How bad is bad gas for the 2UZ-FE (1 Viewer)

[bluejack]

Added a little too much old gas (5 gal) on top of good gas (~7 gal) in my '03 and it cut off in short order. Apparently that old gas was worse than I thought, probably a good bit of water in there.

Anyway, I put 5 more gallons of premium and a bottle of "mechanic in a bottle" treatment in there and tried to get it cranked. It protested mightily but after 10 minutes or so I got it running and ran up and down my dirt road at about 40 mph and it seemed fine.

Planning on going to fill it up with more premium but before I do that, should I cut my losses and have the system drained and cleaned? This has been a flawless engine and yes I know I am stupid for doing it but I have put 5 gallons of older gas in trucks before with no issues. But I think I mixed it more like 25 bad to 75% good whereas this time is was more like 50-50. I of course know the reputation of this engine being bulletproof and also how bad gas can be in the third world regions where there are plenty of 100s, I just don't want to do any self inflicted permanent damage.

Am I gonna be OK as long as it's back up and running or am I currently causing major damage?

 

[D21FJ60]

I didn't know bad gas could do anything. Fill er up and send it is what i'd say...if you're that concerned maybe change the fuel filter?

 

[riffman12]

what do you mean by bad gas? Like you had it lying around in a container for years? Or just lower octane gas?

 

[BullElk]

Aren't Land Cruisers designed to run on fuel from third world countries and California?

 

[kwon-offroad]

This post is useless unless you can better define "bad gas"

 

[bluejack]

Sorry, bad gas means it was old ethanol gas that I siphoned out of a boat I was pulling the tank out of. As you know ethanol gas that sits for any length of time leads to water separation. This is bad news in a boat engine but I didn't know how bad could be in a car. Most folks in the boating world will say they add a little of the "bad" gas to a vehicle and it doesn't cause the problems that it causes in a modern 4 stroke outboard engine.

 

[bluejack]

Incidentally. I had the vehicle running as I added the gas in question and about the time the can finished the vehicle choked off. I just ran it to the gas station to add some more fresh fuel and it was a little sluggish but ran fine.

Also the check engine light is on as well as the VSC off and VSC trac light. However, from what I understand repeatedly pressing the brake pedal can cause these (at least VSC) lights to come on so I probably did that when I was trying to crank it 1000 times after it first choked off.

That's all the information from the incident. Thanks for any responses.

 

[kwon-offroad]

That helps. It's called phase separation. Most likely it was already in that state and you sucked up the water/ethanol that was in the bottom of the tank and now put it at the bottom of your LC's tank. The engine is now sucking that up and sending it straight through your filter and injectors. If you put stabilizer in it before you cranked it with the bad gas you're better off than the after scenario. Don't know if "mechanic in a bottle" is technically a fuel stabilizer, if it's not I would stop driving and get some.

If it were me, I would drain the tank and replace the fuel filter and hope the injectors evaded damage. But my LC is far from a daily.

FYI, you should never use ethanol gas in a boat motor. Ever.

 

[GTV]

Send it.

 

[JunkCrzr89]

Pour a bottle of HEET in and send ‘er

 

[flintknapper]

^^^^^^

Dump a bottle of HEET in the tank....run it for awhile....when it smooths out get that fuel filter out of there and replace with a new one.

 

[bluejack]

Will do the Heet and replace fuel filter. Thank you guys.

 

[MongooseGA]

Mine has run like s*** for a week after a fill-up of less-than-stellar gas somewhere in BFE Louisiana once. Italian tune up and some fuel additives took care of it until it was time for new fuel.

 

[jLB]

Mine has run like s*** for a week after a fill-up of less-than-stellar gas somewhere in BFE Louisiana once. Italian tune up and some fuel additives took care of it until it was time for new fuel.

Of course you have to post this, just after I fill one of ours up at a itty bitty gas station in rural northern Louisiana.

 

[Mike NXP]

Love seeing the reference to "mechanic in a bottle" Most small engine guys and boat mechanics love this stuff, we say it's our best employee. I've seen it bring many destroyed carbs back to life.

As for your issue, meh. Doesn't sound like a big deal and you're taking the right steps to sort it out.

 

[bluejack]

Now to figure out how to get the CEL and VSC lights to go off.....Gonna see if they go off after replace filter and run a fresh tank through, could be a O2 sensor or something not liking the water in fuel so hoping they go off on their own.

As for mechanic in a bottle....I normally have sea foam on hand but when all this happened I was heading to Lowes to get some other stuff and saw that...Description sounded like it would be useful in mitigating water in fuel. And I certainly can't discount that it did something...

Mechanic in A Bottle Gas & Diesel Formula -

NEW! UPGRADED GAS & DIESEL FORMULA

b3cfuel.com

 

[arkmm]

Premium usually isn't the best if you need fresh gas. People dont buy it as often so it usually sits longer. Go to a busy gas station and get some regular gas. That will be fresher and probably better than the 93

 

[Rolocado]

It'll probably burn all the gas faster than it knew it was bad gas

 

[bluejack]

Ha! That's for sure. Certainly won't have to wait long to get through a tank on the ol' LC

 

[bluejack]

Replaced fuel filter and used the FIXD app and module to clear these codes, so dash lights are gone!….LC has been running fine through second tank….so hoping problem is gone for good. Lesson learned on adding questionable gas! But for those considering, changing the fuel filter was very simple and probably advisable on higher mileage vehicles.