Fuel Storage - Winter is coming

[veggie]

I am preparing to store my gasoline driven equipment for the winter.
(Weed Wacker, mower, lawn tractor etc..)
I am wondering if it is better to drain the tanks and run the engine until it quits ?
OR...Add fuel conditioner, fill the tank completely, and run the engine a bit to circulate the conditioned fuel ?

I had a terrible time with my two stroke weed wacker this past spring. The Carb was so clogged/blocked that I threw it away and bought another online for $24.
It now runs great, but I don't want to do that again.

What are some of the storage tricks and tips that you perform for winter ?

veggie

[LowGear]

Hi Veggie,

My name is Casey and I don't do squat for the winter.  Of course there is no winter in Hawaii but in Seattle where I maintain a wood frame 60 year old apartment and very mature grounds I just toss the machine back on the hook while wondering wondering if the stories about methanol gasoline are just hot air or excuses for the same old stuff that has gone on for decades only we now have a villain rather than stuff wears out and needs repair.  Oh, fuel tanks are usually lower than carbs.  I do have some standards.

Casey

[Tom Reed]

I am a great fan of Pri-G for storing fuel. And Red Line 2 cycle oil. Equipment is stored with full tanks. My first el-cheapo weed eater from 1986 still ran fine last year when I gave it away. The only part ever changed on it was the fuel line which had disintegrated. We live rural, heat with wood and have loads of power equipment with small engines all with no issues. Well except for one chain saw I did replace the carb last year, I think it sucked up a piece of fuel line, it would change mixtures as the fuel level in the tank changed. And this is with the worst of the worst California fuels.

[SteveU.]

HI guys
I have Toms too many engines Rural equipment situation in a worse than Caseys wet Seattle climate. Hard learned experence has taught me to seek out and buy "clear" (no-alcohol) marine gasoline for these. Use the RED Stabli-Eze product per spec mixed in for un-in use storage.
And like Tom says Casey mixed fill; run to get the mix all the way through the lines and carburators; now THEN top back up the tank to the upper fill neck before capping. You do not want a fuel tank air space breathing in and out with every up and down temperature change swing. Every time it sucks in new air, in comes more air humidty to later condense out into the fuel.
As you can ditch out of the sweating metal cans and tanks and learn to love the less temperature conducting and corrosion proof plastics. Portable cans keep 'em capped and let them pressure balloon out and cool suck in rather that vent breathing condensing air in and out. I've lost expensive tern plated cans and tanks within years from corrosion pinholing from the air breathing humidity condensate and alcohol's gasolines. Unplated metals can and tanks interiors it is the hard corrosion particles that will NOT dissolve out of carburetor jets. Yep. Left dry the fuel lines and rubbers will dry out and crack. Gasoline wetted is better but with some fuel combo mixes then either rot, soften and swell and delaminate the line inner line liner. Good idea in the all position 2-strokes to Spring fish out and inpect the floating pick up line for deterioration and damage and replace the end of line filter just 'cause. 'Cause cranking until you the one blue swear emmiting will not get it going any better. Experiences from the Great Nor'Wet rain forests.

Sigh. Then there is the too many starting battries winter idle losses - seven to keep track of. Gotta' love the hand crankers! Eight of those.

Regards
Steve Unruhs

[mike90045]

... Hard learned experence has taught me to seek out and buy "clear" (no-alcohol) marine gasoline for these. Use the RED Stabli-Eze product per spec mixed in ..... Steve Unruhs

Wow, I guess a trip to the airport for some aviation gas might be as good.   But I don't need 125 octane.

[Thob]

Well... I vote for the drain and run until dry option.  But mainly because mine won't start on old gas.  I have to go buy new fuel and mix with oil to get it to start next spring, so may as well drain it out run it dry now.

[vdubnut62]

4 Stihl chainsaws, the biggest Stihl backpack blower made and a pro series string trimmer. I just use Stihl synthetic 2 stroke oil and whatever gas I happen to have, I am told the oil has stabilizer in it. Anyway, for the last 25 years I leave the gas in 'em and store them in a heated garage.  I have had no problems.

Now the 4 stroke stuff is a whole 'nother ball game. 2 TroyBilt tillers, 2 Honda 450 4x4 atvs, my Grandads 50 year old Senator tiller, log splitter couple lawnmowers, pressure washers,
3 Jet Skis, etc. (The Skis are 2 stroke, but oil injected, so the carbs get straight gas.)

This stuff had darn well better have the gas turned off and run till it quits. Then choke it and run till the fumes are gone. 
This stuff had darn well better have the gas turned off and run till it quits. Then choke it and run till  the fumes are gone.
This stuff had darn well better have the gas turned off and run till it quits. Then choke it and run till the fumes are gone.
This stuff had darn well better have the gas turned off and run till it quits. Then choke it and run till the fumes are gone.

Get it? Dry. Bone dry.
Or come Spring, you will have a bowl of green rubberlike stuff that laughs at carb cleaner.

Anyway it works for me.
Ron.

[Tom T]

If you run pump gas never leave it empty dry if off road you can leave it dry will be less damage.
Tom  T

[LowGear]

Scary.

