So I store my R for the winter months... I complete the standard things...

- Full tank of fuel (Ultra 94)
- Oil Change (Mobile 1 5w30)
- Check Tire Pressure
- Gas Stabilizer (www.sta-bil.com)
- Car Cover

I decide, well, it’s a nice day today; let me go for a spirited drive around the block.. Fire up the R, start driving.. no problems.... make a stop, fire the car up again.. and it dies... WTF. Tried to start it again and it dies a second time, not before tripping the check engine light.

I managed to get it home, however, unless I keep the RPM's up it will die....

Is it that crap fuel stabilizer... I mean, one thing I due notice is the smell that comes from the vehicles tailpipe.. very toxic, almost unbearable.

Help

 

didn't over rev did ya?

 

lol, Striker has lots of experience with symptoms like that; i.e. bent valves.

How did the car run before you stored it?

I think you are probably right on the fuel thing.

 

The car ran great... no problems at all... as for over reving the engine... no way, I let the car warm up a little before taken around the block... the car ran fine.. I didnt even hit vtec.

I think its the fuel treatment, should I drain the tank and re-fuel or should I just burn the exisiting fuel with the stabilizer I added?

 

check the engine codes....

 

Yeah. I guess that is the best thing to do, unfortunatley, I have suspended the Insurance on the car for the winter months... I cant drive it to the dealer. I just wonder what code would the ECU throw for bad fuel?

Also wondering if anyone here has had a problem with the fuel stabalizer before - http://www.sta-bil.com

 

I've done exactly the same thing as you. The car's been stored since the end of October with Ultra 94, Mobil 1 synthetic, and car cover. I've been holding off on the fuel stabilizer just in case it screws up a whole tank of gas, cause it's gonna take forever to burn a whole tank of bad gas off in the spring.

I was thinking of just adding one or two bottles of 104Octane boost in the spring to revamp the gas. I heard that your main concern when storing your car over winter is that the gas looses octane over time. Is that correct?

I would really appreciate any insight you guys might have concerning this matter since I don't want to damage the engine in the spring due to bad gas (I've got 12.5:1 compression Weisco pistons to worry about, and I'm sure high compression and bad gas don't mix!)


[Modified by 35mugen, 4:04 PM 1/3/2002]

 

I did all of that except the gas stabilizer. For some reason, I don't trust that stuff. Gas should be fine unless you store the car for more than a year.

 

Sta-bil is for lawn tractors. You see their commercials all the time when there is a lawn tractor race on Speedvison.

Next thing you'll be telling me that you've been putting regular Esso gas in your car.

Ravage00 you've been hanging around the isles in Canadian Tire too long to buy that Stabil stuff

 

Your only parking the car for 3-4 months. You dont need fuel stabilizer. It takes gasoline about a year to go green. Fuel stabilizer prevents this. It also prevents paper gaskets from drying up. I don't believe there are any gaskets that need to be prevented from being damaged. My guess is the stabilizer fouled your spark plugs.

 

Did you you read the stabilizer can, I think it says to drain the gas out before using the engine again. I have used Stabil in generators, chain saws, lawn mowers, but never in a car. also, how much did you use? you follow the recommended ratio of gas/stabil? I agree, it most likely the Stabil.

 

i stored my car since the end of october, and was only last month that i put in the gas stabilizer, not sta-bil but motormaster from canadian tires, i only put half a tank of gas in 'cause i thought i'm probably wanna use it up by march. i still drive the car every sunday (no insurance) just around the house, it's a little hesitant on starts, yeah i notice the smell from the exhaust, but otherwise my car runs fine.

did you let the car runs for 15 minutes after you first put in gas stabilizer? and is it the first time fire up the car since storage?

 

I think you want to drain the oil out. And you need to disconnect the battery.