bear with me....it is an honest question and not totally daft.

 

pump petrol goes stale (volatiles evaporate, aromatics oxidese/react, oxidisers absorb water)  particulalrly modern ethanol mixed pump petrol.  This is sometimes a problem for me and my lawn mower (4 stroke briggs and stratton engine) but not much as each winter I pour any petrol that remains in the can into the car to get rid/use it up, and buy fresh juice for the lawn mower in the spring.  Now last year I bought a chainsaw, its 2 stroke, I used stihl 2 stroke oil in the 'one shot' bottle to mix 5 litres of fuel at 50:1  (the one shot 100ml bottles are a very easy way to mix fuel).  Its stored well, air tight container, cool and dark spot in the garage, so hopefully it will last a while but if it does go off can I do as I would with the can of neat petrol for the mower and stick it in the car?  My immediate raction was 'No'.  I thought perhaps the oil would poison the cat, but now I'm not sure if I'm worrying unnecessarily.  Engines burn a little oil anyway, VAG engines sometimes have ahabit of burning quite a bit, iirc the manual states something like upto half a litre per 1000km is considered normal/within spec (haven't checked that number though).  If I put say about 1 litre of old 2 stroke mixed fuel in the tank and topped it up then the car would burn about 10ml of 2 stroke oil in about 350 or 400 miles, that's not a great deal.  So....not wishing to run any risks, just wishing to find a safe and easy way of disposing of a litre or 2 of stale 2 stroke mix if it happens, would it be ok to add to the car tank and fill it with fresh?

No no no no no no no no no! God what is wrong with people on here tonight?... we have got one guy who hadn't checked his oil for 11500 miles and is pondering what oil to use and now you want to save a few pence and put chainsaw fuel in your £25000 car Jesus, take it to your local household waste site and dispose of it for free and whilst you are at it pop in the garage and fill the car with shell V-power nitro+ and stop being silly.

This. If you have to ask, then I think you already have your answer. Alternatively, you could be the first to try it, in which case let us know how you get on ;-)

Not worth the risk. It's true about petrol going off though, about 2 weeks and you need to top up with fresh fuel. So my tip, if your doing short journeys/low mileage, only run with a 1/4 tank of petrol, and keep topping up every few days.

At that concentration if you had another 48L of good fuel I guess it shouldn't be a problem but as MrA says its not worth the risk.

Burning too much oïl can be bad for your Lambda sensors & catalyst (as we found with our last petrol 207 even though the garage said the oïl consumption was within the allowed limit).

 

If its not good enough for a €500 chainsaw its probably not good enough for your €5000 engine

 

Do you not have any chavs living in the street with a 2-stroke moped or has everyone moved onto the chinese hover boards now?

They used to be the bane of my life, whizzing round the footpaths between the houses, when I was in the UK.

I know that Chavs with Mini Motos and the likes can be annoying but you really cant just go making Molotov Cockta-ils and fire bomb them because you have some burst fuel.

I thought that was a very good suggestion...

Is it April 1st?

I was meaning to give it away but I like your idea more GoneOffSki ;)

I've got The Prodigy flying around in my head now...

The last time I used petroil it was 4s 4p per gallon, in about 1962 , for my Lambretta LD 150cc.

I had no idea you could use it in a normal 4 stroke petrol engine.

Is it April 1st?

It could be. I saw hot cross buns in the shop today!

 

To the OP, I really don't think your Stihl 2-stroke will really care much how old the petrol is unless there is mold

Hear you pal but all you'll serve to do is invalidate the warranty on the engine at least. Just use VAG approved 5w/30 fully synthetic and all will be well.

?

In the petrol?    To what Ratio?

 

VW must know as they have enough petrol engines they designed and built that use engine oil at a consumption rate higher than Two Strokes did back when Martin Winterkorn was a boy.

Edited 6 January, 201610 yr by GoneOffskiroottoot

I have an old stihl saw that I use for cutting firewood and it runs fine on a year old can of juice. Just give it a good shake before I use it to make sure the oil hasnt settled. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I wouldn't put it in the car though. I used to drain my motorbike fuel out for winter and put it in the my wife's old MX5 but now I just brim their tanks(to reduce condensation) and drain the carb bowls and they are fine each year

I'm not convinced as to how bad fuel goes as long as its not sitting in a carb bowl evaporating into jelly

Yeah stick it in. But give us your reg number so we never buy your old car.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

Despite earlier advice it is now illegal to to dispose of petrol at most community refuse sites. Usually they can only recycle used engine oil.

