Experience with Bad Fuel. Opinions?

[54bug]

Hi All

Quick question after the setup. Several weeks ago I changed the oil in my 1964 Double Cab, and filled the tank with Mid-grade premium fuel, in preparation for the drive the June Bug meet in Pennsylvania. The next morning the bus wouldn't run. I could get the engine to fire, but not idle, while creating billowing white smoke. Noticed the Accelerator pumps were leaking on my old Kadrons. Bus runs a 1776 engine with dual Kadrons and a Compufire DIS-X ignition, super reliable, always starts. Drove the the show in the TDI Jetta....Sad

Removed, cleaned, and rebuilt the carbs. Replaced the original copper floats and noted the accelerator pump diaphragms where old. Floats were good, everything was clean, but it was time. Replaced the plugs, checked the ignition parts, all was working. Oil level was good, oil and OBERG filter were OK. Tried to start it again, same result.

Could it be the fuel? Drained the lawn mower and siphoned bus gas into it. Ran for a bit before it started smoking and missing.... Has to be the fuel.
Noticed some fuel spilled on the cement didn't evaporate. Fuel is very light yellow, and doesn't smell like kerosene, and isn't contaminated with water. The local discount gas station , claimed no knowledge of problems with fuel. I can only guess the fuel was contaminated with some low flash point solvent. The Gas station is of no help, Not going to Freestate in Rockville any more.

Siphoned the tank, vac'ed out the fuel lines, emptied carburetor bowls, refilled the tank, And the bus runs. Problem identified.

What next. Should I rebuild the carbs again to ensure the solvent hasn't attacked the accelerator pump diaphrams? Should I discard the fuel, who and how to handle the toxic waste? Anoyne with similar experiences?

Scott

[richparker]

Bum deal, did you make the event?

I usually burn old/crappy gas in my modern cars. I add the bad fuel in when I’m at 3/4 a tank or better, only like a gallon at a time. Might not be what everyone would do, but I live in a small town and there isn’t a toxic waste dump here. I’ve never had a problem doing this.
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[Lingwendil]

As long as you run fresh fuel through everything and it still works well I wouldn't worry too much. If the lawnmower doesn't even like the fuel I would maybe dilute it with fresh stuff and just use it all up slowly if you are able to store it.
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[Bonesberg55]

Several years ago a friend of my wife had a 80s Jeep Cherokee. She had recently moved from Minneapolis to suburban Chicago and was experiencing poor performance from her Jeep with it sputtering and generally running rough. She had been to a local mechanic where her carb was rebuilt at a cost of several hundred dollars. There was no improvement in performance so I volunteered to take a look. When I opened the hood, I noticed a strong smell of ethanol. She had been filling up at the local Citgo since her move. I asked her if she had changed fuels and she replied that she used to use Shell regular which at the time was pure gas but had changed to Citgo because it was closest to her house and was cheaper. I suggested that she go back to the brand fuel that she used previously and the problem went away. So much for her local mechanic.

[mukluk]

[FarmerBill]

Yep, sounds like the fuel delivery guy pumped some diesel into the gasoline tank and didn't tell anyone. Years ago on the farm one of the guys filled the diesel pickup with gas. Luckily he realized what he did before he restarted the engine. We towed it back to the farm and pumped out the tank and ended up with about 30 gallons of about 60/40 gas/diesel mix. Took us two years to burn it all through the various small engines on the farm.

[oprn]

The only time this has happened to me was last spring I filled my sand rail from a jerry can that I though had been out of the weather good enough. Apparently it had not and had water in it. I struggled with trying to get it to run properly for a while until I filled the dirt bike from the same jerry can. Suddenly it ran like a turd too.

I still have about 1/2 of that jerry can. I am using it to start tree trimmings on fire. I wash parts in it too and it also gets used for weed killer around the acreage. A wee bit on a dandelion works as good as any commercial weed killer I have used and I doubt it's any more damaging to the soil.

Before the invent of ethanol in our fuel you could take a can like that, wait until it freezes and pour off the clean gas. I discovered that this does not work anymore. Even at -20 the water in this can of fuel did not separate out and freeze as expected. It had combined with the ethanol and whatever chemicals they add to keep the ethanol in suspension and the freezing trick no longer works.
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[raygreenwood]

[Matthew]

I did something similar several years ago with my 65 beetle. It doesn’t get driven real regularly so I only use ethanol free fuel and often add to it from a 5 gallon gas can. I pulled the car out and it was warming up and running fine. Fuel level was a little low so I grabbed one of my cans and poured a few gallons in while the car was running. I then jumped in and took off for a little cruise around town. After a mile or two I started noticing an off smell and after a bit longer I noticed I was leaving a trail of smoke behind me. I pulled over, raised the deck lid and everything looked fine. No oil leaks either but I could clearly smell burning diesel fuel. Jumped back in and headed back towards my storage spot. Car was still running fine but was smoking and down on power. When I got back I checked that particular fuel can and it smelled of diesel. At that point I remembered that I had made a 50/50 mixture of gas/diesel in that can for my back burn torch and failed to label it. I had to drain my tank and refill with fresh fuel.
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[oprn]

Interesting Ray! I could actually see tiny droplets of water/ethanol floating around in the gas and they didn't drop to the bottom. The density explanation makes sense.

I wonder now if I added enough water, would it absorb all the existing ethanol/water mix and then freeze? Maybe that would be a way of removing the ethanol from the gas for those of us that don't have local access to pure gasoline?

Worth an experiment or two I say!
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[FarmerBill]

Since ethanol raises the octane rating of gasoline I would imagine if you did manage to remove it from your gas you would be left with a very low octane product. Might run, but probably is going to cause knocking.

[raygreenwood]

[Mikedrevguy]

Back 2018, was nearly out of fuel and I was pressed for time. Rather than going to the gas station, pulled along side the toyhauler and fueled up.
Car started spitting and sputtering. Back firing. Was incredibly ugly. Barely made it to a gas station and topped off with clean fuel and stuff worked itself out.

Back story.
Since we’d gotten the toyhauler in 2017, the generator had never worked. We’d futzed with it, took it to Cummins. They’d cleaned it. Run it on their stand perfect.
Go to leave with the trailer in tow. . . And it back fires. And nada.
Cummins had the genny a couple times and they were flummoxed.
This issue with the fuel got me contemplating the tank. Sure enough brand new from dealer there was something funky wi5 the fuel tank.
They waranteed it out and been perfect since <knock wood>
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[jbbugs]

A couple years ago at one of our Champcar endurance races we had some issues with a Lot of water in our fuel. We filled a clean 55 gallon drum with the Rec 90 fuel from a local station. We didn’t realize there was a few Gallons of water in it. It really sucks to discover that when I’m on track with other cars traveling 130mph.
We limped it back to the pits and started pumping out the fuel cell into some clear bottles. It was loaded with water. It even ruined our Carter fuel pump on the car.. It cost us a couple hours of track time, and plenty of positions in the race. Having foam blocks in the fuel cell made it even harder to get all the water out.🙁
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