*Don't Let Gas Ruin Your Winter
Winter Vehicle Storage: Don't Get Gassed
You've taken good care of your engine all summer long. You changed the oil, kept your fluids topped off, you even replaced your own brake pads. As winter weather looms, you're even going to do the right thing and store your car, truck, ATV or riding mower indoors. Stop! Before you close the door for the last time until the spring thaw, you may have just lit the fuse on a nasty little crud bomb inside your engine.
The culprit is in your fuel. Back in the old days, fuel was nasty stuff. It looked nastier, smelled nastier, and was full of stuff that was good for the inside of your engine, stuff like lead. These days, the lead is out -- no biggie because it can't be used with emission controls -- but it's what they've put in that is just waiting to do your engine some harm. It's ethanol. Ethanol is the fuel additive made from corn that everybody seemed to be taking about at some point around 10 years ago. Since ethanol was made from corn, and we can grow corn, we should start switching vehicles over to run on ethanol as fast as possible, right? That wasn't going to happen. The oil companies have a powerful lobby that wasn't about to let some other fuel source trump their dinosaur grade petroleum. They also figured out that it wasn't even near possible to create enough ethanol to run all of our cars and trucks. But they did decide to put between 5 and 10 percent ethanol into our gas tanks. It takes plain gasoline a couple of years to start going bad, and even then it only loses its volatility making it less efficient. When E8 (8 per cent ethanol) or E10 (10 per cent ethanol) sits for even a few months, it starts to change. And sadly this change can cause havoc as the degrading ethanol clogs up small passages in your fuel system. Carburetors really suffer, and they don't have as much fuel pressure to unclog themselves as their more modern fuel injected cousins. An engine that sits with modern fuel in it can be very difficult to restart and may not run well when it does crank and fire.
So what's the answer? Do we need to run our engines every couple of weeks in a closed garage in the middle of winter? No! Never run an engine in a close space, carbon monoxide can build up very quickly. The answer is a good quality fuel additive that you can put in your tank and run through the fuel system before you put your vehicle up for winter.
I've talked about fuel additives before, but there is one standby that has been around for ages and is still the first choice for most professionals who are putting a vehicle into deep storage. It's called Sea Foam and it's been around since the 1930s. A proper amount of Sea Foam added to and run through your engine will protect it against all of the damage ethanol can do. In the Spring you'll have an engine that is ready to go. Whether it's your cherished vintage car, your boat, motorcycle or yard equipment, they will all benefit from Sea Foam protection.
It's super easy to use. Simply add the right amount to your fuel tank. I like to add it at the gas station as I'm filling up. Once it's in the tank, you need to be sure the rated fuel has reached all points in the fuel system. You do this by running the engine for a while. Now you're ready for safe storage!
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