Drain Fuel Tank Or Not??

[.Paxamus.]

Hey guys,

With the addition of our second child, I have not had my boat out of the garage for around 6 months and I can't remember if I treated the gas. My question is, should I drain my fuel tank or just treat it?

Thanks

[Jig Man]

I'd get a cheap pair of muffs hook them to a water hose, put stabilizer in the fuel and run it for a while. Write it down on a piece of paper and tape it to the motor. Then you'll know.

[Way2slow]

Sablizer after the fact is useless. No way I would run that gas as is. I will not run gas three months old without adding at least twice as much 92/93 octane mixed with it. Six month old gas gets dumped, pumped or siphoned. If there's not much, you can add three or four times what you have with high octane and probably be ok, unless it's a DFI motor, then DON'T USE IT" .

However, I just feel (even with the cost of gas today), it's not worth the problems it can create trying to run it. If you have an older vehicle, add a couple gallons of it to each tank full until it's gone.

[.Paxamus.]

I think that I will probably end up siphoning the tank, then add fresh gas and stabilizer

[Sfritr]

Sablizer after the fact is useless. No way I would run that gas as is. I will not run gas three months old without adding at least twice as much 92/93 octane mixed with it. Six month old gas gets dumped, pumped or siphoned. If there's not much, you can add three or four times what you have with high octane and probably be ok, unless it's a DFI motor, then DON'T USE IT" .

However, I just feel (even with the cost of gas today), it's not worth the problems it can create trying to run it. If you have an older vehicle, add a couple gallons of it to each tank full until it's gone.

Dont want to steal the thread but:

Does running higher octane gas in an older motor like a 96 and older make a difference in performance and or carb fouling?

[Way2slow]

With carburated motors, the only time a higher octane helps anything is when you have gas that has been in the tank for a couple of months. Gas looses octane very quickly, especially on these hot summer days. When you have a 1/4 tank of old gas, adding another 1/4 - 1/2 tank of high octane gas will go a long way in bringing the octane back up to a safe level.

If a motor is rated for 87 octane, running a higher octane can actually be harmful. Higher octane gas burns slower, in a low compression motor, it will not give a full, clean burn. This cause a reduction in power, and increases carbon fouling.

Computer controlled motors run much higher compression than carburated so sometimes they can adjust somewhat for higher octane gas, but even with those, I would not go up more than one grade over the recommended rating. Again though, that's with fresh gas in the tank, you never want to run old gas in one of those because of the fact they run much higher compression and old gas that has lost octane can melt a piston in a heartbeat.

[S Hovanec]

Siphon it out and run it in your truck.

[.Paxamus.]

Update: Tritons have a anti siphoning valve in then tank, you cannnot siphon from the filler cap, you have to disconnect the bulb and go from there.

[Sam]

Siphon the gas in to your five gallon containers for your mowers.

Consider disposing of the gasoline in a safe manner.

Add new gas along with Marine Sta-Bil into your boat's gasoline tank.

Fill the tank to as full as possible.

Hopefully you ran the old gasoline out of your outboard before you stored it. I run the gasoline out of my Mercury everytime I get off the water.

If you have not run the old gasoline out of the motor than try to start it with the new gas and keep figers and toes crossed. Is she fires up and you can run her for a few minutes you are home free.

If she is gumed upped then it is to the repair shop.

Let us know what happens.

[.Paxamus.]

Well I ended up opening the mesh that holds all of the control cables and hoses to the outboard. I then disconnected the fuel bulb and used a hose connected to it to siphon THIRTY gallons of fuel out. Reconnected everything and then made many notes to myself about when I added the Stabil