old gas question

VortecJeep

VortecJeep

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Aug 24, 2005
Location
Concord, NC
My generator would not start. I assume the carb is gummed up as I realized that it has not been ran since Helene and was stored with a full tank of non-ethanol gas.

My question: After I clean the carb, can I put an additive in that old gas (about 3 gallons) and it will run? Or do I just need to drain it all out?
If I need to drain it, what would you do with the old gas?
 
No don't use it. Use fresh gas to start it. I left about 20 gallons of bad gas in 4 open buckets under a shed and they have all but totally evaporated in 3-4 weeks. I'm down to about 3' in the bottom of two buckets now.
 
Both of my Gens had been sitting since Helene. Added about a gal. of Ethy free, pulled cover off filter sprayed them out, gave it lil ssht shht of starting fluid, one gen started on second pull, one was about half tank, one was about half tank. let them run an hour each. all is good. let them cool, and they started right up.
 
I would drain the tank, and dump it in a mostly full vehicle, or use it to start a fire. Clean the carb good, or throw a cheap replacement on it. Fill with non-e, and fuel treatment if it is going to sit. I like to drain the tank on them, because I know they will likely sit, and then I run it, with a load, until it cuts off. The load should help pull as much fuel out of the carb as possible.
 
Picture a 1994 era Homelite generator with an 8 horse Briggs that sat for....12 years? Half a tank of regular ethanol gas, but luckily, always left to run with the petcock closed until it starves itself before getting shoved in a corner and forgotten about.

I topped it off with fresh gas and some Mechanic in a Bottle, fired it up, and in 15 minutes it was purring like a baby gorilla. It ran for 8 days after Florence rolled through. I have yet to touch the carburetor. If you had non-ethanol in it, it's probably in better shape than mine was and I wouldn't be scared to do the same thing.

Worst case, you have to clean the carb anyway. Best case, you spend 10 bucks and it's ready to go with no work.

I'm no snake oil guy, but that stuff works!
 
thanks everyone.

Next question:

my newer generator is tri-fuel. For storage purposes, if I have a full tank of non-ethanol gas and add stabilizer, then run it for a few minutes on propane, would that prevent things from gumming up? I’m thinking full tank to prevent condensation.
 
Apparently I can't read. I thought you had ethanol gas in it. If its non-ethanol, it should be ok. With that said, once the carbs start gumming up, they seem to never stop.
 
The propane runs through the air passage on the carb, it doesnt pull fuel through the bowl/jets or other passages that gum up. It uses the vacuum to open the propane diaphragm.
 
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