& dont forget, our gas tanks are vented,, IDK if you drilled a tiny hole in the caps or not,,
Good lookin experiment,, thank you for doing it,

justin_o_guy2 wrote on 02/24/14 at 11:12:12:


I drilled 1/16" holes in the caps, and was careful to store the bottles deep in the woodshed where they would not be subject to any rain or snow blowing directly in on the bottles.  They were however subject to the temperature and humidity swings.

The premium pump fuel had no stabilizer added, and one of the regular pump fuels had Startron added....and it still did a phase seperation and rusted the steel and is working on the aluminum.  The regular pump fuel that I got December 17th has not yet shown any issues.

Dave wrote on 02/24/14 at 13:25:23:


So what is Startron? a stabilizer for winter storage? And does your pump fuels have ethanol?  Just trying to figure if I have to use a stabilizer at all now

So its beginning to look like the fuel additive separated the water from the gas and it settled into the bottom rusting and corroding the metal?

I think I might do a test here, so I can judge how long to keep my hurricane gas without worrying if its breaking down.

I have some Stabil, so I could use it. I also have some seafoam.

Going to start saving a few plastic water bottles.

I'm not really concerned about navgas or aircraft grade, i'll go to the pumps that have 3 separate grades with 3 separate hoses, there is one up the road about 2 miles.

I keep it in approved 5 gallon containers in my 8 x 10 shed out back of the house. Hotter than heck in the summer and cold as it gets is freezing a few weeks during the winter.

Humidity is awful down here and rarely gets below 70% except for in the spring and fall, any other time its 85% or above.

That's why the test for me... we have different climates, so why not do one here?
I've got a few roller bearings, some aluminum pieces, some brass nuts and can get a few rubber o'rings.

Looks like I will slowly have to replace my five containers for the hurricane supply this summer.

Wow, just did a home depot search for a metal 5 gal. $63  !!! holy moly !!

Lowe's  $42.98 !!  

Harbor Freight $39.99.... oh my... guess one at a time eh?

Avgas 100LL will last for a really long time.  A couple of years ago, a derelict airplane at my airport was finally sold.  It had sat in its hangar for about 10 years.  A couple of guys showed up and worked on it for about a week to get it to the place that the FAA would issue what is called a "ferry permit" which allows it to have one flight, only, to a maintenance facility where it can be thoroughly maintained and returned to airworthy status.  These two guys took off with 10 year old Avgas in the tanks - too cheap to de-fuel and buy new gas.
Avgas does still have lead in it - that's why it's so costly, about $6 a gallon.  The stuff has to be hauled in dedicated tanker trucks, and in dedicated river barges, since you can't use the same truck or barge to haul normal auto fuel without a horribly expensive cleaning regimen.
I put Avgas in my bike every winter, and in the spring, it starts right up.  I run the bike a few minutes after I put in the Avgas to get it down into the fuel lines and the carb.

Jerry Eichenberger wrote on 02/25/14 at 13:41:44:


Yep.....me too!  The chainsaws also get a dose of Avgas/oil mix run through them when they are going into storage......then the fuel is dumped out and they idle until the carbs and fuel lines are out of fuel.  They always start right up when I need them and put fresh fuel in.

I would much rather spend some extra time and money on a little Avgas cleansing of the system.....than I would tearing my equipment apart to repair fuel system corrosion issues.