Winter storage of remaining fuel in boat

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ricerocket71

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Many of you who live down south do not have to deal with this, but up here in the North it's almost time to put our boats away for the winter.
Question: besides using marine stabilizer - do you put any other additive into your gas tanks.

Such as dry gas - some one had suggested that I use this during winter storage to help with condensation not sure.
 
By far the simplest and best is run the tank out of gas, then run the carb out of gas as you fog the engine. Pull the carb bowl and clean it and the fuel strainer. Put some light oil on the bowl gasket and strainer seals before reassembly.

Jamie
 
Put it in your snowblower :roll: I never leave gas over the winter, and if you have ethanol gas in your area, it's really bad news. My father in law is a small engine mechanic, and will not work on any of my machines if I run Stabil.
 
Startron is your best friend check it out. https://mystarbrite.com/startron/ My dad uses it in his boat and swears by it.
 
ricerocket71 said:
Many of you who live down south do not have to deal with this, but up here in the North it's almost time to put our boats away for the winter.
Question: besides using marine stabilizer - do you put any other additive into your gas tanks.

Such as dry gas - some one had suggested that I use this during winter storage to help with condensation not sure.


+2 on the snowblower, I actually many times during the year use 2-stroke mix in either the lawn mower or the pressure washer because I am just lazy, believe it or not it does not smoke at all, actually runs pretty good.
 
Me too. My Yamaha is 100:1, but prior to this motor every outboard I have owned has been run at a stronger than 50:1 mix. That gas does not go to waste. It ends up in my lawnmower, chainsaw, ice auger, weed whipper, pressure washer or wheeler. Never a problem as of yet. In fact the only time I have a problem with any of them is if I use old gas.

The thing I never could justify was to buy a bottle of Stabil for $8 to treat the 2 or so gallons of gas I have left in my tank. On a bigger tank, it makes sense, but for my 6 gallon tank, it just doesn't add up when it is half full.
 
Like everyone else says, use it up in something else.The worst it can do is foul a sparkplug,maybe. If you have a permanent tank,do not put dry-gas in it for storage, as it contains ethanol and will attract moisture.I use Marine Stabil(with every fill-up) and never have a problem in the spring. I also try to run as much fuel out of it as I can before storage,and at spring start up,I fill up with fresh gas and stabilizer. That's four seasons now and running the oringinal plugs still.
 
ricerocket71 said:
Many of you who live down south do not have to deal with this, but up here in the North it's almost time to put our boats away for the winter.

What? I keep fishing until everything is frozen - then I keep fishing in teh salt.


Put your boat away??????

:LOL2:
 
NEGrumman said:
Startron is your best friend check it out. https://mystarbrite.com/startron/ My dad uses it in his boat and swears by it.
I use startron when the boat first comes out in the spring. Stabil when I put the boat away and sea foam all the time.
 
Yup run it dry or despose of the gas .. In my other boat I had 85 gallons of gas go bad from the ethenol and water mixing causing phase seperation..
You dont want your gas to look like this in the spring :shock:
006-6.jpg
 
"up here in the North it's almost time to put our boats away for the winter."

Whoa now wait a minute....bite your tounge....Some of us up here wait a little longer...(ok much longer) before putting our babies down for the winter....with an outboard, as long as the lower unit drains well after use....I have broken ice out fishing walleyes.....

But when the time does come...(November - early December) I will use Sta-Bill or have head good things about Sea-Foam gas additive...


Outdoosman...
 
Well none of my gas goes to waste because I boat all winter long.The Kalamazoo river doesn't freeze solid so you can almost always go boating.I've had water freezing as it dripped off the lower unit when I'm taking it out of the water.In the winter I take my motor off & put it in the back of my jeep just to make sure nothing freezes.Some of my best fishing is in the winter.
 
crazymanme2 said:
Well none of my gas goes to waste because I boat all winter long.The Kalamazoo river doesn't freeze solid so you can almost always go boating.I've had water freezing as it dripped off the lower unit when I'm taking it out of the water.In the winter I take my motor off & put it in the back of my jeep just to make sure nothing freezes.Some of my best fishing is in the winter.



=D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D> =D>
 
If oyu must keep gas in teh tank, fill it to the brim and add a Stabilizer. If the tank is full, it cant get any fuller with water. Plus any water that may get in, wont be enough to cause problems.
 
I just made the change today from Stabil red to Stabil Marine formula in the boat. I guess I will see if they are any different. It has been sitting since mid July with a half tank of gas so I decided that I had better top off the tank and put some stabilizer in it, then let it run on the muffs for a while. It fired right up and I let it run for a good 15 minutes on the hose.

Last weekend persuaded me to do that...

I added Stabil red to the full tank on my atv back in the winter but stupid me never did crank it and let the carb flush with treated fuel. I was just sure that I would ride it at some point shortly after that... :roll:

Fast forward approx. 8 months later:

I decided to take it in to have the automatic transmission belt inspected last weekend before starting deer season and although it fired right up, I could immediately smell that varnish smell of old gas coming from the exhaust. It ran for about 45 seconds, backfired and died. I tried for an hour to crank it to no avail. It wouldn't even begin to fire and the spark plug was as dry as a bone. I had to load it on a trailer instead of into the back of the truck and just hauled it to have a full service performed on it. (Thank goodness the inlaws have several tilt trailers sitting around and live just right up the road). It decided to crank right up when I got there but you could tell that the carb was still gummed up. I told him to just go ahead and clean it while they had it there. You have to take half of the plastic off of the thing just to get to the spark plug. There is most likely an expensive lesson getting ready to be learned on my behalf. I still can't believe that I let it sit that long. #-o
 
basically from all the info given to me - there are three defendant paths suggested.
1.) top of the tank 2.) drain the tank 3.) add marine stable to what remains in tank
I did add the marine stable to the tank
But After all the suggestions and concerns brought up - I have decided to take the safest course of action 2.) drain the tank
and use the gas in my yard equipment.
This way when spring comes around and its time to get her back in the water i shouldn't have any unexpected surprises. "Hopefully"

Again thanks to all of you
 

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