Use of fuel stabilizers in HMVs

[Phil Waterman]

Hi All

Sorry to hear that ethanol fuel has now become widespread in Canada, he have been suffering with the stuff in the US for years.

My observations on fuel stabilizers:

• They sort of work, the US gas goes flat very fast with or without stabilizer additive.
• Stabilizer does seem to help with the water absorption and separation
• Power loss and fuel economy from gas going flat is very marked, I've done engine test stand test with stale (3 months old) and fresh gas engine running on fresh gas all warmed up and running on fresh gas, switch tanks to stale gas as the fuel in the system is used up and the stale gas hits the carb, RPMs drop and the engine takes on a unhealthy note.
• When running 3 month old gas in the generator there is marked drop in max power out put of the generator and how much load it will carry, but what is even more marked is the drop in fuel economy which drops by 30%. Burn through the stuff in the tank and refill with fresh gas and generator carries more load and fuel economy is back. Power loss with the generator is significant enough that now I have 3 sealed five gallon cans which I keep full. But once a month in the winter I dump the all in our regular cars and refill with fresh.

For year prior to the change in fuel each fall I would fill all the tanks on the trucks before parking them for the winter. Then if we had extended power outage I had 84 gallons of fuel on hand. No power outage would just use up the fuel in the trucks in the spring. Came the fuel change and the trucks run like crap in the spring. As a rule of thumb now if any of the antiques start running crappy I drain the fuel (use in regular car) and refill the tank with fresh fuel before even thinking about looking for a cause of the running crappy.


Yes, I use Stabil Marine in the trucks and in the fuel cans.



Cheers Phil