Last Years Fuel Has Lasted

Personally I think there is much bollocks talked about fuel going off and fuel stabilisers are pushed by people who sell fuel stabilisers. My advice is use your own experience. Keep using Shell V power and don't listen to the doom mongers.

 

I've found fuel injected bikes are more tolerant of 'old' fuel than bikes with carburettors. I must admit I only have one bike with carbs now, my NS400 and that started up fine after a 5 month lay off, but I left it over winter with E5 fuel in the tank not E10. I actually find more issues with leaving E10 fuel in petrol lawnmowers, chainsaws and strimmers. I usually have to clean the jets on those if they haven't been used for a while.

 

I've had zero problems with E10 in my 95 Thunderbird, and she doesn't come out in winter.

 

I put 8 year old petrol in my lawn mower, and it ran fine

 

I have done much the same, i filled my old t140 bonneville with shell 99 octane last june and it fired up 3rd kick this week.

I hadnt planned on leaving it a full year but life and a hand operation got in the way.

I'm not too sure Stanlow fuel is any different to that distributed further south. Is there any evidence of a difference?

 

Some people are really fussy and get carried away. I used to be on a CBR600F forum were one chap always changed oil & filter every 1,000 miles. A bit over the top but it was his baby and each to their own eh ? But at least he didn't go around advising others to do the same.

 

Any old fuel laying around makes great weedkiller if you don't want to put it your bike

 

Going back to '91/92 when I had a FZR1000 (on carbs obviously) it was laid up in the garage over Winter for almost 4 months with maybe 2-3 litres of fuel in the tank. When I came to start it, it wouldn't. Lots of cranking, misfiring and spitting back and when it did eventually start it was as rough as a Bear's a*se and smoked like a two stroke on cheap oil. I left the old fuel in, brimmed the tank with new and a few minutes of running later it was fine, smooth steady idle and no smoke. Not sure if fuel formulation has changed much since then, apart from ethanol content but modern fuel does seem to last longer, even in bikes or equipment with plastic tanks where vapour migration can be a problem.

 

My Mz Skorpion (660 yam engine btw) was in storage for 4 1/2yrs on premium fuel. It’s carburated and started first time once it turned the fuel tap on!! Now that’s a very very long time to sit in a tank so that just proves there’s lots of bollox said !!

 

Nice to hear e5 worked well for u. I left a small amount of e10 in my thruxton r over winter without optimizer and first ride this year kept wanting to stall.
drained majority of it added optimizer and now only use E5 will see how i get on after this winter.

 

Not sure how US swill compares to the UK stuff, but I have never used stabilizer during winter down time. As mentioned, fuel injection is a bit more tolerant, but even back when I had carb'ed bikes the most I would do is shut petcock and run the carbs dry. No issues since 1980 (I probably jinxed myself!).
FYI the US stuff is e10 and I use Shell 93 octane almost exclusively.

 

Here is my experience of E10 fuel and the machines that have fallen foul of the E10 fuel, first to be affected was my sons Suzuki Katana 1000 (new model), filling with E10 it ran terrible, rough running and erratic idling, back to my garage and tank drained and replenished with super unleaded (E5) and it ran normal, he always runs it on E5 now and no issues since, my Street Triple 765rs was the same running E10 (as theoretically it should) it was awful, erratic idling and rough running below 4 thousand revs, again a change to E5 sorted the issues, however matters took an even worse turn, when out for a ride with my 2 sons, my eldest son has a Ducati Panigale 1299s, after accidently filling up with E10 instead of E5, he got a few miles up the road (2 miles to be precise) and power went and it went into limp home mode, back at my garage tank drained and again replenished with E5, it started but still ran badly and limp mode was still activated, unfortunately I don't have a diagnostic for the Panigale, after a phone call to Ducati who informed me that a number of machines have ran very badly on E10, and that it has resulted in damaged sensors, so it was into the dealer, I was present in the workshop when it was hooked up to the dealer tool diagnostic machine, and it was clear to see that 3 sensors shown malfunctions (permanent damage), new parts had to be flown in from Italy as none in UK, these arrived super quick and duly fitted it ran normal. I did place a previous post some time ago on the forum re E10, a number of motoring organisations including the AA, RAC and the IAM have reported extensive problems people are experiencing with E10, a lot of vehicles run fine with E10 however an awful lot have had significant issues, and some have required expensive repairs. I can only describe my personal experience, however other riders and drivers have also told me of experiencing issues. Ride safe all from an ageing Rocker.

 

Jees makes you wonder whether E10 has been designed to slowly kill off the ICE.
Be good to know if there have been any motorcycle accidents attributed to E10 and it causing bikes to die whilst riding.

 

My advice is always use the best fuel available at the pump.
Honestly, for a for a £ or $ difference, whats the point of putting anything less in your tank?

Sure people may flame me for that comment but unless you're skint and need the extra money for the payg meter, just man up and pay for the best fuel....

 

For the last twenty years plus I have never taken any precautionary measures with regard to the fuel in the tank of my Ducati over the winter period and there has never been a problem waking it up. As suggested above, maybe the fuel injected machines are more tolerant.

 

Judging by all the different experiences listed... there's no "one size fits all" answer to over-winter fuel. I never bothered draining the carbs on my SV650 and used standard fuel and no additives for 15 years or more, it generally started and run OK until.... one year it refused to run on both cylinders and petrol was running out of one of the overflow pipes. Removing the carbs, the float bowl had greenish residue and blocked jets. Due to the engine and frame layout, it was damned nuisance working on those carbs, so I started adding Silkolene FST before a long layoff. I didn't have a problem after that and I swear the engine felt smoother with the FST in.
In most parts of the UK, Esso Synergy Supreme+ is 0% Ethanol, although they have to mark it as E5 for legal reasons.
If anyone wants to geek out over petrol (and ICE fuels generally) this is the website for you: https://www.fbhvc.co.uk/fuels

 

Esso do currently supply an ethanol-free Synergy Supreme + 99 unleaded in some parts of the UK. From September 2023 their Synergy Supreme + 99 will transition to contain up to a maximum of 5% ethanol at all Esso pumps irrespective of which part of the country they are located.

 

We can all only speak from personal experience on this one, but I tend to agree with @andypandy in that there is a bit of b*llox talked about fuel.

My 2008 Guzzi V7 classic is the oldest bike I have, and it has a plastic tank and half plastic, half metal fuel filter. It has EFI but everyone recommends using E5 to prevent the tank from expanding. Guzzi forums are full of people claiming how much better the bikes run on E5 and how evil E10 is.

I can't always get E5 as some of the smaller rural filling stations don't carry it (Helmsley for example). However, I've found the bike runs just as well on E10 so far without any I'll effect.

Always run the Tiger and Yamaha on E10 and when I've tried E5 it makes sod all difference