My '70 has been sitting for 5 months. The last time I put gas in, I used 93 octane from Racetrac. Should I be concerned about the age of the gas? Should I consider emptying it out, or go ahead and start it up? Thanks. :bowtie:

My experience is gas these days goes bad pretty quick if untreated with something like stabil. Just get rid of it and put some fresh gas in.

Your profile says Arlington, TX. That means hot weather and shorter gas life. Up here in the frozen North, it is safe to store gas or a car with gas in the tank all winter, and even much longer because of the low temperatures. I've used 1 year old racing gas in my Camaro with no noticable deterioration.
I've used two year old gas from the pumps in my snowblower and it still works like new, but remember that this gas was stored at low temperatures for half of its life and hot temperatures the other half. Gas does not seem to ever deteriorate once the temperature drops down to 32 degrees.

thats interesting

I always use gas stablizer for when its not in use, gas is too expensive to have it go bad. I put it in all of my small engines also, let them run for 10 to 15 minutes so its in the system and i have no problems months later when starting it up. It also keeps the varnish from screwing up your carbs.

Unbolt your fuel line just before the carb. use a small glass jar and crank the motor till you get some gas in the jar. If it's bad you'll be able to smell it and see the discoloration. IIf it smells like normal gas then you're good to go. I would top it off with some fresh though.

Thanks for the input. Since my car hasn't been started from last October to now, I'm thinking maybe the gas will not be too impacted by higher temperatures, as we've had a cooler than normal winter in north Tx, typically 40's-60's. Plus, the car is garaged.

The idea about removing the fuel line before the carb to check and smell the gas seems to be relatively easy and worthwhile. If the gas is bad, what color should I expect the gas to be? darker? So, if it smells like gas, its probably ok to start it up? Thanks for the help.

If it's bad it will be a little cloudy. Kinda hard to go by the color. The main thing is how it smells. When gas starts to varnish it has a funky smell that you will not mistake for good gas. If it smells like normal gas your good to go. I wrenched on snowmobiles for about 5 years and used to see varnished gas all the time. I think the oil in the two stroke gas makes it turn bad easier. Varnish raises all kinds of hell in a two stroke engine, mainly in the carb. Plugs pilot valves resulting in a lean condition. Lean two stroke motor tends to burn holes in the top of the pistons. And by the way stabil brand fuel stabilizer works wonders. Hard to describe the smell, kind of a sweet sour smell. If it's varnished you'll know.

If it's bad it will be a little cloudy. Kinda hard to go by the color. The main thing is how it smells. When gas starts to varnish it has a funky smell that you will not mistake for good gas. If it smells like normal gas your good to go. I wrenched on snowmobiles for about 5 years and used to see varnished gas all the time. I think the oil in the two stroke gas makes it turn bad easier. Varnish raises all kinds of hell in a two stroke engine, mainly in the carb. Plugs pilot valves resulting in a lean condition. Lean two stroke motor tends to burn holes in the top of the pistons. And by the way stabil brand fuel stabilizer works wonders. Hard to describe the smell, kind of a sweet sour smell. If it's varnished you'll know.

Oh boy, I know that smell well. It smells nothing like gas and smells like something you'd use in your house on the wood work. Thanks for the info. Never really thought about the smell being what tips you off. Usually any gas more than 4 months old or so I use to burn brush.

I used to work on lots of sleds, I know that holing the piston routine all too well too.

I aam in Arlington also your gas should still be good fire it up, be carefull with the blend they use it Texas there is very littl;e smell and it is a little cloudy

I park my boat every October and get it out every May or June and have never had a problem. I rebuild the carb about every five years or so, and I have never noticed any varnish build up or any other problems from gas sitting in the carb.

This may not be the thing to do, but my guess is with the chemical package refineries put in gas, products like stabil are not as necassary as the manufactures would have you believe. If there are any chemical engineers out there working for the pertroleum industries it would be interesting to hear what they have to say.

I use Stabil religiously. Maybe it's our IN gas, but if you let a vehicle sit all winter without it you will be tearing the carb down, every spring. My bike has 4 carbs on it, a big pain in the d*ck cleaning and syncing 4 carbs.

I use Stabil religiously. Maybe it's our IN gas, but if you let a vehicle sit all winter without it you will be tearing the carb down, every spring. My bike has 4 carbs on it, a big pain in the d*ck cleaning and syncing 4 carbs.

Stabil maybe a great product, and maybe I should use it, but I have never used it when storing my boat and I have never had to tear the carb down, and have been storing my boat with out it every year since the late '80s. As I stated above when I do rebuild my carb it doesn't look any different then any other carb, in a daily drivin car, that I have worked on.

I know out east it won't last very long before it starts going bad.

I just poured out 3 years of varnished fuel from my xploder fuel tank when I changed the fuel pump.

Talk about NASTY in there....dang.....:screwup:

Stabil maybe a great product, and maybe I should use it, but I have never used it when storing my boat and I have never had to tear the carb down, and have been storing my boat with out it every year since the late '80s. As I stated above when I do rebuild my carb it doesn't look any different then any other carb, in a daily drivin car, that I have worked on.

Just goes to show you we ain't getting the same gas. Yours is better it seems. If I let anything sit for more than 2-3 months there is a layer of gummy varnish on everything the gas touches. Just like if you painted it on. This stuff gums up the works and comes loose and blocks the jets and crap. Doesn't happen with the Stabil. It saves me a whole lot of headaches.

Just goes to show you we ain't getting the same gas. Yours is better it seems. If I let anything sit for more than 2-3 months there is a layer of gummy varnish on everything the gas touches. Just like if you painted it on. This stuff gums up the works and comes loose and blocks the jets and crap. Doesn't happen with the Stabil. It saves me a whole lot of headaches.

I may start using Stabil can't hurt right and sometimes I park my boat with about 40 gallons in it. Maybe I have just been lucky so far.

My arctic cat dealer says to use sea foam instead of sta bil. I havent had any troubles useing it.

Never tried the Seafoam, but heard good things about it.

I have forgot the Stabil before and not had to immediately tear the carbs down in spring, but seemed like before the season was out I had to. So, as big a pita it is to clean and adj carbs, it seems like 50 cents worth of Stabil or Seafoam is cheap insurance. Same thing with Gumout fuel injector cleaner, every 3 mos all my motor vehicles get a bottle.