasn't a lot - ha, i'm so cheap

[blaine]

I think the EU brought in a 5% ethanol mixture in petrol now and are looking to increase it but i'm not 100% sure - say it'll be alright in cars but i doubt it'll do the GZ any favours

I'll mix it in with the car so - i didn't want to waste it - even though it wasn't a lot - ha, i'm so cheap

Your right,Put in your car a little at a time.I meant It was "Toast" for your bike.
:2tup: :rawk:

[Easy Rider]

Your right,Put in your car a little at a time.I meant It was "Toast" for your bike.
:2tup: :rawk:

:plus1:

You might want to consider getting a syphon pump as an emergency backup instead of the spare can. Never goes "bad" and all you need is another gas powered vehicle to tap from.

[alantf]

I think the EU brought in a 5% ethanol mixture in petrol now and are looking to increase it but i'm not 100% sure

I sincerely hope not! Nobody's mentioned it over here, so I hope they haven't slipped it in without telling anybody. :cry:

[Viirin]

Yeah thats a good idea Easy - i'll hardly be walking back to where i ran out of fuel the next day anyway and i don't have something that i can put the GZ in the back of to bring to a petrol station

[bonehead]

Old gas will smell like varnish.

[Easy Rider]

Old gas will smell like varnish.

VERY old gas......
It is of questionable value LONG before it gets that bad.

[dhgeyer]

There was a guy on another forum that was so cheap, every time he did an oil change he'd save the oil and put it in his gas tank a little at a time with each fill up, and burn it till it was gone. And no, we're not talking about a 2 cycle engine here. Guy claimed he never had a problem. The oil probably didn't have much energy, but it must have had some.

I'm not suggesting this, and have never done it myself.

[Viirin]

Ha that sounds like FAR more trouble than it's worth

[Easy Rider]

I'm not suggesting this, and have never done it myself.

That's what I do with any left-over 2-cycle mix I have in the spring; mix it with my lawn mower gas......but that is 50:1 before the second mix. It's good upper cylinder lube.

[Water Warrior 2]

There was a guy on another forum that was so cheap, every time he did an oil change he'd save the oil and put it in his gas tank a little at a time with each fill up, and burn it till it was gone. And no, we're not talking about a 2 cycle engine here. Guy claimed he never had a problem. The oil probably didn't have much energy, but it must have had some.

I'm not suggesting this, and have never done it myself.
I would like to know how often he had a plugged fuel filter. Dirty contaminated oil has got to be a really bad idea.

[alantf]

That's what I do with any left-over 2-cycle mix I have in the spring; mix it with my lawn mower gas.....

A good upper cylinder lubricant? I've got an unopened tube (around toothpaste tube size) of 2 stroke oil that I used to carry on my two stroke bike a few years back, for emergencies. Do you reckon it'll do the gz engine some good? If so, what quantity to a tankful. In England, mamy, many, years ago they used to have dispensers of upper cylinder lubricant at the pumps, & you put in one "shot" per gallon. As I understood it, you were just putting back what the petrol refining took out. But, if 2 stroke oil does the job, & is in any way useful, I'll give it a try. :2tup:

[dhgeyer]

There was a guy on another forum that was so cheap, every time he did an oil change he'd save the oil and put it in his gas tank a little at a time with each fill up, and burn it till it was gone. And no, we're not talking about a 2 cycle engine here. Guy claimed he never had a problem. The oil probably didn't have much energy, but it must have had some.

I'm not suggesting this, and have never done it myself.
I would like to know how often he had a plugged fuel filter. Dirty contaminated oil has got to be a really bad idea.

You'd be surprised how many bikes don't even have fuel filters. Anyway, as I said, the guy claimed he didn't have any trouble from the practice. Thinking about it, any bike I've had with a multi plate wet clutch has had some small metal particles from normal clutch wear in the used oil. Probably wouldn't do much for carburetor jets or injector nozzles. I don't plan on taking this practice up myself.

[Easy Rider]

A good upper cylinder lubricant?

Yes. As long as the oil isn't more than a couple of years old.
2-stroke oil doesn't have many "additives" in it so it lasts a long time.
About 1 ounce in a whole tank would be about right, I think.

[dentheman]

What will this oil/gas mixture lubricate that isn't already being sufficiently lubed by the bike's oil system?

