What is the life of petrol?
Discussion
The petrol will have "gone off" by now but it depends on how much other gunk you have in your tank. The all build up sludge and sometimes it is best to leave it un-disturbed. I have always followed the advice to leave the car at least half full for a period where it will not move for a while and then top it up with the highest octane fuel that I can find (tes co have 100 octaine on some of their forcourts) doing the same a couple more times when the tank gets back to half full. Not sure if this works with a TVR engine but has done me well with MGs and historic Daimlers.
Petrol certainly does go off, but some engines are more sensitive to it than others. It wouldn't surprise me if most car engines would start and run fine on 9 month old petrol or even older. But a small two-stroke (such as my chainsaw) will not - will definitely not - start on three month old petrol.
hurststeve said:
Petrol certainly does go off, but some engines are more sensitive to it than others. It wouldn't surprise me if most car engines would start and run fine on 9 month old petrol or even older. But a small two-stroke (such as my chainsaw) will not - will definitely not - start on three month old petrol.
Thats because its a 2 stroke, and after a while the petrol in the carb evaporates and leaves the oil behind which basically clogs the carb up.Not the same as just "old" petrol.
My taimar starts and drives on 3 year old petrol.............
I had this very conversation with a major gasoline refiner in relation to fuel left in portable fire pumps. The answer was, simply keep the tank FULL because the major cause of degradation is water. Gasoline is hygroscopic; reduce the exposure to air to prolong usefulness. The recommended term before discarding the fuel? Two to three years.
sjwb said:
I had this very conversation with a major gasoline refiner in relation to fuel left in portable fire pumps. The answer was, simply keep the tank FULL because the major cause of degradation is water. Gasoline is hygroscopic; reduce the exposure to air to prolong usefulness. The recommended term before discarding the fuel? Two to three years.
The ethanol content is, not the gasoline element.Oxidisation is the real issue with stale fuel but this takes a long old time to actually be a problem. Keeping the tank full is the best way to slow oxidisation.
Barn finds in the past have been fired up on fuel that is decades old.
B19LAM said:
well over 2 years even longer if its stored right, bizzar that people just drop daft numbers like 2/3 months with no real idea what there taliking about, waht if the lad had taken that as being the correct answer, he would have wasted his time and money pissing around changing his fuel what a bunch of d--ks
Out of order. Make your point politely with good grace.
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