Off season engine storage

[Bob Johnson2]

This one is for the northerners in the group, or anyone else who stores their equipment for months at a time I. just had problems with the fuel in my snowblower which cleared up after draining the fuel and cleaning the carb.
I asked around at work and there is no consensus on the matter, this being the only diverse group I belong to I figured I'd throw it out here.
FYI, I shut the gas line petcock and run the carb empty and put stabilizer in the gas on the blower. Smaller tanks I run empty, bigger ones I use stabilizer. The blower is the only one with a shutoff.

[JayStPeter]

I actually do a combination. I add stabilizer to any can of gas I buy during/after September. I do store them with carb float bowls empty. I run them empty to get the fuel out of the inline filter and lines, so that was my vote.
One of my criteria when buying machines is that they have a drain on the carb bowls. I have to admit that I neglect to do anything every few years, so the stabilizer pays off for more than just the storage of the fuel :cool: . Good thing it's cheap enough to overuse.

Jay

[Brian Hale]

I keep the tanks full and start them every few weeks....

Brian :)

[roy knapp]

I have
1 generator
2 lawn mowers
3 blowers (1 is a 5hp)
1 snowblower
1 trimer
1 power washer

I drain the gas and run them all dry at the end of there season of use for storage. I have never had any problems as of yet.

All of the above are stored in a unheated outdoor tool shed.:) I allso use stablizer in the gas all the time.

[David Wilson]

Personally, I like to leave everything full of gas. When putting things away for several months, I add sta-bill to a full fuel tank and run the engine for 5 or 10 min to get the stabilized gas into the carb. Never had any problems since I started doing this. I feel that empty tanks and carb's tend to get moisture in them. Just my $.02 worth.

[Halsey MCCombs]

A shot of gumout in the last tank for season and then fill up and add stabilizer.Halsey

[Jim Dunn]

Generally use premium gas. It's supposed to have a stabilizer already added, according to my 2cycle lawn mower salesman. 200hp Merc motor 2 cycle do nothing, but i keep it full of gas winter and summer. No problems so far!

[JayStPeter]

Personally, I like to leave everything full of gas. When putting things away for several months, I add sta-bill to a full fuel tank and run the engine for 5 or 10 min to get the stabilized gas into the carb. Never had any problems since I started doing this. I feel that empty tanks and carb's tend to get moisture in them. Just my $.02 worth.

It's pretty important to do this if you have a metal gas tank (motorcycles for example). Otherwise it will rust inside.

Back when I had a bunch of beater motorcycles I found keeping carbs empty gave me better results. My race bike would require a carb cleaning every spring unless the carbs were stored empty. "Full tank, empty float bowls" is now my MC storage motto.

That said, some of my lawn equipment engines have survived at least a winter or two full of untreated fuel without a problem ... oops. Others have not done so well (I had my own lawn business for a while). This is one of the reasons I avoid B&S engines now.

Jay

[Steve Clardy]

Run empty. Add a tad of regular engine oil, crank it over some to pull it into carb.

[Bob Johnson2]

Run empty. Add a tad of regular engine oil, crank it over some to pull it into carb.

Steve, do you add the oil to the gas or in the plug opening?

[Steve Clardy]

Steve, do you add the oil to the gas or in the plug opening?

Both. Sorry, should have explained better.:rolleyes: :)

[Glenn Clabo]

Always use stabilizer for all my small engines throughout the season...then run them dry at the end of the season. They have always started without any problem.

[Rob Russell]

For my 2 cycle stuff, I use Stihl oil which has a stabilizer in it. For those I do nothing. My lawn mower is a Toro 2-cycle that runs on the same mix, but it has a fuel shutoff so I run the card dry.

The snowblower has a fuel shutoff. I add Stabil, let it run some and then close the fuel shutoff to run it dry.

[Steven Wilson]

I always run Stabil in my small engines or any motor that might sit for more than a week (like my boat or motorcycle). I always add Stabil to fresh gas, adding Stabil to old gas (older than a month) doesn't provide protection. On the small motors with plastic gas tanks I run the engine until dry, running fogging oil into the carbs prior to the engine stalling from lack of gas. I then pull the plugs and quirt motor oil or fogging oil into the cylinders and then turn the motor over a couple of times. On engines with steel tanks or large tanks (Boat, Motorcycle, John Deer) I fill the tank with fresh gas and Stabil, then fog the motor, and coat the cylinders. Filling the tank reduces the amount of oxidation that can occur. With my boat (it has a 40 gal tank), every other year I will siphon off all the gas in the tank into my truck during the fall before I put the boat up. I then fill the boat gas tank with fresh gas and Stabil. Oh yeah, I usually run Seafoam in the first gas tank of the season on all the motors.

[Kurt Aebi]

I generally do absolutely NOTHING to my gasoline engine equipment. I have not had any problems getting anything started in the spring and it is all stored in an unheated shed. I perform maintenance (change oil, check/replace spark plug, belts, etc) on ALL of my pieces of equipment every year, so maybe that is the trick!

[John Bailey]

I just fill er' up with gas and add stabilizer. They've always worked.

John