I just got my 2nd 'bump', a 1971 Ford F100 Custom and it's been sitting for some time - at least a year that I know of but it may have been sitting for years before that...I'm not sure.

I just thought it might be worth a try to hook the battery up just to see what it'll do.

This leads me to a question: What's the longest you guys have ever heard of one of these trucks starting after sitting for a long time with the same gas? A year?...years?...more?

I do plan to clean the tank, lines, filters, and carb. but I figure I'll see if it'll turn over anyway before I do. So what's the longest?

 

At least 3 years old for me.

 

2x with espy.

And the carb usually goes to crap before gasoline goes bad.... at least that's my experienced. Yours may vary.

 

Pre 2005, years. Post 2005, 4 months. Thank ethanol .

 

I find that 2 years is about the limit with today's gas. It starts to smell like varnish by then and the vehicle will start but not necessarily run well. I drain & refill the tank on a vehicle that sits every 12-18 months. The old gas gets used in 4 stroke small engines to burn it off. I have been adding Seafoam to the new gas the last few years.....I don't think it really does much but it lightens my wallet and gives me one of those "feel good" moments.

 

To be safe I would drain the gas tank before trying to start it. Get rid of the old gas and any water that may have gotten into the tank.

 

Ive got an edger in my garage thats been there since I moved into this house. (One of the horizontal shaft Briggs and Stratton 5 HP ones.) Couple weeks ago I went out there and pulled it out of the garage. Checked the gas and it had half a tank so I filled the other half with new gas. Pulled the pull start and it fired rite up and idled just fine. I moved into this house in 2008 so thats roughly 7 years it had been sitting. Covered with an inch thick of dirt / dust. Didn't check the oil, air cleaner, carb, etc. and it some how or another fired right up. Ran kinda rough but I don't blame it.

 

Thank you everyone, and I hope more join in with their 'old gas' experiences. Here's a video I found on youtube where an army truck had been sitting for 10 years and fired up (after new gas)
Here's what the youtube description said: "Surprisingly this old girl started after sitting in a parking lot for over ten years. After putting in two new batteries, a quick sanding of the points and rotor, a new 24V fuel pump and some clean gas and this old M135 fired up right away!"

 

AJ, Why don't you try something like a coolant (Prestone) bottle filled with new gas and a hole drilled in the top to get a fuel line in through it to attach to the pump (new gas in a new tank). That wa you are not introducing any old contaminates to the system.


John

 

I agree with this. My father in-law gave me an old snapper push mower back in the mid to late 90's (it was old then). I used it about a year or so, then bought a new mower, and put the Snapper in my crawl space. About a year or two ago I pulled it out thinking I would sell it as a non-running mower in my garage sale. I checked the gas and there was a little in there, so I pulled the cord 3 times and she started right up... I was pretty shocked and impressed. I guess it had been sitting 12 to 15 years. Needless to say, I did not sell it, I'm still using it to trim and it now stays in my garage.

 

agreed. if it is real gas in the tank sitting for 5 years is no big deal. if it is an ethanol blend, anything over 6 months and it will not start if fuel injected, and about 1 year old is the limit for carb engines.

i have extended the life of ethanol blend gas to 18-24 months by adding marine sta-bil, but that is about as long as it will reliably work

 

It might start but that doesn't mean everything is OK. The problem with stale fuel, is it apparently causes bent push rods. It will run "Ok", but at the next start up - all the valves are stuck and then the upper drivetrain is buggered. Stale gas is just a couple more molecules away from being turned to paint or varnish.

If you run an internet search on "stale fuel" or similar you should find some information, (and pictures like this). Not worth the risk.

 

Those look like the push rods out of my '68. I bent 5 of them after running it on 10-year-old gas. It didn't run badly on the stuff though, but I did have it about half diluted with fresh.

I recently worked on a non-Ford vehicle that had blown the engine over a year previously. I replaced the engine and fired it up, not really thinking about the gas being a year old. While breaking in the cam it started running hot...not that the engine was overheating, the actual engine tempos were normal, but the exhaust manifolds started to glow red-hot. I drained the old gas and refilled with fresh and everything returned to normal.

 

I've said this before on here. I use premium gas in anything that is going to sit for a while and use fuel stabilizer sometimes as well. Premium doesn't have ethanol in it.

 

maybe in canada, but in just about all states in the us you have to use minimum E10, no matter what the grade is.