Does gasoline lose octane over time? (Tune related)
05-23-2013, 07:01 PM
#11
5th Gear Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: New Orleans
Posts: 4,491
FWIW. My dad has worked in a gasoline refinery for 30+ years. He NEVER uses fuel from stations with ethanol and the only time is uses fuel stabilizer is for 2 stroke (mixed) fuel. He has a '66 fairlane that only gets fueled up roughly twice a year.
05-24-2013, 09:32 PM
#14
1st Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: MN
Posts: 117
Gasoline does not lose octane over time. It degrades.
That said, every single tier one gasoline supplier in the United States has a minimum one year storage life for gasoline.
Adding Stabil for winter storage is a complete waste of money unless your winters are 13 months long. Using one tank of gasoline per month doesn't require anything but filling up once a month.
The Chevy Volt has a battery pack that's charged overnight and a gasoline engine that acts as a generator if you drive further than the small battery's range (about 40 miles). If you drive less than 40 miles a day and recharge every night, the gasoline engine will never turn on. Drive over 40 miles, the engine kicks in and generates electricity for the electric motor powering the drive wheels.
Chevrolet has programmed the Volt's computer to deal with the possibilty of stale gas. If you drive only on the electric charge, the gas engine will never turn on and you eventually wind up with nine gallons of goo.
Several Volt owners have reported driving over a year without using any gasoline and the Volt's computer turns on the gas engine around thirteen months (there are variables) after the last fill up to burn the gasoline before it goes stale.
No additives required with brand name fuels. Yes, I've personally spoken with specialists at Conoco-Phillips and Chevron and have a Conoco-Phillips White Paper to verfy this
That said, every single tier one gasoline supplier in the United States has a minimum one year storage life for gasoline.
Adding Stabil for winter storage is a complete waste of money unless your winters are 13 months long. Using one tank of gasoline per month doesn't require anything but filling up once a month.
The Chevy Volt has a battery pack that's charged overnight and a gasoline engine that acts as a generator if you drive further than the small battery's range (about 40 miles). If you drive less than 40 miles a day and recharge every night, the gasoline engine will never turn on. Drive over 40 miles, the engine kicks in and generates electricity for the electric motor powering the drive wheels.
Chevrolet has programmed the Volt's computer to deal with the possibilty of stale gas. If you drive only on the electric charge, the gas engine will never turn on and you eventually wind up with nine gallons of goo.
Several Volt owners have reported driving over a year without using any gasoline and the Volt's computer turns on the gas engine around thirteen months (there are variables) after the last fill up to burn the gasoline before it goes stale.
No additives required with brand name fuels. Yes, I've personally spoken with specialists at Conoco-Phillips and Chevron and have a Conoco-Phillips White Paper to verfy this
Any gas exposed to oxygen degrades. Anyone who has a small engine and stores it over the winter knows what happens if you don't stabil your gas. You either clean the carb in the sping yourself, or pay someone to clean it.
Anyone who owns a 2 stroke sled and doesn't stabilize the gas when they put it away knows what they will do when the snow falls...they will be reringing a seized engine.
Volt fuel tanks are pressurized to slow down fuel degradation.
Frigging internet idiot.
05-24-2013, 11:01 PM
#15
Banned
Join Date: Feb 2013
Location: USA
Posts: 545
This is the biggest pile of crap I have ever read. When gas degrades, it loses octane, as the finer aromatic's evaporate, it loses octane.
Any gas exposed to oxygen degrades. Anyone who has a small engine and stores it over the winter knows what happens if you don't stabil your gas. You either clean the carb in the sping yourself, or pay someone to clean it.
Anyone who owns a 2 stroke sled and doesn't stabilize the gas when they put it away knows what they will do when the snow falls...they will be reringing a seized engine.
Volt fuel tanks are pressurized to slow down fuel degradation.
Frigging internet idiot.
Any gas exposed to oxygen degrades. Anyone who has a small engine and stores it over the winter knows what happens if you don't stabil your gas. You either clean the carb in the sping yourself, or pay someone to clean it.
Anyone who owns a 2 stroke sled and doesn't stabilize the gas when they put it away knows what they will do when the snow falls...they will be reringing a seized engine.
Volt fuel tanks are pressurized to slow down fuel degradation.
Frigging internet idiot.
I wrote gasoline doesn't degrade for 12 months. Within that period, it doesn't lose octane because it hasn't degraded yet.
Since Mustangs have four cycle engines, I really don't care what happens to your two stroke when you feed it old **** gas mixed with God knows what.
I've stored premixed gasoline for six month for the past 10 years and I've stored my Mach 1 over 8 winters without using any fuel stabilizer. And, the gas had ethanol in it. I routinely use premixed gasoline from the previous fall the following spring with zero problems.
I got my information by phone from the person in charge of gasoline fuels at Conoco Phillips and I have a white paper from them documenting 12 month shelf lives for all of their gasoline products. I also contacted Chevron and spoke with an engineer who confirmed a 12 month shelf life. That's twelve months and it's still within industry specifications for octane and quality.
Of course that 12 month shelf life presumes you're not mixing six month old off brand gasoline for your two stroke.
