Wanna know something about petrol going off?
It goes “off” as in out of spec. Not unusable. Not even *bad*.
The trout is on the same tank I last filled it with in June 2025. It runs fine.
I had another Falcon that sat from 2001 to 2009. Ran fine.
Maybe less power, or lower mpg. Couldn’t tell.
A really finely tuned engine control computer might complain, might throw codes. It might be really noticeable on a high compression or high performance engine.
But the mad max wasteland will be fine.
I believe there are microorganisms that will eat hydrocarbons, if they have the opportunity.
Takes years though by which time the fuel tank is probably rusted and the fuel is contaminated, rather than explicit "gone off" .
If you watch "Wheeler Dealers" various series they do cover a lot of engine rebuilds and similar on older vehicles. Fairly interesting and not aimed at too low.a level.
@decryption gods no. Got the FG then and probably driven the trout a dozen times - and two of those were to make sure the battery kept charging!
Want it?
@bartreardon @decryption @NanoRaptor
There's a lovely story about an award-winning 1979 Gemini here:
https://motorheritage.org.au/my-winning-1979-holden-gemini-td-series-wagon/
And a recent Garbage Time video about a 1979 Holden Gemini RTS panel wagon, owned by a drummer friend of Wade.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Yn6sbP7J_gk
That's the same guy who replaced his coolant with Pepsi, and his engine oil with chocolate.
@nazgul It is! Almost literally! There's a great story behind this.
Peter Rader wanted to do what he freely admitted would be a rip-off of Mad Max, in light of its low cost and huge success. To give it a unique spin, they'd set it on water. But they projected that it would cost too much, so they shelved it until they could line up sufficient funding -- $100M (early '90s).
Plagued with problems, the cost ballooned to ~$175M -- the most expensive film ever made to that time.
@nazgul They kind of did, though this kind of film would be very difficult to film in a tank. They built a 'seawater enclosure', which I'm guessing is just what it sounds like, which would be sort of halfway between a tank and open water. (Stephen Spielberg advised them not to film in open water, from his experience on Jaws.) But Hawaii was pretty happy about the troubled production: They made $35M off it!
I forgot to mention, Dean Semler was DP on both WW and The Road Warrior.
@nazgul The same enclosure method was used on Cameron's Titanic -- the first film to exceed Waterworld's production budget, and claim the title as the NEW most expensive film ever made.
These are pony numbers now, though. Even adjusted for inflation, Titanic is now only the 12th most expensive film ever (tied with Spider-Man 3), and Waterworld comes in at # 24.
The current lead is The Force Awakens, at TWICE Waterworld's cost. (Again, adjusting for inflation.) Films are now INSANELY costly.
@henryk @NanoRaptor The basic chemistry is pretty simple, but modern batteries have a lot of subtle manufacturing and chemistry tweaks to provide things like higher current, so they're not so simple anymore.
They also do degrade over time ('self-discharge') and many modern car batteries will become unusable and even very difficult to recharge if they drop below a certain level.
@rmi @NanoRaptor old diesel burns ok* - it's the stuff that's turned to sticky jelly goo in your injector pump that's annoying to clean out.
Just drain all the water it's sucked out of the air and possibly chuck in a bit of old engine oil to give it back some of its lubrication...
I've only ever tried this with 40+ year old engines though. Probably don't try that on a modern engine you care about? 😂
@recursive @rcombs @NanoRaptor
What's the situation with diesel engines? (I'm curious because I've been told by Renault that my fuel injector failures are because the car isn't run enough, but apparently fuel injector problems are common with this engine in India, and many people believe that it's either a flaw in Renault's fuel injectors or a problem with dirty fuel, or both.)
It… displeases me that said gunked-up fuel injectors must be replaced at a fairly steep price and can't just be cleaned nicely. Y'know, with a nice fuzzy white pipe cleaner or something.
@NanoRaptor Data point: I inherited my dad's old (gasoline-powered) Chevy Silverado a number of years ago. Not having a need or a place for a large pickup truck and being a chronic procrastinator, I promptly parked it in a vehicle storage yard and let it sit completely unused for ~4 years.
When I finally got around to getting it ready to sell, I had a dead battery to contend with... but once I got that going it started up and ran just fine.
@NanoRaptor mmm, the smell of varnish.
Yeah I’ve burned through old gas too. I like to mix in some new stuff though if I can and burn through it vs being purely the old stuff.
@NanoRaptor Based on what I’ve seen of old cars with really bad fuel in it seems like gasoline/petrol polymerises or over time to a dark brown colour and smells like varnish, and where it sits it tends to cause blockages and films if brown crud.
Modern petrol goes “off” (out of spec) faster due to the ethanol content, as ethanol seems to degrade quite quickly, and is prone to absorbing moisture in cool climates where condensation occurs, which can subsequently damage engine components over time
Our gasoline is corrupted with minimum 10% ethanol.
Letting it sit more than a year is a bad bad scene.
@nlarson830 Actually, the advice I was given by experts is to start and run a motor vehicle (ICE) at least weekly, and actually drive it (any type) at least once a month, running ALL systems (including heat and A/C).
If it sits a long time, it might start and seem okay, but it's probably got problems that just haven't revealed themselves yet.
That's what we tell all of our customers
@NanoRaptor ime that really depends on the particular gas. I had some that sat for about three years and it was literally not flammable, I couldn't light it with a torch lol
But other times I've had a car with gas that's 5 years old run like it was brand new so
@NanoRaptor How does that change if it has ethanol in it?
And don't get me started about using food as fuel to appease farmers, and thus increasing the price of the food.
@NanoRaptor Do you have something like https://www.goldeagle.com/brands/sta-bil/ where you live? I don't really know why it works, but the active ingredient is an aromatic hydrocarbon which reminds me of an artificial fruit smell, which is hilarious
(I've used it on <1 liter carbureted engines)
(disclaimer: I work in the fuel industry)
Gasoline longevity depends on several factors. Higher octane blends tend to keep longer, but water in the fuel is a serious issue, especially with 10% ethanol. Varnish is a real issue, but it tends to crop up later than most believe.
That said, storage at lower temperatures is ideal, since it keeps the VOC loss at lower rates, and integration of carb/injector cleaner becomes increasingly needed as fuel ages.
@NanoRaptor It’s wonderful if you can get ethanol-free fuel, but the evil additive is mostly mandated in Canada and eventually turns to crud in your engine’s plumbing.
For my small engines I get premium grade ethanol-free at the nearest Rez and even then make sure I run everything at least twice a year.
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