The shelf life of stored fuel

[Zai]

Hi all,

I have been looking in to storing petrol, in particular how long you can store it before it loses it's octane and becomes as useful to a combustionn engine as greek yoghurt.

I have heard a lot of crap on line about how long it can be stored - from a couple of weeks to one guy claiming petrol left in his scrambler bike's tank ignited fine after sixteen years of sitting in a mouldy garage.

I've started doing some experiments, and so far I've stored 20l of petrol in a metal jerry can in my garage and it seems perfectly fine after six weeks.

Does anyone else have any experience with the storage of petrol?

[preppingsu]

Have a read of this

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=2182&p=21770&hilit ... rol#p21770

If you search petrol storage on here there are a few threads about it. Hope that helps.

[Ian]

I have used Wynn's Fuel Stabilizer (with a 'Z') for many years, easy to buy in Halfords or any other fine motoring shop and one bottle treats 50 litres of either petrol or Diesel.

http://www.wynnoil.co.uk/products-wynns ... ilizer.htm

Never had a problem with long term stored fuel after using it, longest stored so far, three and a half years.

[skippy]

Generally speaking in my experiance stored petrol without additives will last about 8-10 months before you start to have problems.
After that engines have starting problems.
With fuel additive a lifespan of 24 months is not unusual.
Storage conditions have an effect as well as time. Airtight containers (metal or plastic) filled to the very top last better than an non airtight one.
Watch out for variation in temperature and condensation in metal cans.
Also remember that there are laws about how much fuel you can store in an urban or domestic setting.

cheers
Skippy

[C4tch]

3 years with no additives and my chopper starts up fine... Granted, it's practically a tractor, but I had no problem kicking it over and enjoying the fine sunshine

C

[the-gnole]

3 years with no additives and my chopper starts up fine... Granted, it's practically a tractor, but I had no problem kicking it over and enjoying the fine sunshine

C

Even without Insurance, Tax and MOT

Does two stroke oil count as an additive? I have started mowers, chainsaws and Strimmers with old 2-stroke fuel, the same as they use in some motorbikes/mopeds/scramblers.

[diamond lil]

C4tch I wouldn't mind a pic of the chop - and what has insurance and road tax to do with fuel storage ?

[C4tch]

C4tch I wouldn't mind a pic of the chop - and what has insurance and road tax to do with fuel storage ?

I would have to work out how to do it

C

[diamond lil]

What engine is it?

[C4tch]

What engine is it?

Its a 1971 Shovel So historic tax and insurance

C