In all seriousness, I've got 32,000 miles on my 2004 Mach1. I used Sta-bil one winter after moving from southern California to the Rockies.

Over the next eight winters, I kept the car in a garage heated to 40F and started it up every two weeks. I let it idle for 20-25 minutes and after the thermostat opens, I rev it to 2,000 rpm for about 90 seconds and then to 3,500 rpm for about a minute. This seems to get all the condensation out of the exhaust.

No Sta-bil and no problems.

Additionally, this morning I filled up my lawn mower with last season's gas, poured some left over premix into my weed whacker and poured a gallon of last year's gas into my lawn tractor. No problems.


Lastly, I believe canned tunes aren't really optimized. I had my Mach 1 dyno-tuned on 91 octane with a C&L intake and an SLP Loudmouth cat back. Two friends with IDENTICAL CARS AND MODS had theirs dyno'd at the same time. The base lines showed one car slightly lean and the other two slightly rich. Theoretically, this is impossible.

Take you car out for a Saturday run once a month, burn through a tank of gas and don't worry about it. If you insist on worrying, buy your gasoline at the highest volume dealer to get the freshest gasoline (Costco?) and if you're not going to drive much, fill with 93 and run a 91 octane tune.

Unless your mileage is racked up 1/4 mile at a time, I seriously doubt your seat-of-the-pants butt meter will be able to tell any difference anyway.

More importantly, buy a major brand top tier gasoline. The difference is in the additive package and quality gasoline does really keep your fuel system clean. Chevron Techron (known as Techrolene in Chevron gasoline) was actually approved by Bosch as an additive years ago for their fuel injectors, pumps, etc.

Run a bottle of Techron through your tank once a year.

 

Sonic Mustang, I understand your frustration with one of the other folks posting here but you don't need to bash the OP. You do the right think offering sound advice with technical basis to back that up but then give yourself a black eye being an a**hole to someone that has a... "different opinion".

Let it slide.

 

Oh, Jesus! Please reread was Esch wrote in response to my "The OP is the real trouble maker" post:


See the smile face? How about what I posted after? Do you really believe I was bashing Esch?

If you read carefully, Weatherwhatever bashed me, I bashed back, nobody died and then poked some fun at the OP.

He got it, you didn't.

I didn't get upset about anybody's different opinion. The information about gasoline shelf life I posted was very clearly limited in scope, explained and sourced. Somebody chose not to read it carefully and bashed me for things I never wrote. He went on to prove I was wrong about points I never made.

He started out by calling my post the biggest pile of crap and me a friggen internet idiot only because he couldn't figure out my post did not contain my opinions, but information I tracked down from the best available sources.

My biggest mistake was assuming that everybody reading this thread has eighth grade reading skills.

 

Adding Stabil for winter storage is a complete waste of money unless your winters are 13 months long.

That is your opinion. It's wrong, but it is your opinion.

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


This is also your opinion based on conversations with industry contacts. Guess what happens to an engineer that doesn't toe the company's line?

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.


The GM engineer called 1 year old gas "stale". GM is so concerned about 1 year old gas, that they command the engine to start running to burn it off. We are not even talking about some guy running a tune on the edge. The volt engine has a extremely safe tune with excellent knock protection.


P.S.: There's no apostrophe in aromatics, ignoramus. In my experience, failure to distinguish plurals from possessives is the threshold of stupidity.

Maybe I should believe him 'cause his Mustang has Hurst and 5.0 badges on the rear and he's got ricer taillights. He just may know his stuff!


When people resort to personal insults and bashing your car, they know the point they are supporting sucks.

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.


Here you have a legitimate claim on my failure to read. When I see mach 1 and winter, I think this. So, I guess I can't blame you for not knowing that sleds have had oil injection for probably 40+ years. Since snowmobilers do know how fast gas degrades, and the expensive repairs that follow if you are not extremely careful, you get a pass. Post no stabil on a sled website and you would be laughed off the site.

Every fall I worked at a powersport store, we drained 100's of gallons of spunky gas out of sleds where the owner did not stabilize it. You take the gas cap off and you can smell it. Those owners were at least smart enough to bring the sled in to have their carbs cleaned BEFORE the snow flew. We took care of the other guys who didn't after, but they spent alot more money.



My biggest mistake was assuming that everybody reading this thread has eighth grade reading skills.

No, your biggest mistake is not realizing guys from all over the country read this forum. Guys that live where it is warm most of the year simply don't have the same concerns as a northern tier guy.

You seem a decent enough person, and I can come on strong, but for reasons I have already stated, not stabilizing gas could cost someone some big bucks.

If I had a dollar for every time I heard a guy tell me it was running great just before it locked up....

I wonder how many guys have had a tune on the edge and popped because of marginal gas?

Stabil is cheap, motors are not.

And if anyone is curious, I use seafoam, not stabil.

 

I once saw these two mentally handicapped homeless gentlemen get into a fight over a half eaten sandwich they pulled from a dumpster. It made more sense than this, as there was a half eaten dumpster sandwich at stake.

 

Blown motor from bad advice is worth a little more than a sandwich.

 

I apologize. It's easy to read "Mach 1" in a post on MustangForums.com and confuse this:



with this:

 

[QUOTE=Sonic Mustang;8220299]Weatherman read "Mach 1" in a post on MustangForums.com and misinterpreted.


Yes, I DID tell you that. Since we were talking storage and I brought up sleds first. I thought your Mach 1 reference was to a sled you owned. My bad and fairly admitted. It doesn't change anything about your position or mine on stabilizer usage.

It is ironic that as I dug a little on the web on who uses stabil, I found more guys down south complaining about intense heat, than guys up north storing over the winter. Makes sense I guess...heat evaporates gas faster.

 

You have to admit thinking Mach 1 sled instead of Mach 1 Mustang on a Mustang forum is pretty damn funny.

 

I'm from MN! 6 months summer, 6 months winter.

I sold powersports for 10 years. You haven't lived until you and the service manager tell a customer his $8,000 dollar 1 year old sled with a seized engine is not covered under warranty. The reason being that he failed to stabil his gas and his pilot jets got gummed. He then ripped across the lake at -10F and lean burned that bitch down. Most guys that have carb sleds stabil AND clean the carbs in the fall before the snow flies.

Fuel injection doesn't have near the issues carbs do with gumming. But the gumming was just the indicator that the fuel had degraded. So not only was the carb not feeding enough gas, it was of degraded quality. I used to keep pistons with detonation and seize marks on them on my desk. I would use them to drive home the importance of the customer taking care of their fuel.

Anyway, long winded way of saying that holding onto all available octane while storing over the winter is always a good idea.

No ill will to you, I'm probably sensitive to this issue because I got raked over the coals by unhappy customers and that concentrates the mind somewhat.