Fuel and "Guest Test"

[Al 6]

Hi, Winter is coming and we see a lot of fuel problems, so I thought I would write this. Fuel for Summer is formulated so the volatilize won’t evaporate so fast in the warm weather. Winter gas is formulated to evaporate very well in cold weather. When summer gas is used in the Winter, it doesn’t vaporize very well. When small quantities of fuel set for more than a couple of months the good is gone, especially in a can that is ½ or less fuel which has a high surface area exposed compared to the volume of fuel in the container. Fuel stabilizers work by creating a barrier on the surface of the fuel to reduce evaporation of the volatilize. Putting fuel stabilizer in aged fuel is like locking the barn after the horse is gone. Since fuel formulation is changed throughout the year, with the major changes spring and fall putting mower gas in a snowblower can be a problem as can putting snowblower gas in a mower in the Summer. Since this problem is probably the major one we deal with, particularly with snowblowers I just thought I would toss it out. Hope this saves someone some grief. Al To avoid the "Guest" problem as I don't type all that fast let alone think very fast. I did this in Micro soft Word and just copied it in. Seems to work

[Kent 435]

Al - Very valuable information. Thanks a lot for the fuel comment.

[Al 6]

Very nicely worded Al. Lets try to keep our horses in the corral ready and waiting so that they're there when we need em! Speaking of stabilizers - we switched from Stabil to B&S brand but I have been disappointed a few times when it really didn't work. We use it in all our gas all year round. Do you have any "brand" opinion or experience you can share?

[Al 6]

Thanks Jeff, Don't have a pet brand, but usually use Simplicity. if I put it in, "like" the measuring bottle. Have used some Sta-bil. Tecumseh has some in a packet like Coffee creamer. They gave us samples at service school the last 2 yrs. Mine are still laying in my desk drawer. Smart huh? Have you ever tried it? Anybody else have any experience good or bad with stabilizers? Thanks Al

[Guest]

I always seemed to have trouble when things sat too long then when I needed them they gave me problems. Used a stabilizer last winter for the first time and it seemed to help. Put my boat with a 135 Mariner 6 cyl in this spring and it amaized me by starting with no trouble. Chain saw sat most of the winter and summer, had to use it last week and it started on the 2nd pull, same thing with a push mower I didn't use for more than a year. From now on if I don't use a stabilizer I will run all the gas outat the end of the season. If you don't, all is not in vain! You will learn how to disable a carb and clean it. I've gotten pretty good at it:) Jim H (guest test)