Joseph Meehan wrote:
Dave Morrison wrote:

Walter R. wrote:

What, precisely, is the nature of "stale" gasoline? I use a 2 GL
container for my chainsaw and leaf blower. 2 Gal last about 2 years.
I have never had a problem with stale gas. Is this another urban
myth?
What is it that has deteriorated in stale gasoline. Just curious.

Walter
The Happy Iconoclast www.rationality.net


"Vince" wrote in message
...


How should/could stale gasoline be safely disposed ?





Ain't a myth. My old Ford 1970 F-350 sat for a couple of years, I
started it up and moved the beast one day so I could put a for sale
sign on it. I let it run for about an hour to make sure everything
worked. All ok. Couple of days later a potential buyer showed up and
on startup it made a few loud noises and started to belch smoke out
of one of the exhaust pipes. I lost the sale, anyway I dug into it
and found a couple of bent push rods with the valves stuck. careful
use of a torch, solvent, and a hammer freed them up. I followed up
with fresh gas and top oil and everything returned to normal. The gum
in the old gas stuck the valves.


Or the gummy old oil that had been there all that time. I really don't
believe it was the gas.


Talking to a few old mechanic types I got " yep it'll do that".
Dave



Ok I did not change the oil and the problem did not repeat. The valve
stems were glued in their bores no way oil is going to do that. Varnish
in the gas, gets built up on the stems when you run the engine with
stale gas, hardens when you let the engine cool. next time it is started
it carks. Ever work on a carb that was allowed to dry out? Believe me
there is varnish in that gas.
Dave