Stale Gasoline Disposal

[Tom Bender]

So I have a liter of stale gasoline from the snowblower. What to do with it?

[Charlie Velasquez]

Mif it in with the almost full tank of gas in your truck.

[Kev Williams]

"Mix" it in ;) -- and yes, mixing a little old gas with a bunch of new gas, you'll never notice it...

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Our municipal household hazardous waste drop off will take old gasoline. First and Third Saturday, April through November. It is partly staffed by Juvenile delinquents doing community service. Our local machine shop guy burns it, mixed with used motor oil, to heat his shop.

[ChrisA Edwards]

Mix it in.

[Christopher Herzog]

Be very careful if used in a burn pile of brush. Lots of ER trips spawn from gas on a fire!

[Stan Calow]

put it in your vehicles tank.

[Jack Frederick]

I have a qty of old gas as well and was directed to this device to separate the water from the gas. I can’t attest yet to its effectiveness but I intend to ru nthe gas through the filter and then bit by bit mix it into my truck.

https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Funnel-AF3CB-Fuel-Filter/dp/B000SOIRCG

[Brian Elfert]

I have a qty of old gas as well and was directed to this device to separate the water from the gas. I can’t attest yet to its effectiveness but I intend to ru nthe gas through the filter and then bit by bit mix it into my truck.


That is only going to help if the bad gas has water in it. Gas that has not been treated simply goes bad over time. One local hardware store recommends not using gas in small engines that is over 60 days old.

My parents had a small B&S engine left with gas in the metal tank for over a decade. The gas had turned into a jelly like goo after all that time.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Is it me or is stale gas a bigger problem than it used to be? I try hard to find ethanol free gas for small engines. Sometimes it is too inconvenient. I have started adding STA-BIL to all of my gas cans and run equipment dry for the off season. I occasionally use old gas to clean a paint brush. It is unpleasant and I am stuck with what to do with old gas + paint? I have several old steel paint thinner cans labeled "used". After a year the solids settle out and I decant the sludge and use the old thinner again for a brush cleaning first wash. Still stuck with sludge, I take it to hazardous waste.

[Tom M King]

Jack, Thanks for providing that link. Any small engines I have with a tank, I caught the tanks empty and changed the hose clamp to one that can easily be taken off, and using a long thin funnel can just drain all the gas out at the end of the season.

Fortunately, almost every gas station near the lake sells non-ethanol. I run it in all small equipment, as well as the 35hp motor in the mower, and the Farm Use WRX that doesn't burn much for the little use it gets compared to a road car. I've never had a fuel problem with anything running non-ethanol.

[Stan Calow]

[QUOTE=Maurice Mcmurry;3229138] . . . I try hard to find ethanol free gas for small engines. Sometimes it is too inconvenient. . . .

Maurice, every gas station pump in Kansas City area has ethanol free gas - Premium. It costs more, but I fill up a 2-gal container in the Spring, and then mix up a small container of 40:1 for the chainsaw, and 50:1 for the blower and trimmer. That will get me through half the summer. Anything left, at the end of summer, I use in the snow thrower.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Hi Vee, Phillips 66, Free Air, and Cenex have real premium in Columbia. I should be able to remember that. The convent places only have Regular, Plus, and Extra. 87, 88, 89 or 91 octane. 93 is said to always be ethanol free?

[Tom M King]

We burn more ethanol free in small equipment per week in the growing season than my Wife burns in her car-15 gallons a week at least and that's just for upkeep on our place. I don't buy it from the stations that share a hose with ethanol gas for the non-ethanol. I've been trying to catch a deal on a 50 gallon aluminum tank, but still watching and waiting.

I started a Stihl Brushcutter this afternoon that I know hadn't been run since Fall of 2020. It took about 10 pulls, but after starting that time it idled fine, accelerated fine, and started on the first pull after cutting it off to test. I had drained the gas out, but I don't run all the gas out of anything-especially four strokes, or 4-Mix motors. I don't use additives other than 2-stroke mix.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

I have some logger buddy's and a race car neighbor who have 55 gallon gas drums that they take to the airport to get AvGas. At the end of a racing season a while back the neighbor told me to help myself to the last of his 55. The saw ran so good!

[Tom M King]

A lot of sawyers mix Av gas with the non-ethanol that we get. There is also a station here that sells racing gas because there is a local dirt track. It's just a higher octane than the non-ethanol from the marine pumps. I'm not sure what the mix is for added octane. I remember when Formula 1 limited the amount of Tolulene they were allowed to add to increase the octane.

