68/70Vette

Gasoline in Ca ( and elsewhere) can be 10% ethanol. But the ethanol additive has a reputation of causing gas tank and carb corrosion problems. There are additives you can add to the gas to protect against this corrosion problem. One such additive, "Gas Guard," costs $8.99 a bottle and you're supposed to use one bottle per fillup.

This seems expensive. I'd guess that if you knew what the chemical is Gas Guard was, you could buy it a lot cheaper buying it by a generic chemical name. It's probably a hydrocarbon or perhaps a member of the alcohol family with a molecular weight greater than ethanol. Or maybe it's ?????

Does anyone know what the generic "stuff" is that's the active ingredient in additives such as Gas Guard?

ejpii

Sta-bil has a marine gas treatment that you use a couple of ounces in a fill-up that treats for ethanol. I use it in everything from lawn equipment to my cars.

http://www.goldeagle.com/brands/stabil/products.aspx

EJ

Mike Ward

The tin hatted sky-is-falling crowd has got everybody convinced that ethanol is worse than nuclear holocaust. I've been using it for 20 years with NO problems. Relax.

If your car has really really old (>15 years) rubber fuel lines or other components, they need to be replaced anyways. This is a good opportunity.

Stabil or other miracles in a can won't make bit of difference.

joewill

keep your gas tank full, as much as you can. the less air in the tank, the less water that will condense into the fuel.

calif phil

I use Star Tron Enzyme fuel treatment. It works very good at keeping the Ethanol fuel from going stale. www.startron.com

noonie

E10 already has corrosion inhibiters added.
If worried, buy a brand name gasoline.

Mike Ward

You're joking, right? That's GOT to be the biggest snake oil ad I've ever read.

hammadown

I think you're joking........... I have been using red STA-BIL for the last 15 years to treat my fuel....... plus dry-gas to prevent freezing.
BUT that was before ethenol was added to our gas in the north east. NOW............ I use STAR-TRON to treat my fuel. It's formulated to treat the ethenol in the gas. and it is ..............NOT......... recomended to use DRY-GAS with E-10 because it already has to much ethenol in it ......which when combined could cause you to have a lean mixeture of gas if you add too much.
I ride a 2011 oil/fuel direct injection snowmobile and was instructed NOT to use DRY-GAS anymore in my fuel because the fuel has enough ethenol in it to prevent gas line freeze-up.

the long/short of it is................ RED STA-BIL is "old-school" stabilizer and the Blue STAR-TRON is what you need to stabilize "today's" new gas formula.

either way YOU STILL NEED TO TREAT YOUR FUEL!!!!

Hammadown

Mike Ward

Oh please, before I barf. Ooops, too late.

I've been using ethanol fuels for 20 years. NEVER have I had the slightest problem with any car, bike, snowmobile, tractor, lawnmower, chain saw, blah blah blah.

You can put in as much keeps-bad-things-from-happening cr*p as you want. Of course bad things won't happen, they wouldn't have happened anyways.

Want to do something positive? Send me $5.95 (plus shipping and handling of $19.95) for a bag of my genuine petrified voodoo chicken bones. Wave these in front of your toys and bad things won't happen either. Guaranteed.

GREGG-73

Hey Mike....glad you are not having any issues (yet). But, here in the states and from my own personal experience, I have had my snow blower and chain saw carb's gummed up from the ethanol. I am not one to use nor do I favor adding any additive, and I do not use any. But, what I do now, is run them dry and store them that way, plus I always use fresh gas when next used. This however does not help the OP and his original query.

Stay in tune...

Mike Ward

This is the correct way of doing it, irrespective of whether it's pure gas or E10. The tin hat brigade just loves wasting money I guess.

hammadown

I bet you spent more money on the chicken that came with your pile of bones than I did for my 8oz bottle of STAR-TRON that treats 36 gallons of fuel . Mike............ do what you want with your fuel....but up here in the north east ,our "classic" cars and outdoor equiptment spend about 5 months in hibernation....(mine do) and I DO NOT need any problems with my fuel come spring time
on the other hand my snowmobile spends 9 months in hibernation and I ALWAYS treat the fuel!!!!!!
I'm NOT going to get in a P!ss!N& contest with you over name brand's .
red or blue............ sta-bil ...star-tron....Joe Bl%w....it don't matter .......you need to treat the fuel for "STORAGE". you don't need to worry about your fuel if you use it regularly and it doesn't sit around for extended periods!

BTW Mike.......... I have a diesel truck.......... are you going to tell me that I don't need to add ANTI-GEL to my fuel during the COLD winter months up here in the north east???????????

Hammadown

Mike Ward

Please look at my avatar and location. I'm 'norther' and 'easter' than you- by far.

Nobody I know with a diesel adds anything to the fuel, even with extended periods of -20 to -30, but hey, knock yourself out.

Paul L

Oil companies do adjust their additives to cope with the seasons. Yes there is summer and winter gasoline. I would imagine that applies to diesel as well.

hammadown

"Nobody I know with a diesel adds anything to the fuel"

NOW I think your full of

Your "DIESEL" fuel friends sound just as FOOLISH as you They can play russian roulet with their fuel / filters jelling up if they wish but I'm ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL set with replacing jelled up filters on the side of the road when it's 0- F degrees out

you canuck's have a habbit of leaving your vehicles running for days on end for the fear that they wont start in the cold weather

Your "DIESEL" friends probably don't plug their block heaters in either!!!!


Hammadown

Mike Ward

Sorry, not going to feed the troll any more.

tnovot

It's about time. You have consistently found fault with the use of additives to combat the effects of ethanol yet boat dealers and marinas all over the country can attrest to the fact that alcohol fuels cause phase separation and other problems in marine engines.
Terry

Paul L

That is simply not true. My late-model Impala starts very nicely at 0*F and even below that. I have seen -25*F temps. And generally it is not plugged in. I do use Mobil 1 0W-30 to keep engine wear at a minimum.

Leaving it running for days?? What nonsense.

Mike Ward

This is a Corvette CAR forum, not a Corvette BOAT forum. Please read what actually happens to boats and why it's not applicable to cars. I can rant and rave about how to prepare a swimming pool for winter, that doesn't have much relevance to cars either.

Let's hear from people that have had documented problems with their CARS that have been attributed to the use of ethanol AND would have been prevented with the use of these snake oils.

Ethanol fuels have been around for decades, up to 30 years in some areas. Nothing new under the sun as they say, lots of time to have accumulated examples of the horrors.

Much like the 'unleaded gas will burn my valves' debacle of the 70s, the myths and misunderstandings are far outweighing fact and common sense.

hammadown

Is your impala diesel ????
if not ................. your reply has no association with what I replied to mike about HIS diesel friends

Hammadown