Winterizing

[jerseydevil]

What's the general consensus for putting up the boat for the winter. Top off the gas tank & add StarTron or Lucas Oil stabilizer to the tank? There seem to be different schools of thought for which ones to use. I've even heard about using a quart of "White Gas" aka Colman Fuel per 10gals?

 

[Chad Flaugher]

Gas tank 95% full to allow for expansion, and best stay away from pump gas. Use marina gas or another high octane ethanol free gas. Marina gas usually has stabilizers in it, but only they can tell you for sure. If not, stabilizer is a great idea. Lots of other do's and don'ts for inboards, but it sounds like you have an outboard.

 

[thumpar]

I have left is full, close to empty, half full, added sta-bil and not added it. Over 10 years both boats have always started right up. Now I just get the tank down at the end of the season, add the green stuff (just because) and fill with fresh fuel at the beginning of the season.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Search the term "winterizing" and you'll find about at least several hundred topics describing the virtues of several approaches. As for gas, many folks use a stabilizer for winter storage, many others don't. There does not seem to be a clear consensus as to whether it is needed for over winter storage. Use the stabilizer, or not, and you'll probably be fine either way.

As for the engine, unless it's an outboard, winterizing needs to be done correctly. Most of the winterizing threads will discuss that, too.

 

[tpenfield]

No concensus . . . empty, full, and levels in between have all worked. I go empty since I have a 160 gallon tank, so filling it for 6 months just seems like a bad investment . I just pumped 37 gallons out of my boat last weekend and filled the cars up for the week.

Here is an article I wrote on my theory as to why either way works http://www.tpenfield.com/EmptyisthenewFull.pdf

 

[JASinIL2006]

No concensus . . . empty, full, and levels in between have all worked. I go empty since I have a 160 gallon tank, so filling it for 6 months just seems like a bad investment . I just pumped 37 gallons out of my boat last weekend and filled the cars up for the week.

Here is an article I wrote on my theory as to why either way works http://www.tpenfield.com/EmptyisthenewFull.pdf

Very interesting and quite sensible. I would add that, in the Midwest and other cold parts of the country, the air in the winter months holds less water, so the risk of water-borne vapor is pretty small during at least several months of lay-up.

 

[thumpar]

No concensus . . . empty, full, and levels in between have all worked. I go empty since I have a 160 gallon tank, so filling it for 6 months just seems like a bad investment . I just pumped 37 gallons out of my boat last weekend and filled the cars up for the week.

Here is an article I wrote on my theory as to why either way works http://www.tpenfield.com/EmptyisthenewFull.pdf

Good write up. I don't drain mine because it is only 40 gallons but I do try to use up most of it on the last couple trips. I figure it would be better to have 30 gallons of fresh mixed in with the old stuff than 40 gallons of just old stuff. With the gas prices going down so much now I might have to go fill it just before the seasons starts though.

 

[jerseydevil]

Thanks for all the replies I have an O/B.

 

[S.A. Baker]

No gas prices going down around here! If it goes down a nickel one day ,it will go up .20 the next ! So...where's the "cheap" fuel?