I don't think saw motors normally have much more compression, but they do run at high rpms.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Well now you have gone and gotten me lonesome for the Yamaha RD 350. 102 octane made it purr like a kitten, then scream like a banshee.

[Frank Pratt]

Well now you have gone and gotten me lonesome for the Yamaha RD 350. 102 octane made it purr like a kitten, then scream like a banshee.

Legendary bikes for sure. I had a TX500 4 stroke that was based on the RD 350 chassis and it was a wonderful ride. Many great memories.

[Tom M King]

I was riding a Kawasaki 500 three cylinder 2-stroke about that time. One of the cycle magazines published an article with the specs for changing the porting, and the first thing I did with it was take it apart, and had the cyliders ported, and milled for more compression. I weighed about 150 at the time, and had a hard time keeping the front wheel down. I didn't keep it long. It scared me going about corners with that wide motor.

You could buy a muscle car with 12:1 compression. Sunoco was selling 104 octane high test out of pumps at service stations.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Thank goodness we both lived through a bad idea that works too darn well. This was my BIL's first bike, Illegally imported from Canada. I helped him pick it out, went and got it, and taught him to ride. It was stolen, thankfully before anything bad happened. He took to the joy power band in a way that scared us.

491785

[Ron Selzer]

Got my first wife interested in riding before we got married. I had a Yamaha TX500, she bought a used RD350 to ride. She crashed on the way to her riding test, so she went to the Motorcycle dealer and they changed out one mirror, removed the other mirror and changed out a rear turn signal. She then rode to Ohio State Testing site, passed both tests and got her license. Then she came to see me at work, I cleaned and treated her scrapes. I would ride it every week for a short time to clear the carbon out, last time I rode it, when I took off it stood straight up and I chased it. Got it back down, there was no holding it back. Next bike for her was a XS550, we rode to different dealer on my bike. When she rode off on a test ride on the XS550, the dealer said to me she has been riding your bike. Replied no she hasn't ever ridden my bike. He got all anxious and was running off at the mouth worried about her on the XS550, I just said she owns and rides a RD350. He said he?? nothing to worry about and walked away. She came back after 1/2 hour said the XS550 was a little doggy but handled ok. Walked inside, she paid the dealer cash for the bike and we rode away. Few years later I bought a XJ1100J and had a 4 in 1 pipe put on it. I didn't care for it as it dropped all the torque out of the lower end and put a two stroke power band in. It would pull redline in all gears and buried the tach in 3rd gear. My wife took it over and rode it for two months until Watsonian finally shipped my sidecar for it. I put the original pipe back on it at that time. Glad I calmed that bike down as I found she had been street racing it, winning most of the time.

[Maurice Mcmurry]

Ron, you married a brave young lady!
I have been without a bike for a while. The next to last one was a cute, white, blue and pink Kawasaki KD 100. Our daughter thought she might use it to get to campus but decided "no way" after a spill. The last one was DIL's 125 cc Honda scooter (the Sara Connor model). I am still kicking myself for helping her get it sold rather than buying it myself.

[Kris Cook]

First time I got on an RD 350 I was cruising along and looked down at the speedo and I was doing 110. Fun bikes. Built a go-cart in college with a RD 350 motor in it, more fun.

Maurice - that picture you posted got my heart pumping.

Migrated to BMWs for 20 years or so. Currently have a Kawasaki KLX 250. Glad I lived through the early days on bikes. Just trail riding these days.

[Ron Selzer]

Maurice we divorced back in the late 80's and she sold her bike. I quit riding about 8 years ago and sold all of my bikes and sidecars. No longer physically able to ride. Alot of fun while it lasted.

[Frank Pratt]

I was riding a Kawasaki 500 three cylinder 2-stroke about that time. One of the cycle magazines published an article with the specs for changing the porting, and the first thing I did with it was take it apart, and had the cyliders ported, and milled for more compression. I weighed about 150 at the time, and had a hard time keeping the front wheel down. I didn't keep it long. It scared me going about corners with that wide motor.


The power band in that 500 triple got me in real trouble one day & I ended under the back of a parked car. Split the gas tank wide open, but fortunately the bike had stalled by then because a couple of the headers had busted off too. I was soaked to the skin, head to toe, in gasoline.

I was lucky & got off with just a bunch of road rash and 2 broken wrists.

[Tom M King]

I never dropped it, but the crankcase had some roadrash from what seemed ordinary cornering, and scared me enough to get something with a narrower motor-Norton 750.

I was lucky to never get hurt, but after watching too many of my friends roll across the hood of some old ladies' cars, I quit riding on the road.