How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

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CosmicRhino
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How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by CosmicRhino »

One of the more popular search engine results for similar queries is this: http://www.survivalistboards.com/showth ... p?t=345436

There are a hell of a lot of conflicting opinions in that one thread. Figured I'd come here and ask folks that have experience I actually trust.

What say you? My specific situation is a 5 gal. jerry can filled up this last winter, forgotten in the corner of a basement. 6-7 month old gas potentially, not sure if it has ethanol in it or not. I was thinking of mixing it in to my next couple fill ups, but maybe I should just relegate this gas to other purposes if it could be bad for my rig. I did overhaul my entire fuel system but it's just the stock setup, mechanical pump, carb, etc.

Usually I just cycle my jerry cans through fill ups but this one got missed. Oops.
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44bz
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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by 44bz »

I'd probably add a bottle of heet to the can first then mix it in with a full tank of gas.


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Tatsadasayago
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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by Tatsadasayago »

In my experience gasoline stored in a jerry can or 55 gallon drum that has no venting will last a very long time. A good example is from my army days:
My battalion was getting ready to receive the new CUCV series Blazers and pickups around 1984. Since they were all diesel we only needed MOGAS for our Dodge trucks, air cooled generators and M151 Mutt jeeps, Division sent 500 barrels of MOGAS to us to keep them going until the changeover. The barrels were US GI with dates going back to 1965. To our surprise, the gas not only worked great, but it was 100 octane. I was told the reason the fuel lasted for so many years is the sealed drums prevented the aromatic vapors from escaping and that is why gas goes bad over time.
We ran the gas for another few months and didn't have any issues with it other than some of the guys stealing it for their own vehicles. :P
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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by csuengr »

I've run several year old, rotten smelling, molasses colored gas through the law mower with no issues.
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tgreese
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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by tgreese »

Yeah. You would expect the most volatile fraction of the gasoline to evaporate fastest. Another good reason for a working vapor recovery system on your Jeeps - gas tanks vented to the air will lose that volatile part faster than when well sealed. Jerry cans may also be a problem in that respect, if they don't seal 100%. I use these VP Racing jugs to store gasoline, and they seal so well that the cans have no smell. I pour out a little occasionally into a 1 gal blitz can for the lawn equipment, and it looks and smells like fresh gas.

https://www.amazon.com/VP-Gallon-Square ... g+fuel+can

The only other problem would be chemical reactions within the gasoline making new compounds that are less combustible. I imagine this is the issue that gasoline stabilizers like Stabil address. I add a little Stabil to my jugs.
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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by Lumpskie »

My "modern" jerry cans seal 100% and I've had no issue running the gas in yard equipment 7 months later.
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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by AwesomeJ10 »

Roadkill calls all the new gas "Obama gas' lol

it will be fine.

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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by candymancan »

I do landscaping and i use sealed containers for my gasoline. I've had containers of gas last like 6-7 months before i completely emptied them and they were fine. The last gallon or so i just empty in my Jeeps gas tank
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CosmicRhino
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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by CosmicRhino »

Tatsadasayago wrote:In my experience gasoline stored in a jerry can or 55 gallon drum that has no venting will last a very long time. A good example is from my army days:
My battalion was getting ready to receive the new CUCV series Blazers and pickups around 1984. Since they were all diesel we only needed MOGAS for our Dodge trucks, air cooled generators and M151 Mutt jeeps, Division sent 500 barrels of MOGAS to us to keep them going until the changeover. The barrels were US GI with dates going back to 1965. To our surprise, the gas not only worked great, but it was 100 octane. I was told the reason the fuel lasted for so many years is the sealed drums prevented the aromatic vapors from escaping and that is why gas goes bad over time.
We ran the gas for another few months and didn't have any issues with it other than some of the guys stealing it for their own vehicles. :P
Ha! Wow, that's interesting. I had no idea gas could sit that long in a sealed drum and be perfectly fine. 100 octane!
tgreese wrote:Yeah. You would expect the most volatile fraction of the gasoline to evaporate fastest. Another good reason for a working vapor recovery system on your Jeeps - gas tanks vented to the air will lose that volatile part faster than when well sealed. Jerry cans may also be a problem in that respect, if they don't seal 100%. I use these VP Racing jugs to store gasoline, and they seal so well that the cans have no smell. I pour out a little occasionally into a 1 gal blitz can for the lawn equipment, and it looks and smells like fresh gas.

https://www.amazon.com/VP-Gallon-Square ... g+fuel+can

The only other problem would be chemical reactions within the gasoline making new compounds that are less combustible. I imagine this is the issue that gasoline stabilizers like Stabil address. I add a little Stabil to my jugs.
This all makes plenty of sense, thanks for explaining that to me. Are you a chemical engineer Tim? You speak just like my father.

I've been running without my vapor recovery system for a while now, just had too many issues with vapor lock when I was using it... I swear I followed the TSM and built my fuel system from scratch with all new parts, the only part I missed was the rollover check valve. I'm really not sure what I did incorrectly, but allowing the tank to vent to air resolved my issues.
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tgreese
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Re: How long does gas last in a steel 5 gal. jerry can?

Post by tgreese »

CosmicRhino wrote: Are you a chemical engineer Tim? You speak just like my father.
...

... Nuclear engineer by training, Physicist by job description. I was a chemist at 12, but I grew out of it.

Nuclear engineering and Chemical engineering have a lot in common. Both deal with large industrial systems of similar complexity.
Tim Reese
Maine beekeeper's truck: '77 J10 LWB, 258/T15/D20/3.54 bone stock, low options (delete radio), PS/PDB, hubcaps.
Browless and proud: '82 J20 360/T18/NP208/3.73, Destination A/Ts, 7600 GVWR
Copper Polly: '75 CJ-6, 304/T15, PS, BFG KM2s, soft top
GTI without the badges: '95 VW Golf Sport 2000cc 2D
Dual Everything: '15 Chryco Jeep Cherokee KL Trailhawk, ECO Green
Blockchain the vote.
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