does Stabil work?

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Rapid Robert

Rapid Robert

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they say gas can go bad in several months? Does Stabil work & if so how much time does it give you? thank you for your time. RR
 
I have used for several years in my small engines for winter storage. Haven't had any issues with startups the next season so it seems to work well.

Not sure if Seafoam is similar (?)
 
I use it and dump in a 20oz bottle of seafoam, run the car for 20 minutes so it is in all the fuel system. I do this to my cars, motorcycles, RV generators and mowers too, just use a smaller amount of seafoam in the smaller tanks.
 
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I’ve read years ago that this is better. Designed for ethanol fuel. Been using it for 5-6 years with zero issues in all of my small engines and cars that sit. The ratio you use determines the level of protection/ storage time.

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I agree. I use it all the time, except for the daily driver which goes through the gas on a regular basis.Good old fashioned stabil red. Usually labeled stabil storage. This will definitely get you season to season on anything with pump gas..Swingn’
 
This is the only actual test:



Short answer is if it does anything, its not much. This is after 19 months, now, they started it every month. I believe there is an even later one where only the VP non ethanol fuel works.

You're storing your car over the winter, don't worry about it.

As for your lawn equipment, at least make sure the carburator is dry by closing the fuel shut off if it has one and then run it until it dies. Otherwise, drain it and store it dry.

On most a-bodies, the gas is exposed to air all the time, so I would generally say have the least amount left in there for spring as you can and go fill it up right away. If your environment is super damp, not really sure what to say other than its not the best.
 
I have a friend who is a certified ASE master mechanic. He rebuilt the carb.
on my car this past spring, I had used Stabil over the winters. He took the carburetor apart, and he said it was all gummy inside, from the stabilizer chemicals. He said I would be better off using Seafoam, for fuel stabilizer and storage. Also said to use REC fuel (non ethanol) gas... for best results.
Been doing this since the rebuild, and my Duster runs EXCELLENT.
 
Don't know how well any of this works, but this is what your gas can look like if you don't use anything. Thank goodness this tank had a drain plug.

Didn't run for $^#%* in the car, but it burned real well on my huge burn pile.

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I've used it for years, but better yet, I can give you some real world experience on this.

The car I'm currently working on had been in-storage for almost three years, and thankfully the owner put StaBil in the tank when he set-up the car.

I dragged the car home, to my place, a few months back, and one of the things I had to work on was the fuel tank sender. Of course the tank was full, so I couldn't just remove the sender and pickup assembly. When I drained the tank, the gas looked really good, and it didn't smell bad at all, so I saved it.

Been running it in my JD, my chainsaw, and my old '92 F150 all summer, and so far everything has been working just fine.
 
goldduster318 said:
On most a-bodies, the gas is exposed to air all the time, so I would generally say have the least amount left in there for spring as you can and go fill it up right away. If your environment is super damp, not really sure what to say other than it’s not the best.
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This is opposite from what you want, you want the tank full. The more air space in the tank the more condensation forms inside the tank with temperature changes. That puts water in the fuel.

Doesn’t even have to be a super damp area, just temperatures dropping below the dew point. So unless you’ve got a climate controlled garage you’re better off with a full tank.
 
72bluNblu said:
This is opposite from what you want, you want the tank full. The more air space in the tank the more condensation forms inside the tank with temperature changes. That puts water in the fuel.

Doesn’t even have to be a super damp area, just temperatures dropping below the dew point. So unless you’ve got a climate controlled garage you’re better off with a full tank.
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Ethanol absorbs water anyway, do you want 3 gallons of gas with water in it or 18? I have personally done this for 20 years and my dad did the same with his 1983 Mustang 5.0 he had for an additional 10 past that. They'll run in the spring and then you have fresh gas right away because you go right to the gas station after the car warms up. I'd be more worried about the gas spoiling than the water in most places.

My garage is insulated, but not heated - in any case, a car that's driven in salt is like 5' away from it and there's never a problem.

You'll lose a measurable amount of fuel to evaporation in these over the period of time. I honestly wish someone would bust the myth of the whole thing about storing it full. I worked on enough "not working" lawn equipment stored that way to know better. The air is signifigantly drier in the winter when it's below freezing anyway.
 
goldduster318 said:
Ethanol absorbs water anyway, do you want 3 gallons of gas with water in it or 18? I have personally done this for 20 years and my dad did the same with his 1983 Mustang 5.0 he had for an additional 10 past that. They'll run in the spring and then you have fresh gas right away because you go right to the gas station after the car warms up. I'd be more worried about the gas spoiling than the water in most places.

My garage is insulated, but not heated - in any case, a car that's driven in salt is like 5' away from it and there's never a problem.

You'll lose a measurable amount of fuel to evaporation in these over the period of time. I honestly wish someone would bust the myth of the whole thing about storing it full. I worked on enough "not working" lawn equipment stored that way to know better. The air is signifigantly drier in the winter when it's below freezing anyway.
Click to expand...

full tank is much better.
 
Maybe I just have bad luck but I've never had real good luck with Sta-Bil red. Switched to SeaFoam years ago and haven't had a bit of problem.
 
goldduster318 said:
Ethanol absorbs water anyway, do you want 3 gallons of gas with water in it or 18? I have personally done this for 20 years and my dad did the same with his 1983 Mustang 5.0 he had for an additional 10 past that. They'll run in the spring and then you have fresh gas right away because you go right to the gas station after the car warms up. I'd be more worried about the gas spoiling than the water in most places.

My garage is insulated, but not heated - in any case, a car that's driven in salt is like 5' away from it and there's never a problem.

You'll lose a measurable amount of fuel to evaporation in these over the period of time. I honestly wish someone would bust the myth of the whole thing about storing it full. I worked on enough "not working" lawn equipment stored that way to know better. The air is signifigantly drier in the winter when it's below freezing anyway.
Click to expand...

Yes, ethanol does absorb water. But the amount of water it can and will absorb under certain conditions is limited. If you have 15 gallons of air space in your fuel tank, you have 15 gallons of air with moisture in it to condense when the temperature changes. And since it's vented it gets to replenish that moisture after it condenses out and drips into the fuel. The larger the air volume in the tank, the larger the amount of moisture than can be condensed. And the more surface are for condensation to form on. That doesn't just get absorbed, it's enough water to just sit in the bottom of the tank if you leave it long enough.

Yes, you will have fuel evaporate so your tank will not remain 100% full. But back to my first point, the more air in the tank, the more moisture in the tank. Having a full tank of fuel and then having a 1/2" of fuel evaporate off the top leaves a very limited amount of air, and therefore less moisture. Having an empty tank with a couple gallons of fuel in it means it's actually full of moisture and not fuel.

As for the "myth", you can "bust" it yourself. Park your car outside for a couple days with a 1/4 tank of fuel when the temperatures go below the dew point. Take an inspection camera and run it into the tank before it warms up for the day. You will see all the water dripping off the inside top of the tank. Leave it out there for a winter and when you run that camera in you'll see all the condensation AND all the flash rust above the fuel line. Yeah, I've done it, and I've seen plenty of tanks that way with an easily recognizable rust line that corresponded with the fuel level. I'd rather drain a tank of old fuel than replace a scaly fuel tank. Middle of winter isn't actually the worst, fall and spring are the worst because of the large temperature swings.

My cars have pretty much always been parked outside since before I even had a license, so, let's call that almost 30 years now. Car rich and shop poor. Always left the tanks full on anything that was going to sit for awhile, never used Stabile or anything else. So I moved in '21 and during the early part of that process my Duster's wire harness finally quit so it spent the '21/22 winter outside with a burnt up wire harness and a full tank of fuel (because I filled it). It got rained on, snowed on, all of it. It sat for more than 6 months, because again, I had to rewire the whole car and I had to wait until spring to do it, so I couldn't even start the poor girl. Fired right up, ran fine, even with all the crazy stuff that goes in the fuel here in California. Did it run better after I cycled a tank of fuel through it? Of course. But I didn't drain the fuel and start over either, and the tank is still nice and clean inside.

This was my Duster that winter (yes, I cleared all the snow after the picture).
IMG_1453.JPG


So no, condensation is not a smaller problem than fuel destabilizing. At least not in my experience, and yeah, I probably get the most ethanol and other additives of anybody since I'm in California. Always left the tanks full, never used any fuel stabilizer, never really had an issue. If they sit longer than 6 months or so the idle gets a little funky, but that's the worst I've had.

And lawn equipment you just run the tank bone dry, same with the carb. It's better that way than full, but lawn equipment is easy to drain and easy to refill. And there's no long fuel lines to rust, or tanks, or anything else since all that stuff has a plastic tank that goes near direct gravity feed to the carb. Completely different scenario.
 
I buy Seafoam by the gallon now, and run it in everything. I don’t have to stabilize anything, I run it all the time. And no ethanol in my hobby cars, Rec fuel and 110 Turbo Blue are my choice.
 
72bluNblu said:
Yes, ethanol does absorb water. But the amount of water it can and will absorb under certain conditions is limited. If you have 15 gallons of air space in your fuel tank, you have 15 gallons of air with moisture in it to condense when the temperature changes. And since it's vented it gets to replenish that moisture after it condenses out and drips into the fuel. The larger the air volume in the tank, the larger the amount of moisture than can be condensed. And the more surface are for condensation to form on. That doesn't just get absorbed, it's enough water to just sit in the bottom of the tank if you leave it long enough.

Yes, you will have fuel evaporate so your tank will not remain 100% full. But back to my first point, the more air in the tank, the more moisture in the tank. Having a full tank of fuel and then having a 1/2" of fuel evaporate off the top leaves a very limited amount of air, and therefore less moisture. Having an empty tank with a couple gallons of fuel in it means it's actually full of moisture and not fuel.

As for the "myth", you can "bust" it yourself. Park your car outside for a couple days with a 1/4 tank of fuel when the temperatures go below the dew point. Take an inspection camera and run it into the tank before it warms up for the day. You will see all the water dripping off the inside top of the tank. Leave it out there for a winter and when you run that camera in you'll see all the condensation AND all the flash rust above the fuel line. Yeah, I've done it, and I've seen plenty of tanks that way with an easily recognizable rust line that corresponded with the fuel level. I'd rather drain a tank of old fuel than replace a scaly fuel tank. Middle of winter isn't actually the worst, fall and spring are the worst because of the large temperature swings.

My cars have pretty much always been parked outside since before I even had a license, so, let's call that almost 30 years now. Car rich and shop poor. Always left the tanks full on anything that was going to sit for awhile, never used Stabile or anything else. So I moved in '21 and during the early part of that process my Duster's wire harness finally quit so it spent the '21/22 winter outside with a burnt up wire harness and a full tank of fuel (because I filled it). It got rained on, snowed on, all of it. It sat for more than 6 months, because again, I had to rewire the whole car and I had to wait until spring to do it, so I couldn't even start the poor girl. Fired right up, ran fine, even with all the crazy stuff that goes in the fuel here in California. Did it run better after I cycled a tank of fuel through it? Of course. But I didn't drain the fuel and start over either, and the tank is still nice and clean inside.

This was my Duster that winter (yes, I cleared all the snow after the picture).

So no, condensation is not a smaller problem than fuel destabilizing. At least not in my experience, and yeah, I probably get the most ethanol and other additives of anybody since I'm in California. Always left the tanks full, never used any fuel stabilizer, never really had an issue. If they sit longer than 6 months or so the idle gets a little funky, but that's the worst I've had.

And lawn equipment you just run the tank bone dry, same with the carb. It's better that way than full, but lawn equipment is easy to drain and easy to refill. And there's no long fuel lines to rust, or tanks, or anything else since all that stuff has a plastic tank that goes near direct gravity feed to the carb. Completely different scenario.
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See, this is the thing, its way overblown on that, I don't know how many cars are stored outside with snow on them, or how close you are to the ocean, but it's damp here in Michigan a lot of the year, and you have to let it sit a long time to even get enough water in there to matter.

The other thing is that the ethanol molecules that are suspended in the gas will sette to the bottom when they absorb enough water for phase seperation, so the lighter gasoline will continue to rise to the top, and it will continue to contaminate. But you need a lot of water for that. Like I said this gets parked 5' away from a car driven in all weather, all year.

It just got cold here in Michigan, big temp drop, heavy dew on the yard every day for weeks, several days of dripping wet.

Just for your entertainment, I got a picture of the inside of the 53+ year old filler neck (with 30 years in Jacksonville, FL) and the 8 year old spectra tank that's always been stored 1/4 or less full with the endoscope (which doesn't have a great light as you can see). There's basically no rust in the neck and none at all in the tank. Even that sending unit is the original 53 year old one for the car. Car hasn't moved for over a week and the gas is about a month old already. 93 Octane E10.

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Point being: 6 months indoors? Don't worry about it at all. Covers most of us.
 
STA-BIL works well. I keep gas on hand for vehicles and lawn equip. As well as a generator.
I will say container also matters. An open plastic container is worse. Next up is a meral one partially full. The more percentage open to air the more moisture can collect.
A closed metal container of treated fuel is best. I have had properly stored barrels last 5 year's. Might have lasted longer. Race gas was 15 plus year'sold and fine as well.
And not tgst you asked but race gas fixed a lawnmowers carb and cleaned the fuel system, better tgan my favorite, Berrymans B-12
Remember Berrymans has all the vitamins and minerals ya cars need to grow up strong.....
Seafoam works too on messed up carbs and cleaning system's but rather B-12
 
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