One way is to eyeball it. Oxidized fuel often turns darker over time and may even smell sour. You can check stored gasoline by pouring some into a clear glass container and comparing it side-by-side with known fresh gasoline. If your old sample looks noticeably darker than the fresh gas, you have strong evidence the gas has gone bad.
That depends on a number of factors. For one, it's hard to know how old the gas you just bought actually is. It may be fresh from the refinery, or it may be a month old already by the time you top off your tank. Some gasoline is mixed with better or more oxidation inhibitors than others. It's a good rule of thumb to avoid leaving gas in your tank or a storage container for more than a couple of months. That's if — of course — you can avoid it.
And if You Can't? If you know gas will sit in your tank or a storage container for a couple months, then it's a wise move to buy some fuel system stabilizer and mix it in with the gasoline. Do it before you put the vehicle into long-term storage or before leaving your lawn equipment fuel containers sitting for the winter. The stabilizer helps prevent oxidation, the biggie that can turn gas into garbage that gunks up your system and leads to expensive repair work.
Using fuel system stabilize r for extended storage is preferable to draining the tank and leaving the system dry. This can cause rubber hoses, gaskets and seals to dry-rot and crack, possibly leading to leaks and even a fire. In addition, a dry system can expose the insides of metal fuel lines and your gas tank to air and moisture, which can lead to or accelerate the formation of rust.
Fuel system stabilizer is not a cure-all and it doesn't last forever. It must be mixed with fresh gas before the vehicle is stored, not added to already old gas. It can slow down the oxidation process and keep gas fresh for as long as 12 to 15 months.
If you're going to leave the vehicle parked for longer than that you may want to drain the tank and refill with fresh fuel before returning the vehicle to service. Depending on the product, the stabilizer can increase gasoline shelf life to between one and three years.
The easiest way to assess the condition of gas is to pour a small amount of your stored gas and freshly pumped gas of the same type into two clear glass vessels and do a side-by-side comparison. If you observe separate layers of gas and ethanol in an ethanol-blended gas generally, the gas layer will be darker and positioned above the lighter ethanol layer if the fuel has separated , or if the gas is significantly discolored i.
Contaminated gas should never be used to power equipment or vehicles; it can promote corrosion or leave sludge or varnish deposits a thin, transparent brown or orange film on fuel system components that can irreparably damage them. Dispose of contaminated gasoline at the earliest opportunity because, poor combustibility aside, both the gas and the vapors it emits are still flammable and could cause a fire or explosion if the storage container were to become damaged over time and the gas were to leak into its surroundings.
Old gas is still reusable if combined with fresh gasoline, although the fuel mixture will have lower combustibility, so you might experience engine sputtering or non-starting. To use old gas in gas-powered lawn equipment, fill the fuel tank with one-part fresh gas per one-part old gas. Contact the experts at Hy-per Lube for additional insight into how long gas lasts, and use our store locator to find the store nearest you with our line of high-end, stress-tested lubricants, coolant treatments and fuel system cleaners.
English — Download PDF. Box Holly, MI Canadian Visitors Enter Here. Does Gasoline Go Bad? Posted on: Feb 1 By: admin We get this question all the time on our tech support lines and on Facebook. Does Gasoline Expire? The Dangers of Using Old Gas Old gas does not become contaminated necessarily, but rather loses its combustible properties and volatile compounds.
Learn More About Making Gas Last in Your Vehicle Contact the experts at Hy-per Lube for additional insight into how long gas lasts, and use our store locator to find the store nearest you with our line of high-end, stress-tested lubricants, coolant treatments and fuel system cleaners. All of our Hy-per Lube products are formulated with the newest cutting edge technology available. Selling the car whole also solved the problem of how someone might transport the engine.
After all, when an engine is in a car, it is, in a sense, in its own carrying case. The first step in starting any long-dead car is assessing the condition of the fuel system. All you need to do to perform a gross assessment of the problem is unscrew the filler cap and take a whiff of the tank. If it smells like varnish, the fuel system needs to be drained and cleaned.
I drained the dark-colored, stinky gas out of the tank and into a can for proper disposal, then pulled the pick-up tube out of the tank and looked inside with a flashlight. I removed the fuel level sensor, pulled the tank out of the car, threw an old chain inside, shook the tank around with the chain in it to dislodge at least some of the sediment and rusty scale, rinsed it out, poured that into a can for proper disposal, and let it dry overnight.
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