theiceman

Since every other year i have stored my car with regular Sta-bil and used non ethanol gas I decided to try something new this year since all gas now has ethanol.
( For the record I think Stabil makes zero difference for the short time i store , end of October to beginning of April )
There have even been years I completely forgot to put it in and it started and ran like a champ.

This year I decided on STA-BIL 360 Marine. I only need 2 ounces to protect my 80 litres.

It is specifically designed to prevent corrosion from moisture and ethanol induced water attraction caused by ethanol fuels. ( if you believe the marketing hype) .

Anyway we will see how it goes, figure I may as well try it since i have a steel tank . I realized after it works out cheaper than the other stabil i was using as it was 15 bucks atd treats 303 litres that's about 3 tanks for me or 3 years.

I will fill it up with some Shell 93 and park her.

https://www.canadiantire.ca/en/pdp/s...p.0380915.html

vetfever

Great idea. Thanks for posting 👍

ronnie993tt

I have no idea what the best product is, and at the risk of becoming as boring as the oil option threads, Techron Marine seems to be another good choice. It is favoured by American rennlisters who have been dealing with ethanol for years. 1 oz/ 10 gallons. Yes, I picked mine up in the US.

SToronto

I'm interested as well and haven't put anything away yet. 930 is first. I watched a video that was shared on another thread here, don't recall name (sorry not useful) but he tested various ones and none really did a great job. Sta-Bil was the best IIRC.

theiceman

This is not likely to turn into another oil thread Ronnie, Steve Weiner ( who you might know of ) always recommended the Marine Version of Sta-bil. I think we all have our product of choice, but i think the marine versions are taking the day.

cheers all

steam_mill

I put in regular old stabilizer in my car on weekend.....
And I put stabilizer in the boats which are 2 stroke and carbed.

I think storing a car for 6 months really doesn't need stabilizer. But I do it anyway. I have 5 gerry cans full of gas at the cottage. I usually forget to stabilize them. Run fine. In fact I have a 1/2 gallon gerry can with 2 cycle premix. No stabilizer. That stuff has to be 5 years old. I just add a bit of gas to it and eyeball the oil. Weedwacker/blower/chainsaw always start right up. So, I'm not sure how bad gas actually is that everyone complains about.

In 30 years, I've had to rebuild a boat carb once. I did get a batch of bad gas in the lawn tractor. It had water in it. No stabilizer will fix that and you will not know when you are the pump. Now I have a measuring jar for measuring water content in gas when I have a problem.

theiceman

i feel the same on all counts, its partly piece of mind and partly tradition for me .

RonnyC

How old is the weedwacker/blower/chainsaw?

I have the old Stihl ones such as the 260 chainsaw and no problem with old gas.... the new ones are much more finicky with old gas.

uniquenamehere

I've been using the marine stuff for the past 5 or so years in the 993... no idea if it's actually doing something, but I've had no issues with fuel going bad. For the price of the stuff it's cheap insurance.

steam_mill

Interesting comment. Equipment at the cottage for weedwacker/blower/chainsaw is poulan/weedeater. All the motors are exactly the same. Probably all about 5 to 10 years old. Start right up. Never an issue.

At home, blower and weedwacker are stihl. They get fresh gas, stihl 2 stroke oil. Both are less than 3 years old. Way harder to start than the poulan/weedeater equipment. In fact, I don't think I would buy stihl again.

theiceman

stihl not running..

mcculloch weed whacker, ethanol eats the prime bubble and hose every 10 years or so, still going strong after 25 years.

ronnie993tt

Half a dozen classic (read old) car techs have said they have not seen any damage from ethanol gas and don't recommend any additive. I'm thinking "yet"? And am **** about my cars. So, marine ethanol stabilizer goes in every tankful. Moved up to Petro Can 94 octane from the no corn juice Shell and Cosco 91 and noticed a performance improvement on the Z.

RonnyC

I believe it may be that newer equipment has stringent emission controls... they are much more sensitive to bad/old gas. My chainsaw is 15 years old, leave gas from previous year and it starts up... also, the new product I find builds up the 'gunk' much quicker in the spark arrestor screen which impacts performance... you need to clean it all the time.

IXLR8

Same here. I have never used Stabil in my local vehicles, be it cars or motorcycles that I store during the winter.

BTW and I am sure everybody knows this, add the Stabil at the gas station before filling the gas tank so that it mixes well and by the time you get home, it'll have made it to the injectors or carb. Gas goes bad in small cavities.

Now I always used it on my motorcycle that I keep in Europe where it was parked for 10.5 months every year. And when Covid hit, it was parked for 2 years and 10.5 months and it started as if I drove it yesterday. Of course I am also using Aral 102.

ronnie993tt

I always thought Stabil was pretty much unnecessary for 4 or 5-months storage but cheap so what the heck. Stored my Z without stabilizer for 35 of the 47 years I've owned it with no ill affect. It's ethanol that concerns me now so....