Over the past 8 years I've been adding
Stabil
( red) to my Jaguar as part of the annual winter storage routine. Today , I learned on the Jaguar forum that red colored
stabil
is useless if added to any gasoline containing ethanol and that only blue
Stabil
will condition gasoline having ethanol. Here's what was said about the issue on another forum:
BLUE
Stabil
is the one to use with fuel with Ethanol in it. It preserves the fuel and counter-acts the ethanol issue
RED
Stabil
does NOTHING for gasoline with ethanol in it - while it may preserve the gas, the ethanol will override the effect by pulling moisture into the tank
I've never (to my knowledge) experienced any problems as a result of using red but which product is commonly used by the Porsche community???
Thanks!
Like you I've used the Red stuff for many years, but when I learned of the Blue (Marine) formula a couple of years ago I switched to it for my cars. I continue to use the Red for my lawn tractor, snow blower, leaf blower and any other yard equipment, until I use it up.
Likewise!
I have used red during winter storage with 10% ethanol before I became aware of the marine stuff and had no problems. Now I use the blue
Stabil
(at twice the price)
There is no exchange of air in the gas tank while the car is parked up. Any air in the tank can shed -- via condensation -- some of its moisture content but this is not enough to cause any problems. And since no outside air is exchanged with the air in the tank no additional water can accumulate in the gas tank due to condensation.
Thus you can use the red
Stabil
unless the label specifically advises using when there is any possibility of ethanol in the gas tank.
BTW, I had the
fuel pump
go out on my 02
Boxster
after around 8 years and 220K miles and the tech commented on the lack of not only trash in the tank but there was no water at all. And I've run gas with ethanol for years now: All I can get here in CA.
Sincerely,
Rockster.
Blue is twice the price, but you only use 1/2 the amount. I too use blue, but I have an outboard motor and a polyethylene fuel tank in the boat. I do NOT store the boat tank with any fuel in it.
My red is over 1 year old and has flakes of something inside the bottle. An email from
Sta-Bil
says this is normal, mixing with gasoline will dissolve the flakes back into solution. Sure beats trying to filter them out!
Here's a question:
If you've been using Red
stabil
for years, and just found out it does nothing for gas with ethanol in it, then isn't that the same as if you didn't use any
Stabil
at all? for years?
This was my first year for winter storage, my father recommended the blue stuff, based on hearing similar information.
Now I'm wondering if there is any benefit of adding a stabilizer to a tank of gas in a car... I haven't heard anyone complaining that their gas went bad after using a stabilizer, and I'm assuming a lot of people use red
stabil
, as it's for sale every where.
I guess what I'm getting at is: that somewhere, someone, made an assumption that isn't exactly true. I'll continue to to add the blue stabilizer at storage time for piece of mind, but I think this is going to turn into one of those old mechanics tales, like oil changes every 3000 miles.
I asked my dealer about the use of
Stabil
and he told me that Porsche does not recommend it. He has a
Cayenne
owner that goes to Florida and put in
Stabil
. The dealer had to replace the entire fuel system and Porsche wouldn't cover the cost ($6,000)
Would be interested to know what additive Porsche would recommend if they do not support the use of
Stabil
.
Thanks !
Since you're talking about Ethanol:
Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada
