Posted by Clint Dixon [108.162.216.157] on Thursday, February 23, 2017 at 13:22:06 :
I had to cut down a tree a couple of weeks ago and when I got the chainsaw out I found out I had been a bad boy. It had been about 18 months since I had used the saw - an early 80's model 028 Stihl. Not only had I neglected to clean the saw the last time I used it but I also had neglected to empty the gas tank and run the carburetor dry.
I topped off the tank with premix, which had also been in storage for the past 18 months, and it took about 6 pulls to get gasoline flowing into the cylinder as all of the gas in the carburetor had evaporated. The saw ran sluggish for the first few minutes until it got up to temperature (it was a cold day). Then afterwards it ran like a champ and the tree came down and got cut up with little effort.
My point is that this was old gas and I admittedly made a mistake by putting the saw away in that condition. But, all the gasoline I buy is the cheapest I can find locally and it always has Ethanol in it. It is not unusual for my saw premix and weed trimmer premix to sit for long periods of time unused. It is also not uncommon for my trucks to sit through the winter on tanks I had topped off for storage - gas which can be several months old when spring comes again. Same with the garden tractors, generator, and power washer.
Knock on wood as I have not experienced the problems others have faced with old fuel. I do use fuel stabilizer, but I only add it in the fall. It never gets used any other time of year even though my engines can see months of storage during the summer also. What am I doing wrong...or what am I doing right maybe?
Junior
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