 

I had this hassle when I wanted to dispose of about 2 litres of contaminated petrol. The local council directed me to a commercial waste disposal company who wanted £100 plus VAT for the privilege of disposing of it. Instead I stored it until November 5th and used it on the bonfire!

 

Buy some Honda fuel stabiliser. Add it when you buy the petrol if you think that you may have store some of it later. Its not cheap but you only need a little for every 5 litre can.

 

I add it to the 2 stroke mix used for my Stihl equipment, and have used the mix over 12 months later without any problems.

 

Whatever you do don't put it into the TSI. I don't think the injector nozzles will appreciate some nice sticky Stil oil mix.

Edited 6 January, 201610 yr by Minimoke

Not worth the risk. It's true about petrol going off though, about 2 weeks and you need to top up with fresh fuel. So my tip, if your doing short journeys/low mileage, only run with a 1/4 tank of petrol, and keep topping up every few days.

Petrol going off? How? Does it somehow oxidise (scary) or lose vital components (if so, which?)? How can you tell? Does it go off in the garage bulk tanks? I've left a car at the docks for a month and it ran perfectly afterwards. Mind you, the brakes were terribly juddery because I'd left the handbrake on and the discs had corroded elsewhere in the salt air - took a couple of hard stops from speed to clean them off.

Edited 6 January, 201610 yr by JohnMorr

I have an old stihl saw that I use for cutting firewood and it runs fine on a year old can of juice. Just give it a good shake before I use it to make sure the oil hasnt settled. I wouldn't worry about it too much.

I wouldn't put it in the car though. I used to drain my motorbike fuel out for winter and put it in the my wife's old MX5 but now I just brim their tanks(to reduce condensation) and drain the carb bowls and they are fine each year

I'm not convinced as to how bad fuel goes as long as its not sitting in a carb bowl evaporating into jelly

An answer with some thought and value, thanks, I was starting to think this wasn't briskoda.

 

It can go bad even in a sealed can, aromatic compounds decompose, RON drops, but if water is kept out and volatiles in things don't get bad too fast.

 

I don't have much trouble with the mower, I just try and ensure it has little or no fuel in it over the winter, top with fresh come spring and it usually starts OK.  The saw I always use until dry, so it would never suffer from gumming or ethanol damaged pipes. It's more whether I use the mix before it goes stale in the can making the saw hard to start.  For those of you that aren't aware, small and low compression engines with basic carbs rely heavily on volatiles to start from cold, with stale fuel you'll never get the saw going.  I suspect I'll get through 5 litres of mix in about a year and it'll not be an issue but if I do need to get rid of a litre or two I want a safe and easy way. Local council recycling does not accept petrol (or diesel).  Without a definitive answer I'm happy to go with my initial reaction and that of most here, doing as I do with old unleaded isn't a good idea with mix.  Not sure how I'll get rid of any stale mix if it happens.....need to keep thinking.

I know Chain Saw users that buy Regular Petrol (LRP), not Unleaded petrol,  because they can.

They also Buy and store Winter Petrol for all year round use.

Edited 6 January, 201610 yr by GoneOffskiroottoot

The "official" line on fuel storage from BP..........

Opal-factsheet-storagehandling.pdf

Edited 6 January, 201610 yr by Minimoke

Once the fuel makes it to the cylinder, it's not such a big deal. But the oil typically burned in an engine comes past the rings and the valve seals. The oil in your case comes through the fuel system. The question is what it could do to your injectors, fuel pump, filters, etc. I think the bigger danger than the oil is the potential for dirt, dust, and grime in the old fuel.

You can buy alkylate petrol it's free of ethanol and aromatics and has a much longer life and is not going to damage plastic and rubber fuel lines and carb parts.  It's costly though at about £5/litre, but I might use it in future. I've used about 1.5 litre of mix in 5 months and processed about a chord of woo,d probably a winters worth for my little woodstove.  So alkylate petrol won't break the bank.

Petrol going off? How? 

It's not so much that it goes off but that it turns into Merlot.

(I get out of hospital next week)

Try this to find a place....

https://www.gov.uk/hazardous-waste-disposal

Last year I was in a petrol station and a guy was at a pump and filled a petrol can with diesel. For whatever reason  he realized that it was not diesal he required. In he strolled and asked for the key to the toilet. To cut a long story short he was going to pour the diesel down the toilet. The attendant told him in the nicest possible way not to be so bloody stupid. As i left there he was pouring the diesel down a drain in the street.