Ad blocker detected: Our website is made possible by displaying online advertisements to our visitors. Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker on our website.
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.
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.
1977 Cherokee Chief - The Blair Jeep Project III
A collection of parts flying in close formation
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.
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.
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.
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
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 5.9L Limited 219k
1998 Jeep Grand Cherokee 4.0 I6 laredo 430k
1990 Jeep Grand Wagoneer 155k
1976 Jeep J10.. 85k(repaired)
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.
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.
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.