Unleaded fuel

[Clive Faulkner]

When I was on 2 wheels and riding highly tuned 600s and the like I used to drain my tank after the winter after a one year old CBR600R refused to start for me and the dealer put it down to stale fuel.

 

Since I've had my Caterham I've worried about this and usually try to fill it in early December and then try to use it a little through the winter and top up when I can.

 

I've just read on PH forum of someone who's started his Caterham after 6 months in storage and it fired first time and settled down immediately.

 

I'm interested to know what experience other owners have had regarding fuelling after a winter lay up?

[Stationary M25 Traveller]

Drive it all year !!!

 

Fuel does go off.

[Drumster]

When I blew up my x/flow in July 2010 I'd only just filled up with Andorra's finest super unleaded at €1.06/litre. I then used the same tank of fuel with no problems to run my new Zetec when I started it for the first time in February 2011.

 

Maybe new fuel doesn't go off as much as the old leaded stuff?

[Roadsport06]

I've read a lot about stale fuel, I've not had an issue with a lay up of 4-5 months. After I've serviced the car I let it run up to temperature to check for leaks and drive it to our Tesco/Esso on the Whitehouse Common road to fill the tank. I'm more concerned with the ethanol content in the fuel.

[Mankee]

I left my car with half a tank's worth of V-power and no engine for about 10 months and it still started fine, ran well and made good power (after I put the engine back in). I thought the fuel would be well past it, but no problems at all. Similarly, I've had 1-year-old V-power stored in jerry cans which has not proved to be problematic either.

[Jonathan Kay]

No problem.

 

(RatRace recommend using petrol with a higher octane rating in my rebuilt but normal compression 1800 K series engine. I forgot to ask why.)

 

Jonathan

[Birkin S3 ZA.]

Yes I have lots of problems with unleaded fuel going off, but only on bikes and cars with carbs.

 

The plastic fuel tanks on bikes are the main culprit it will go off in 3 months, and the same if kept in plastic drums.

 

Never had a problem with fuel injection systems, steel or aluminium tanks keep the fuel fresh and don’t allow it to breathe off its volatile fumes.

 

If your car has carbs I would drain them if it’s going to stand for a few months, if it evaporates it will leave a sticky varnish type substance that is very hard to clean off.

 

Chris

[Birkin S3 ZA.]

Just to add to this, *arrowup*

If you put some fresh fuel on your fingers and blow, it will feel cold and almost disappear as it evaporates.

 

With old fuel it will hardly evaporate and won’t feel as cold, and leave your fingers like they have paraffin on them.

 

Old fuel has a very strange smell to it, and can become very damaging to rubber including O rings and fuel pipes.