Casey

[TimSR2]

Dump all ethanol blended fuel and put in your fuel injected car, or burn it off . Replace with 100% gasoline, pay whatever you have to...  even if it's chevron 104.   Mix up 100 to 1 BIA TCW3 outboard engine oil and fill your 4 stroke equipment tanks full. Park them in a place not subjected to heat/cool cycles. Colder is better.

For your two stroke equipment, same advice. Fill them right up with no ethanol gas, octane no matter, cost no matter, at 50 to 1 mix.

Get out the ethanol, keep them cool and keep the tanks full. Put two stroke oil in everything. Pull the cord in the spring and be happy. 

[mobile_bob]

in these parts,  i tell everyone to drain and run till dry at the end of the season... those that do have no problems next spring... those that don't come visit me

the gas around here has so much ethanol in it that it just eats up all the rubber parts and what it don't eat it
sucks up water and causes all sorts of corrosion problems

yes i suppose stabil and other additives might help, but... most folks never think to go buy the stuff and they won't drive 30 miles to go get it, favoring to just throw it in the garage and forget about it till next time the need it.

seems much easier to just have them drain the fuel, run till dry, than it is to get them to go get some sort of additive to mix in and run.

bob g

[glort]

Hi Veggie,

My name is Casey and I don't do squat for the winter.  Of course there is no winter in Hawaii

Well we certainly have winter here but Likewise, I don't do anything.
Sure you go from mowing the lawn every week or fortnight to every month, but that hardly warrants going to some special storage preparations.

I DO NOT let ethanol blended petrol near anything but my wifes car these days. The pain in the backside problems it causes are not just stories or myths, they are very real.

My neighbour was always having problems with her mower. She could never start the thing from one weekend to the next and every time I'd have to go up drain the carb and sometimes the tank and get it going again.  Next week or 2 same deal.  I thought she was washing the thing and getting water in it or something till one week I got it off her after she finished and did my lawn then kept it here. 2 weeks later, same thing. That was when the blended eco friendly crap first came in then I heard other reports of the same thing happening.

I put it in my Harley and then couldn't get the thing started because it swelled up some vac operated fuel cut off thing and there was no fuel going through.

It's not even any good for blending with veg oil because the useless rubbish boils off 30o before regular petrol does and the lower boiling point creates big vapour lock problems especially in summer.

I do buy the E 85 now and then, mix it with water, float off the petrol and use that for the mower so the ethanol is taken out, then use the water /meth mix for the water injection system on the truck.

Storing dry isn't always the best idea because some things particularly with all position carbs like in brush cutters have membranes for fuel pumps built in and they can dry out and go hard requiring a replacement kit or a new carb.
Best I suggest is ethanol free fuel and fill the tanks and lines.  Shouldn't be any big deal as you wouldn't have them sitting for any more than 3 months at worst.  

[Henry W]

My power equipment is going for nine years.

Shindiawa 2 cycles have been trouble free. I use Echo 2-cycle oil with stabilizer and had no problems. I start them up every couple months and run them until they get hot and shut them down. No carb problems at all.

With four strokes I use 89 octane ethanol free gas and that is all I use. start them up every 2-4 weeks and never had any problems with them.

Henry

[LowGear]

I use the gasoline / ethanol stuff that lets my Kawasaki twin powered mower do all that it was designed to do.  Right now that's Chevron Supreme.  The stuff from the marina wasn't any better than regular from just down the street.  It runs very ruff on that stuff but five minutes of Chevron and I'm ready for the tall grass.  I use the Electrolux (OK it says Husqvarna on the tags but was manufactured at the Electrolux factory in Michigan {somewhere up there?})  as a field mower and it is a pleasure to operate.  Great therapeutic experience.

So I burn Chevron Supreme in everything.

Casey

[Lloyd]

Without reading all that posted, here is MY MO.

If it's a 2 cycle I shut the fuel tank off and run all the fuel out of the carb, if it's going to sit longer then 2 weeks...bc we all know weeks turn into months.

If it's  a gas engine, no matter  2/4 cycle, I turn the tank off and run all the fuel out of the carb, bc we know weeks turn into months, sometimes months into years.

If it's diesel, I start it every month with out fail, and run her under some load until she reaches operating temp.

I run MM in all my 2 cycle  gas engines at 100-1 plus the normal 50/25:1 oil mixture.

If, it's dyno-diesel, I run Stan-Dyne Performance mixture according to the label, and TW3 2 cycle oil at 200:1 right along side.

If I know I cant guarantee starting my diesel at least once a month, then I fog the intake with fogging spray, while ticking over on the starter. This also goes for my gas engines.

Don't store anymore fuel in which you can use      Gas= 3 months, and diesel =6 months.

Lloyd

I am preparing to store my gasoline driven equipment for the winter.
(Weed Wacker, mower, lawn tractor etc..)
I am wondering if it is better to drain the tanks and run the engine until it quits ?
OR...Add fuel conditioner, fill the tank completely, and run the engine a bit to circulate the conditioned fuel ?

I had a terrible time with my two stroke weed wacker this past spring. The Carb was so clogged/blocked that I threw it away and bought another online for $24.
It now runs great, but I don't want to do that again.

What are some of the storage tricks and tips that you perform for winter ?

veggie