What is your experience with Stabil?

[NYlumberman]

I have big pond built in 1995 (2 acres) with a long story, condensed version, my major spring actually reversed when pond got full after 2 years. So I pumped the water out and brought in an excavator to dig out the spring and pack it with bentonite to seal it. I was not willing to wait another 2 years to find out if the fixed worked, and I had the pump so I ran roughly 700 feet of 2” black plastic water line from a seasonal creek on my property and pumped it full. Victory!..Sort of. The natural head on the remaining springs is about 3’ below the overflow. Each year I “top it off” in the spring. I rigged a 6.5 gallon Northern Tool generator tank so the pump wiii run roughly 50+ hours on fill up. I change the oil every 100 hours using 10-30 syn-blend, with no particular brand loyalty. By my rough calculations I am approaching 6000 hours on a Honda GX 120. It still starts on one pull, but it does feel like it is starting to lose compression and uses a little oil. I dropped a note to Honda as a testimonial, and heard…crickets. My biggest source of problems over the years has been contaminated fuel. for the last 6 years I have been purchasing non ethanol rec-fuel in a Tractor Supply 50gallon tank that I rigged for easy loading into my pickup. I have a water removing filter on the tank. That had solved the problem until this 76 year old goofball somehow left the fill cap off the “day” tank, and it rained. I drained the bottom of the tank and but I would still occasionally have the motor quit on me. I had added some Stabil Marine I had on the shelf to help purge the water. I had tilted the tank so the gravity feed was not the low point and that seemed to solve it. When I broke down my set up this fall, I set up the tank back in my shop so that the feed was the low point and drained fuel into a glass jar. The photo shows what I got. Maybe the Stabil was out of date, but it was definitely not impressive.

 

[Oaktree]

I've never had any issues with fuel I've treated with it, but it's rare any I have around goes unused for more than a year or so. 6 years seems like a long time...
Expecting it to deal with water that leaked into a storage tank is asking a bit much IMHO.

 

[5030]

Stabil don't do anything for water. All it does is postpone phase separation and only the blue Marine Stabil. You need to rethink your procedures and be more cognizant with putting the cap back on your fuel tank.

 

[NYlumberman]

I've never had any issues with fuel I've treated with it, but it's rare any I have around goes unused for more than a year or so. 6 years seems like a long time...
Expecting it to deal with water that leaked into a storage tank is asking a bit much IMHO.

Right you are, my post was probably too deep in the weeds on background, but it was the obvious water/Stabil/gas separation in the jar I thought was interesting, so I shared it. I had assumed the Stabil dispersed in the fuel.

 

[Topzide]

Try some Star-Tron fuel treatment. It's been used in the RV/Marine areas for many years.
You might also want to use the Goldern Rod cartridge filter on your tank. It has a water drain on the housing. Have that on a 50 gal diesel tank.

 

[WinterDeere]

Never had any issue using Stabil, but also never had any issue with any other fuel stabilizer, or even with un-treated fuel. I mix some in with the final fueling of each piece of seasonal equipment, not because I've had problems resulting from skipping it, but because it's too cheap and easy to even worry myself about not using it.

 

[caver]

your spring sounds like an estavelle.

 

[NYlumberman]

Try some Star-Tron fuel treatment. It's been used in the RV/Marine areas for many years.
You might also want to use the Goldern Rod cartridge filter on your tank. It has a water drain on the housing. Have that on a 50 gal diesel tank.

Good points, My filter on the storage tank does not have a drain but it is for particle and water removal. The drain sounds better. I appreciate the feedback. I obviously overshared and muddied my point, which was that I was surprised to see that the Stabil had not dispersed in the fuel. The water was self inflicted and now that the “day” tank is drained, cleaned and dried I don’t anticipate any problems.

 

[NYlumberman]

Stabil don't do anything for water. All it does is postpone phase separation and only the blue Marine Stabil. You need to rethink your procedures and be more cognizant with putting the cap back on your fuel tank.

My bad, when I reread my post I realized I did not make it clear the tank I had water in was the small 6.5 gallon “day” tank not my storage tank. I agree that Stabil will not correct my mistake, but what I found curious is the blue Marine Stabil did not disperse in the fuel. So I shared it.

 

[NYlumberman]

your spring sounds like an estavelle.

I had to look that up. This part of NY is the terminal moraine where glaciers stopped advancing during some ice age. We are located just south of the Finger Lakes. The geology is almost random, I think my springs are layer of permeable gravel, sandwiched by impermeable layers. My theory is the seam that was my big spring is exposed on the hillside at point below my overflow and when the water level reaches that point it literally siphons the water out of the pond. Maybe.

your spring sounds like an estavelle.

 

[caver]

In the late 90's I spent my weekends crawling around exploring caves with other organized cavers. You learn a little about geology.

 

[WinterDeere]

I obviously overshared and muddied my point...

Sorry about that. When I saw half a page of discussion about a spring, I thought "what's this have to do with Stabil?", and just answered according to the title of the thread. Sometimes details matter, sometimes it's context.

 

[arto98607]

.......................snip.................. I change the oil every 100 hours using 10-30 syn-blend, with no particular brand loyalty. By my rough calculations I am approaching 6000 hours on a Honda GX 120. It still starts on one pull, but it does feel like it is starting to lose compression and uses a little oil..................snip....................

Oil change interval of 100 hours on a little 4 hp air cooled engine is way too long, but hey that's just my opinion.

I change the engine oil in my little non oil-filtered air cooled engines every 40 - 50 hours max and engines made in the 70's are still running like new!
(They have been set up for easy to drain oil on purpose)

Oil is cheap.

 

[NYlumberman]

Oil change interval of 100 hours on a little 4 hp air cooled engine is way too long, but hey that's just my opinion.

I change the engine oil in my little non oil-filtered air cooled engines every 40 - 50 hours max and engines made in the 70's are still running like new!
(They have been set up for easy to drain oil on purpose)

Oil is cheap.

I value your opinion, and I think you are spot on. The mills where I used to work used fuel consumption to establish maintenance intervals (a program recommended by Caterpillar), along with a conscientious sampling program. I have sort of followed the same approach at home. And found that changing the oil every other fueling gave me pretty clean used oil, and no observable consumption. That was roughly 10 gallons of fuel and about 100 hours run time. I thought it worked because the water pump application helped keep the engine temperature down and it ran at constant speed at less than half the throttle setting. That said, you can’t argue with success, very impressive to have 50 year old units still running like new. I may have to rethink my program next year, though at my age I probably won’t be able to get another 25 years on my pump.

 

[Bronco82]

I've only started using Stabil. Last year after using the wood splitter, I never put anything extra in the fuel and this spring had to take the carb off and clean it out as it kept stalling, even after I drained the old gas and put new gas in. With any luck, next year when I fire it up, with the "old gas" and Stabil mix, it hopefully won't keep stalling.

If the local dealer adds it to any boat winterization with a built-in gas tank as a preventative measure, it's gotta do something I would THINK for short term periods.

 

[dodge man]

I’ve used Stabil for years and had good luck but I either run my small engines dry or keep the tank full. I suspects it’s keeping fuel fresh has as much to do with it more than the Stabil. 5 gallon cans can be a pain but the smaller quantities tend to keep your fuel fresh.

 

[Paystar]

I watched a video from a trusted motorcycle accessory place here in Canada and they tested all the stabilizers.
Stabil, while not perfect was better than all the rest. All the others caused more problems than they solved.

Some actually attracted moisture, some cause corrosion, etc.

So I just been sticking to Marine Stabil.

 

[John0829]

I use Stabil Marine or Amsoil Stabilizer and have not had issues with gas since I started. I always keep the tanks full, every machine fires right up and runs fine even on gas that is a year+ old.

 

[Paystar]

I use Stabil Marine or Amsoil Stabilizer and have not had issues with gas since I started. I always keep the tanks full, every machine fires right up and runs fine even on gas that is a year+ old.

That's one of the biggest things....I also try and keep tanks full when not in use.

 

[Oaktree]

I never put anything extra in the fuel and this spring had to take the carb off and clean it out as it kept stalling, even after I drained the old gas and put new gas in. With any luck, next year when I fire it up, with the "old gas" and Stabil mix, it hopefully won't keep stalling.

A better idea would be to drain the tank/carb or run it dry at the end of the season. Some say they've had seals dry out doing this, but I've never had that happen (yet).