Anyone who read my post can contact a major gasoline supplier and verify what I wrote. Essentially, my post is foot-noted.
But, what do the guys who refine the damn gasoline know?
I hope you take you day job more seriously that the out-gassing you've done here. I'd hate to be a pilot depending on your anecdotal weather forecasts.
Yes, Volt fuel tanks are pressurized. Not because gasoline degrades significantly within 12 months, but Chevrolet cannot guarantee that somebody won't pour 8 month old gas into a Volt with programming to burn gasoline after 12-13 months.
You pompous little *****.
P.S.: There's no apostrophe in aromatics, ignoramus. In my experience, failure to distinguish plurals from possessives is the threshold of stupidity.
Last edited by Sonic Mustang; 05-25-2013 at 09:16 AM.
05-25-2013, 07:10 AM
#18
1st Gear Member
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: MN
Posts: 117
Dear Internet Expert,
I wrote gasoline doesn't degrade for 12 months. Within that period, it doesn't lose octane because it hasn't degraded yet.
Since Mustangs have four cycle engines, I really don't care what happens to your two stroke when you feed it old **** gas mixed with God knows what.
I've stored premixed gasoline for six month for the past 10 years and I've store my Mach 1 over 8 winters without using any fuel stabilizer. And, the gas had ethanol in it. I routinely use premixed gasoline from the previous fall the following spring with zero problems.
I got my information by phone from the person in charge of gasoline fuels at Conoco Phillips and I have a white paper from them documenting 12 month shelf lives for all of their gasoline products. I also contacted Chevron and spoke with an engineer who confirmed a 12 month shelf life. That's twelve months and it's still within industry specifications for octane and quality.
Of course that 12 month shelf life presumes you're not mixing six month old off brand gasoline for your two stroke.
Anyone who read my post can contact a major gasoline supplier and verify what I wrote. Essentially, my post is foot-noted.
But, what do the guys who refine the damn gasoline know?
I hope you take you day job more seriously that the out-gassing you've done here. I'd hate to be a pilot depending on your anecdotal weather forecasts.
Yes, Volt fuel tanks are pressurized. Not because gasoline degrades significantly within 12 months, but Chevrolet cannot guarantee that somebody won't pour 8 month old gas into a Volt with programming to burn gasoline after 12-13 months.
You pompous little *****.
P.S.: There's no apostrophe in aromatics, ignoramus. In my experience, failure to distinguish plurals from possessives is the threshold of stupidity.
I wrote gasoline doesn't degrade for 12 months. Within that period, it doesn't lose octane because it hasn't degraded yet.
Since Mustangs have four cycle engines, I really don't care what happens to your two stroke when you feed it old **** gas mixed with God knows what.
I've stored premixed gasoline for six month for the past 10 years and I've store my Mach 1 over 8 winters without using any fuel stabilizer. And, the gas had ethanol in it. I routinely use premixed gasoline from the previous fall the following spring with zero problems.
I got my information by phone from the person in charge of gasoline fuels at Conoco Phillips and I have a white paper from them documenting 12 month shelf lives for all of their gasoline products. I also contacted Chevron and spoke with an engineer who confirmed a 12 month shelf life. That's twelve months and it's still within industry specifications for octane and quality.
Of course that 12 month shelf life presumes you're not mixing six month old off brand gasoline for your two stroke.
Anyone who read my post can contact a major gasoline supplier and verify what I wrote. Essentially, my post is foot-noted.
But, what do the guys who refine the damn gasoline know?
I hope you take you day job more seriously that the out-gassing you've done here. I'd hate to be a pilot depending on your anecdotal weather forecasts.
Yes, Volt fuel tanks are pressurized. Not because gasoline degrades significantly within 12 months, but Chevrolet cannot guarantee that somebody won't pour 8 month old gas into a Volt with programming to burn gasoline after 12-13 months.
You pompous little *****.
P.S.: There's no apostrophe in aromatics, ignoramus. In my experience, failure to distinguish plurals from possessives is the threshold of stupidity.
The reason sleds are a good canary is that they are notoriously octane sensitive. The countless sleds that came into the shop I worked at who pumped what they thought was fresh gas and then promply burned down, is countless.
That none of the pilot jets plugged on your mach is nothing short of a miracle. You say you never cleaned the carbs of varnish on your sled? Varnish that forms as gas degrades in your carb.
You pompous little grammar *****.
The reason I take exception to your stabil comment is this.... Guy in a northern tier state pulls into the station in the fall for one last fill of 93. Only that 93 has been sitting awhile and is maybe 92. Parks the car, and in MN this winter, it is 6 months before it drives again. He reads your remark and thinks I am good to go, no stabil for me, only now that gas maybe is 90 or 91. What does a guy do when he hasn't driven for 6 months? He warms the car up and takes a good hard pull on it. The stabiled guy goes on his way. The non-stabiled guy is sitting on the side road with a rod through his stock block wondering what happened.
In a perfect fresh gas world, your advice might be fine. The world is far from perfect, which is why stabil and like products exist and work. You have to remember that guys with no common sense read this stuff.
Last edited by Weather Man; 05-25-2013 at 09:25 AM.