[Water Warrior 2]

What will this oil/gas mixture lubricate that isn't already being sufficiently lubed by the bike's oil system?
The inside of the gas tank and carb come to mind. Really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. The bike is well enough designed to lube what needs to be lubed.

[Easy Rider]

What will this oil/gas mixture lubricate that isn't already being sufficiently lubed by the bike's oil system?

Well, if you are going to be practical about the whole matter.......and throw around qualifiers like "sufficiently"........... :biggrin:

The answer is: Probably nothing. The standard answer from those who advocate doing such a thing is: The valve seats, upper valve guides and the top piston ring. I doubt that any of those things really NEEDS any additional lubrication......unless maybe you are trying to get something like 3 million miles without a rebuild !! :roll:

[dentheman]

So I surmise that adding an ounce of 2 cycle oil to a full tank gas on a GZ won't hurt anything and might be beneficial in the long run. But I also think that adding oil to gas on something like a TU250 would damage the catalytic converter/ oxygen sensor. Perhaps the fuel injector too.

[Easy Rider]

So I surmise that adding an ounce of 2 cycle oil to a full tank gas on a GZ won't hurt anything and might be beneficial in the long run. But I also think that adding oil to gas on something like a TU250 would damage the catalytic converter/ oxygen sensor.

Yes and yes.
Possible in the first case and very likely in the second.

Something like MMO (Marvel Mystery Oil) is actually intended for that purpose.....but I personally would not use anything like that in a modern FI vehicle; too big a risk for such a small and unmeasureable benefit.

[dentheman]

Cool man thanks - so 12 months is pretty much it's limit with stabilizer? Think mines been in there about 14 and without any - haha, ah well guess it's gotta go

Don't waste it! Have you got a car? If so, when you've used up 5 litres of a full tank, add this canful. Should be o.k. mixed with the 30 to 40 litres already in the tank. :2tup:
I would be leary of putting that old gas in my car. Once gas has sat that long in a can there will probably be crud on the bottom of the can. Thats my experience with a gas can used for my lawn mower.

[alantf]

Once gas has sat that long in a can there will probably be crud on the bottom of the can.

If he's talking 5 litres, then I imagine he's talking about the plastic cans used in England/Ireland, & specific for storing fuel. black for deisel, red for leaded petrol, green for unleaded. They are specifically designed for fuel storage, & don't rust/shed gunge like the old metal cans. :)

[dentheman]

Once gas has sat that long in a can there will probably be crud on the bottom of the can.

If he's talking 5 litres, then I imagine he's talking about the plastic cans used in England/Ireland, & specific for storing fuel. black for deisel, red for leaded petrol, green for unleaded. They are specifically designed for fuel storage, & don't rust/shed gunge like the old metal cans. :)
Mine is a red plastic can designed for gas, it still gets crud on the bottom.

[alantf]

Mine is a red plastic can designed for gas, it still gets crud on the bottom.

Dunno, but this seems to suggest that there was crud in the petrol before you put it in the can, & it sank to the bottom over time. :??:

[Viirin]

woops - i bought a red one - should have been green

[alantf]

woops - i bought a red one - should have been green

Not a problem :) The colour's only so that you know what's in the can. If you've only got one can, then YOU know what's in it. :2tup:

[Easy Rider]

woops - i bought a red one - should have been green

Do they actually still sell leaded gas in western Europe ??

[Viirin]

nah - well not at my local petrol stations anyway

[alantf]

Do they actually still sell leaded gas in western Europe ??

They did over here, until a few months back. A big percentage of the cars on the road are up to 30 years old. As it's a small island, the mileage doesn't mount up, like in America, & the mild climate means they don't rot - so there's a big call for leaded fuel. I don't think many of the locals know that they could get their old vehicles adapted to take unleaded. Now they have to get an additive in a can to turn unleaded into leaded. :)

[Easy Rider]

I don't think many of the locals know that they could get their old vehicles adapted to take unleaded.

At condiderable cost......'cause you have to replace the valves and seats. Better to just RUN it until it blows up, I think, which would likely be a LONG time.

OR.... over to another thread: Enter MMO or other "upper cylinder" lubes.
The valves/seats is really all that suffers significantly without the lead to lubricate them.