First Tank Of Fuel Question

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TacoJonn

TacoJonn

Joined
Jan 19, 2017
Threads
15
Messages
98
Location
Wyoming
Some of you may have seen my earlier thread. I inherited my Dad's FJ40 when he passed away a couple of months ago.
It has had the same tank of fuel in it since before he got sick in October. When he was sick and in the hospital he had me drive it around a bit but it's only been driven maybe 30 miles in 3 months.
It's getting time to put fuel in but I am wondering what type of fuel in it. It is an original 2F motor.
Should I give it premium fuel? This tank will probably last it until Spring so not sure if I should bother with premium or if it even matters that much.
 
No need for premium but you should find fuel with no ethanol. In my area only premium is offered w/ no ethanol so I do run premium. I would also put in some fuel stabilizer just for good measure.
 
Regular with or with out ethanol, 87 octane and add sea foam to it. 1 oz. per gallon. It will help clean the carburetor and keeps the ethanol from turning to slime. It does a great job as a stabilizer too. Way better than Stabil. Look for it on sale everywhere. Some places it is $12.00 per 16 oz can. Pep Boys has it for $6.98 until 2-29-17. Worth every penny.
 
Here's a little help: Pure-Gas.org Maybe you are near one of the blue pins?

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Gas, they like it, not like they are highly tuned, by design will run about anything short of ditch water!:hillbilly: We brought one out of it's coma, ran fine on the 12 year old gas, maybe it was just happy to be running again? Ran most of it out before refilling, ran the same on the "new" gas.:meh:
 
NON ethanol only. I have not read about any product that will stabilize ethanol fuel. No product can keep ethanol from attracting water. Also, after many years of using conventional fuel, the fuel system will develop a varnish in the tank and lines. The ethanol (a solvent) will clean this varnish off of the tank and clog things up.

I only use conventional (non ethanol) fuels in all my cars and equipment. For stuff that sits more than a couple of months, I add Stabil.
 
Thanks, everyone. Found a gas station here (thanks GA architect) that sells non-ethanol fuel. She's full now and running good! Glad I found this forum. Expect to be hearing a lot from me in the future!
 
Tools R Us said:
Gas, they like it, not like they are highly tuned, by design will run about anything short of ditch water!:hillbilly: We brought one out of it's coma, ran fine on the 12 year old gas, maybe it was just happy to be running again? Ran most of it out before refilling, ran the same on the "new" gas.:meh:
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Word. @D'Animal runs some leftover two-stroke mix in his Landcruisers without any ill effects.
 
^^Funny, I drug one of my Rokons out today and had one year old 2 stroke oil/gas mix that i dumped in the cruiser. I just couldn't dump two gallons of "perfectly good" gas. Drove it to the gym and then to Costco to fill up. Cruiser ran like a champ all the way home and then to the grocery store. My warped thought process says a little lube won't hurt anything.
 
Four-stroke motorcycles had poor cylinder and head oiling systems for a long time, and adding oil to the gas was often standard procedure. As an example, my first street bike was a 1949 BSA. The owner's manual said to add "one eggcup full" of Upper Cylinder Lubricant to each and every tank of gas. It was an overhead valve 500cc single.
 
Bringing this thread back to life with a twist. Similar story to TacoJonn. Just brought Dad's '74 FJ40 home and need to get gas for it. The engine is a Chevy 350 circa 1975-ish. I'd like to put non-ethanol in it but closest place I've found on puregas.org is 20+ miles away. Do I need to suck it up and grab some gas cans?
 
I've been running it through my '77 FJ55 with stock 2F with no problems whatsoever. I also run it through my '85 4Runner's 22RE and my wife's '08 GT500 (but with premium). Both of those sit for up to a year at a time in storage with a can of Seafoam added to the gas. They always go into storage with the tank full. I've been doing that for 10+ years with the 4Runner.
 
emac said:
NON ethanol only. I have not read about any product that will stabilize ethanol fuel. No product can keep ethanol from attracting water. Also, after many years of using conventional fuel, the fuel system will develop a varnish in the tank and lines. The ethanol (a solvent) will clean this varnish off of the tank and clog things up.

I only use conventional (non ethanol) fuels in all my cars and equipment. For stuff that sits more than a couple of months, I add Stabil.
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I know this is an old post but had to reply. Gasoline is a better solvent than ethanol; especially if you are talking about waxy/varnish deposits. What ethanol will do is separate from gasoline if you have too much water in the tank and will absorb said water if there isn't too much. Sometimes it tends to pick up the rust sediment that is in a tank containing water as well. That usually leads to plugged fuel filters, etc. You have to be especially picky about using ethanol in an old vehicle that has never used it. It can damage certain plastics (like in old weed trimmers) and it doesn't play well with a tank that has a lot of water sitting in the bottom.
 
FWIW, when ethanol came on the scene, gas stations had to change their tanks because, like @WarDamnEagle said, ethanol is a solvent and all the built up varnish would contaminate the fuel. Sometimes you get lucky, but I only put pure gas in anything that is old or sits for long periods of time. Fuel stabilizer will not protect against "phase seperation" of ethanol fuel. There is good reason it is not allowed in aircraft.
 
Thanks y'all. Very helpful. I'm going to suck it up and make the drive to get the non-ethanol. I waited 35+ years for this vehicle so I'm not going to do anything stupid (when I can avoid it) now that I have it.

And @WarDamnEagle ... WDE! '97 Alum.
 
emac said:
FWIW, when ethanol came on the scene, gas stations had to change their tanks because, like @WarDamnEagle said, ethanol is a solvent and all the built up varnish would contaminate the fuel. Sometimes you get lucky, but I only put pure gas in anything that is old or sits for long periods of time. Fuel stabilizer will not protect against "phase seperation" of ethanol fuel. There is good reason it is not allowed in aircraft.
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Apologies emac but what I said is that gasoline is a better solvent than ethanol. The issue with ethanol and old tanks of any kind is that it is a solvent for water (not so much for varnish though). When the mixture has too much water the ethanol and water will drop out of the mixture. In the case of a large filling station tank that would mean that some cars would only get ethanol and water with no gasoline until the level dropped enough to get to the gasoline. Regardless, I'm no fan of ethanol but also think there are many misconceptions about it.

TexasRoach said:
Thanks y'all. Very helpful. I'm going to suck it up and make the drive to get the non-ethanol. I waited 35+ years for this vehicle so I'm not going to do anything stupid (when I can avoid it) now that I have it.

And @WarDamnEagle ... WDE! '97 Alum.
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WDE! '84. If you will run it dry and then drain whatever is left in the tank you will be fine. Not that hard to do given the tank is under the passenger seat. Given that you probably don't have fuel injectors to plug; you would probably be fine regardless.
 
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