Emptying the gas tank

[XSLeo]

Kero and diesel fuel or fuel oil. Don't go bad as quick as gas. It can set in your home heating tank for years and still burn fine. By the way diesel and fuel oil are the same stuff. The diesel gets filtered a bit better and dyed a different color. That way if a cop wants to tell what you have in your tank he just gets sample of the fuel and knows by the color if you are running the Highway taxed fuel or the non taxed stuff. He can fine you for not using the Highway stuff.
One example to show this is a few years back the fuel oil truck the delivered fuel to the farm I worked at had a small truck No way to have three tanks on the truck. He filled the house heating tank, the tank to fuel the farm tractors, the fuel tank for the sugar house. The bill was the same oil but had three prices. One price for each tank.
Don't remember if the house heat or the sugar house was cheaper but he kept the sugar hose tank full and used it to fill the tractors. So that was cheaper than the tractor tank.
What little that stays in the tank when drained out in the spring won't effect the fresh gas much. From some folks I have talked to add about a quart to each 20 gallon fill up in their older cars. They claim it increases the octane.
And as the two stroke oil previously mentioned it leaves a film on the inside of the tank to help prevent rust.
Leo

 

[16VGTIDave]

They claim it increases the octane.

And they are wrong. Diesel fuel, Kerosene, etc are rated for Cetane. Cetane rating is effectively the exact opposite of Octane rating.

Put more than ~10% gasoline into a Diesel vehicle, and it won't run well and may not start. Put ~10% Diesel fuel into a gasoline engine and it will blow up if you work it hard.

 

[Charles]

Just to make sure: do NOT set your tank on fire, it's not a good idea and i hope that was just a bad joke

That wasn't a bad joke...it was a rather funny joke!

 

[willem]

That wasn't a bad joke...it was a rather funny joke!

also a potentially very dangerous joke you don't know how stupid people can be, right?

(I once made a joke about using vaseline to protect your tires from dry rot, so kind of the pot calling the kettle black here but nevertheless better to be safe than sorry I guess)

i love a good bad joke though

 

[filterx]

Full tank with stabilizer is a much better choice over an empty tank for storage as there is less chance of condensation. Here is what I posted last year regarding what I have been doing for 30+ years when it comes time for winter storage.



Mine sits in a detached unheated garage all winter. The cold will not affect the bike, your biggest enemy is moisture mainly from condensation due to temperature fluctuations and our damp winters here.

Here are the basics;

1. Change the oil
2. Fill the gas tank with gas and add gas stabilizer, the less air in the tank the less chance for condensation
3. Run the engine for about 5 minutes to get the treated gas into the carbs. No need to drain the carbs.
4. Pull the battery
5. Put on a cover that will breathe so that moisture does not get trapped under it.


I have been following this procedure on my motorcycle, Corvette, and lawn tractor for 30+ years with no problems.

Thanks man

 

[XSLeo]

Maybe 10% diesel in a car is bad, I quart in a 20 gallon fill up is 1.25 %. The higher the octane the slower the burn. Diesel burns much slower than gas, so adding the diesel should slow the burn rate. effectively raising the octane. Just guessing there.
One time my brother brought the little Ford tractor around and filled the tank. It didn't run for crap. He new he used the tank the rest of the tractors use.
Guess what the Ford was a gas tractor. They drained the tank and carb, filled with gas and it ran the way it should. No damage.
I have read about people preheating diesel to run in a gas engine. One as I recall ran the diesel line through the exhaust manifold to preheat the diesel. Start on gas get the engine warm switch to diesel and everything was good.
They used to build farm tractors that way. They started on gas then you switched to the diesel to run the tractor. As a matter of fact that same brother tore down and rebuilt an old Farmall in high school. When I went through High school 7 years later, the tractor still sat there. They couldn't figure out which diesel lines from the injector pump went to which cylinder. I got it figured out and got it running and sent it home. Wouldn't surprise me if they are still using it.
Leo

 

[16VGTIDave]

Octane is an actual chemical. Octane rating is a fuel's resistance to detonation. It (technically) has nothing to do with the rate of combustion. Though some of the chemicals used to increase a fuels octane rating may combust slower than other hydrocarbons.

Cetane number is how diesel fuels are rated. It is the ability of the fuel to combust quickly when injected into the engine.

Octane rating and Cetane number are, for most purposes, opposites.

Running any mix of diesel in a high compression, high RPM gasoline engine will result in knocking (detonation) and may even lead to pre-ignition (holes in pistons, or worse). Low compression, low RPM engines may seem to run better with a small percentage of diesel in the fuel, as modern gasoline is formulated for modern engines and it doesn't have the energy density that diesel fuel does. Refineries in modern countries don't even bother formulating gasoline for carbed engines anymore.

Dual and multi-fuel engines are a rarity these days, but I anticipate their resurgence in the next few years. And that is based on today's global economics...