Wednesday or Thursday I'll have to put all my power equipment up until probably late March. Normally I run everything at least once a month year round but do to surgery work and winter I doubt that will happen this time. Anything I should do different to the two cycle stuff. Normally I just run them till they die from no fuel and call it good but that's only for a month or so of none use
I've always been lucky with access to 91 octane e-free gas plus Red Armor has stabilizers in it as well so the only time I can think of having fuel problems was when I loaned out a pressure washer to someone I thought was a friend. Took months to get it back and by that time the fuel had gone bad. Who knows what kind of crap he had in it.
That's what we do. Run them up to operating temp., drain the fuel tank, start them and let them run until they run out of fuel, crack the bar oil tank so there's no pressure. Put them up.
Pulled out my MS460 yesterday and after doing some cleaning it fired up on the second pull. I was a little over a year since last used and was drained of fuel.
I would dump any tanks that already have months old fuel in them. Otherwise 6 months shouldn't be a biggie so long as they don't sit anywhere that gets real hot.
I'm wary of hot environments for fuel these days. Referencing a friend's dirtbike that spent a few days in an enclosed trailer sitting in the sun after coming home from a race. Unknown what exact temps were reached but the gas in the bike was cooked to the point that the bike wouldn't run. A 2T engine. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't witnessed it. I'm sure they'll be fine. Good luck with the yucky stuff!
Had the bike run on that exact fuel previously? I seen a customers 3 wheeler years back that had a new tank of fuel from the local chain store/fuel station (usually good fuel) and it would not start when cold on this gas...it looked fine, smelled fine, but would not continue to burn once a flame source was removed from it. His machine was kept on the back of his pickup (local game warden) so no extreme temps.
The toy hauler turned into a 'oven'. Yep, it'd been raced on the same tank of fuel. I'm sure you're familiar with stale gas and varnish smell...this was different. The fuel had a rotten/acidic type of smell. I'm guessing it was an oxidization thing.
Yup, sounds like the volatiles "boiled" away...liquid gas doesn't burn, it's the fumes/volatiles that does... so I'd say you are exactly right.
Just an FYI for those that don’t like to drain/run dry or cannot for some reason, red stabil tested the best in fuel quality preservation and corrosion protection on Project Farm.
I don’t really run things dry anymore. I think the engine quits with some gas still in the carb, easier for that gas to evaporate and leave deposits. My technique is a 50/50 mix of 91 non-ethanol and 100LL aviation fuel, mixed with oil for the 2-strokes. I may go 100% aviation fuel in mowers & such. Added to that I rotate as able. I have 4 chainsaws, rotate around so none sit over 6 months or so. Of course things like mowers sit for the winter. I recently used a mower I bought new in 1996, never had engine or carb work done.
This is correct for a regular float carb. There will be gas left in the bowl even when the engine dies from lack of fuel. Maybe the fuel level in the bowl is so low that it won't gunk up the jets but maybe not, some jets are at the bottom. Anyway, on my generators I drain the carbs using the bowl drains after the lack of fuel starves the engine.
And, the smaller the quantity, the quicker it turns to sludge...which can kinda rehydrate when you use the machine next time...ends up gunking everything up anyways.
I've never had a fuel related issue, ever. I used to never use any kind of fuel stabilizer either. I just used E0 fuel and turned the fuel valve off and ran till it quit. If no valve, I did nothing. Chainsaws I used to always store with whatever fuel was in there when I was done with them. A couple years ago I started to treat all my small engine fuel with PRI-G. About that time I started to dump the fuel out on all my chainsaws before being stored for summer (get put sway in March or so and don't come out till around November). Still haven't had an issue. I think the biggest reason for this is simply not using E10 fuel.
