Holy bad gas Batman!

Hadn’t run the power washer since late October, left some gas in it thinking I would use it up before it went bad .(not sure why, but I take matriculate care of my saws, but the power washer not do much)... well it was well over due time to power wash the crap off the garage floor, so pulled out the power washer. After several pulls, checked plug, some gas in carb, nothing! Pored gas out, little sea foam, more pulles, finally turns over, chock on and off and finally starts up with a big puff of smoke!

Moral of the story, I’ll never underestimate how fast gas can go bad!!

By the way, all premium no ethanol gas is always used.

 

Do you put stabil in your gas at all?

 

Not this time, usually put sea foam in, but I didn’t plan on letting it sit long enough to go bad, so didn’t treat it. I ran the gas out this time just in case!

 

I know how that goes, plan on using it one more time before running it empty and emptying the bowl, that one more time doesn't happen as planned.

 

That's odd to me it went bad so fast, I've used my local eth free pump gas up to 9 months and never had a problem.

 

Me too! Had to of been the gas though. I was getting no pop at all on chock, I even pulled the plug to make sure it wasn’t flooded (put a new plug in October) list count of how many pulls I tried with nothing! As soon as I drained gas and put in new it started to pop, took a lot of pulls and feathering the chock to get her to start, but ran fine and restarted just fine after.

Wonder if my “e free” “premium” had some “e” in it? Also gas was not sealed up wonder if that accelerated the expiration?

 

Leaving gas in an unsealed container will let the light ends that make for easy starting escape. While newer chain saw and gas cans don't leak, older stuff and most of those low horsepower lawn mower and horizontal shaft motors do. Add your Seafoam when you buy your gas, not a month later. Drain the gas out of motors that won't be run for a while, particularly in the summer.

Posted this on the OPE forum a month ago.
Testing for ethanol is easy enough. Take a clear and straight sided jam jar, fill it about a 1/3 full of water, carefully mark the water height, and add about another 1/3 of gasoline. Shake well and let sit for 1/2 hour. If the water - gasoline line is above your mark you've got gasohol. You can get more scientific with a graduated laboratory cylinder, but you really just need a pass - fail for chainsaw use. Esso Supreme is good here, regular is about 5%, but we're pretty far from corn country.

 

I am good for a year plus with 93 octane, ethanol free. I use the premium stihl oil mix, but nothing in my lawn mowers etc and never have issues. Bad gas station or exposed to air?

 

I always add stabilizer when I fill the can. A petroleum engineer told me that it prevents the lighter components from evaporating and oxidizing by forming a "scum" (his word) on the molecules.

 

Sometimes when gas gets old like that it sticks the needle in the carb. Are you sure that it was even getting fuel. Like the needle stuck from the gas varnishing up, the gas in carb evaporated over time and the needle would not allow new fuel into the carb. But when you went jostling it around and dumping the fuel and putting seafoam in (which desolves crud) and you put fresh fuel in the fat actually fell and allowed the needle to open allowing fuel into the carb?


Also I have had regular ethonol gas go bad in about 8 weeks in the summer that sat in a mower under a tarp out in the open one summer. So bad that it stunk like bad gas.

 

I do as well. Seafoam with every refill of the gas can. Whether it's plain gas or a mix. The Mobile in Pell Lake has 93 E-free. That's all I get. Their regular is usually cheaper that the BP in Genoa city if I forget to fillup at the Speedway on 50 and 94 in the morning.

 

Why are you guys worried about e free gas if you're putting seafoam in the tank? Seafoam contains alcohol, it's great as a fuel system cleaner/detergent... but for storage I'd use Stabil.
Btw, I can't find it... but I thought Briggs and Stratton even had a service bulletin on the use of Seafoam. (Btw, I love seafoam as a cleaner).

 

I've never tried seafoam only one I have ever used is stabil. Good to know about Efree in Genoa city, I always go to the mobil in Lyons. My stuff has never been run on alcohol.....but it's been run by an operator that was running on alcohol.

 

I thought it was all naphtha and petroleum distillates

 

Have you done the ethanol test on the fuel you buy?

What I've seen is that in Wisconsin, you really can't buy e free gas unless you really search.

 

I was thinking this thread was about the hours after a meal at Taco Bell.

 

And isopropyl alcohol.

 

Yes it's efree, they are proud of the fact too. I've seen and have spoken to several people testing it. Once I saw a vintage car club from Illinois with a U haul filling a bunch 55 gallon drums. I'm a member of a engine/tractor club and it's the place of choice.

 

Haha, this is stuff I joke about!

 

Could have very well been the problem, when I pulled the plug to check for flooding it was not wet at all. When I pulled the rope with the plug out no fuel came out the hole.