Fuel Stabilizer for Small Motors.

Since we have been on the subject of mothballing and maintaining small engines. I decided that now was a good time to talk about fuel stabilizers.  Yesterday I started a mothballed motor that had been in storage for several years without any major problems.  However, I am sure that somewhere somebody is having a problem with their motor and old fuels.

If you use fuel stabilizers in your stored fuels on a routine basis, you will greatly reduce your changes of a problem.  What has happened to me in the past is that I buy some fuel with the intentions of using it right away.  But it gets partly used and the rest is forgotten.  So now, I use fuel stabilizers all the time.

I have been noticing that with the new gas it seems to be more of a problem than in the past.  My old policy was to rotate the gasoline every 6 months unless I added a fuel stabilizer like Sta Bil or PRI-G.  Now I add a stabilizer to all fuels

Be aware that both Sta Bil and PRI-G have a shelf life of their own and cannot be kept indefinitely. PRI-G claims an indefinite shelf life in new sealed containers, but this drops to three years once opened.

Sta Bil is a bit different.  Their website states the following.  “The shelf life of all STA-BIL® brand products is 2 years after the bottle has been opened, provided it has been tightly capped and stored in a cool, dry place.  If the product has not yet been opened, you should use the color of the fluid as an indicator. If the product is still bright red, it is fine to use.  If the product has turned to a very dark red (or brown) color, we recommend purchasing a new bottle.  It will not harm anything if you use an old bottle of STA-BIL® brand, it just may not be as effective”.

PRI-G unlike Sta Bil will restore old gasoline.  The company claims it has worked on gasoline as old as 13 years.  I normally use PRI-G for gasoline and PRI-D for diesel.

I have converted my Honda Generators to operate on tri fuel, gasoline, propane and natural gas.  This is an easy conversion to make.  Here is a link to a post on Tri Fuel Generator Conversions.

If you are running propane, it eliminates most of the problems of mothballing small engines.

Howard

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