Gas - shelf life - octane breakdown - winter storage

[daytonajim]

As everyone knows I snowmobile about 3 months every winter at our lodge near Jackson Hole & Yellowstone. Let me know if you ever want to ride in Wyoming.



I was reading my latest SnoWest and there were some tips about gas from Dustin Pancheri @ Starting Line Products......



'Fuel can loose as much as 3-4 octane per month - that's one octane point per week. Keep fuel fresh. Look for busy service stations to buy your fuel.'



Snowmobiles need Premium with no ethanol.



That got me thinking about our GMMG's........ Maybe the 'experts' will give us some tips?



What do you do when you store your cars?



Do you use a fuel stabilizer? What & how much?



What do you do for storage over the winter? How do you prep your car?



Here's what I do (not saying it's right) but what I do.........



I use Stabil or Sea Foam in the gas every fall & always add a little (not much) red ISO Heat just incase there is moisture.



All cars are started for a few minutes at least once over the winter.



The gas tank used to be full but not anymore with the short fuel life. Now I try & keep it around 1/4 so I can add a little fresh gas in the summer.



Over 20 Battery Tenders plugged in for anything that is not started every week or so. (Snowmobiles, ATV's, lawn Mower, boats & all cars)



I'm hoping Aaron (BB #34) will share how he hard wired his Battery Tender.



Oil is changed every 2 years for the cars I don't start or drive all the time. Once a year for the drivers that I put less than 3k miles on.



Matt Murphy & I talked a lot about oil & he was very insistent.......



Only Mobil 1 5W20 & never-never use a K&N filter. When I wanted to talk about K&N & was insistent that I use a paper filter. I don't know why but that was his opinion.



JD & I talked about oil filters - Only Mobil 1. JD...... Would you please share what you told me?



Cars are washed & clean - I use painters plastic because it does not scratch like a car cover. If a car cover goes on there is plastic under it.







This is what I do. What do you do?

[Blackbird34]

Great topic Jim!



Here is my methods for storage (remember I am in the Midwest so this may not pertain to our southern friends)





Fuel-



Like Jim, I only put the cars away with a 1/4 tank of fuel. I always make sure that whats in the fuel tank is premium NON- ethanol fuel only.Because of that I generally don't put in any additives in the tank. I have used Seafoam in the past and had good results. I will not use Stabil for anything. After having major fuel related problems in my snowmobiles and other small engines using Stabil I avoid it. I do not start the car unless I have to during the winter. I believe unless you are going to get the car good and hot you are just adding moisture into the engine. Shelf life of ethanol blended fuels in the U.S. is about 45-60 dayes before it starts breakdown.



Covering-



My cars generally sit under a quality breathable car cover. I have never had a issue with scratching my paint using a high quality cover, PROVIDED the car is squeaky clean. I like Jim's painter plastic idea for his showroom. If someone had place where the temperature changed often, high humidity was present or the floor would sweat ....I would be worried about trapping moisture under the plastic and not allowing the car to breathe.



Fluids-



I always have fresh engine oil when I put away my vehicles. My Blackbird gets Royal Purple HPS 10w-40 and a A/C delco or K&N oil filter. The Oil topic is always hugely debated and everyone has their own opinions. I generally run a paper element air filter. The major problem with a K&N type oiled air filter is oil transfer to the MAF sensor and the car will eventually have performance issues. When I first got my car I noticed grime on the MAF sensor...after I cleaned it, it idled much better. The most overlooked fluid on infrequently used cars IMO is the coolant. Regardless of miles, change out your Dex-Cool every 5 years minimum! Whenever I purchase a "new to me" vehicle the first thing I do is drop every fluid. You would be surprised the amount of moisture suspended in the transmission, rear-end and brake fluids over time.



Battery care-



I have always used a Battery tender on everything that sits more than a week. It saves buying batteries and doesn't stress out your alternator trying to charge up a dead battery constantly. I will do a write up on how I installed my battery tender in hard wired and neat way at some point.



Misc..-



To avoid flat spots I will over inflate my tires to 40 psi and put a square of carpet under the tires. Besides being detailed top to bottom I wipe down all the rubber door seals, tires, hoses and interior plastic with 303 protectant. I also treat all leather surfaces with Zaino leather products.



The bottom line IMO is...if you don't drive them at least a little in the nice weather they will slowly need expensive maintenance down the road. :auto-layrubber:

[NCGuy68]

I used to worry about flat spotting tires until a Goodyear Tech guy clued me in.



He said that was once a problem but only with old bias ply tires. Modern radials don't have that problem, at least the Goodyears don't. I've never had any problems with the F1s on my Earnhardt car.

[ZL-1 Supercar 51]

The F1s on my HOSS flat spotted on me about six months ago. The car had been sitting for 6 months, maybe longer, and since I hadn't felt anything like that in a few years it shocked the crap out of me at first. Took a good six or eight miles to smooth out. These tires only have 1,100 miles on them so the deep tread depth does add a little to the flat spotting.