Re: Stabil versus Marine Stabil whats the difference
Re: Stabil versus Marine Stabil whats the difference
It doesn't matter how old you engines are or how many hours are on them. This stuff has to do with treating the gas, and it's not the same as the regular Stabil.
The marine version doesn't just stabilize the fuel, it treats the ethanol within the fuel as well, which regular Stabil won't do and Sea Foam won't do.
It prevents what's called "phase separation" within ethanol gas, if you have seen separated fuel in a jar, you will not want that in your tank or being pulled into your engine, which won't run for too long once it gets in there.
I've taken it out of plenty of tanks when ethanol first came to Long Island like 3 years ago, HUGE problems.
On top of eating away the build up on the tank and eating away lines that aren't designed for it (not much of them around anymore), the ethanol combines with the moisture that is always in your tank from condensation, when it mixes it separates out of the fuel mixture and sinks to the bottom of the tank, so that when you start up again in the Spring you suck in a nasty mixture of separated ethanol and water, which will not burn and cause a lot of headaches for you.
The reason Sta-Bil came out with the marine formula was to compete with Star-Tron, which I still think is the best stuff out there for treating your fuel. If you use Ethanol fuel, you should be using an Ethanol treatment all year long, dump some in when you get gas, it will keep your fuel system clean and the tank in your fuel fresh the whole season. It's not expensive $15 will get you a big bottle of Star-Tron that will treat 80 gallons.
If you don't have to use ethanol fuel then you're fine with using the regular old Sta-Bil, but if you have ethanol in your tank you need to treat with an ethanol treatment.
I went to a seminar about two years ago, when ethanol was causing BIG problems in the Northeast, it was given by Bombardier and it was strictly on how to deal with treating ethanol. One of the first things they said was that ethanol gas is actually closer to 25% Ethanol rather than 10%, no matter what it says on the pumps. So 25% of what you put in your tank is an ethanol mixture if you have to use Ethanol gas.
They recomended double treating the fuel with an Ethanol treatment, like Star-Tron, for winter storage, and then in the Spring use a 93 Octane to fill up with, because as Ethanol fuel degardes over the winter it loses octane, so if you have 87 in there, even if it's treated, you may end up with something closer to an 85 or so in the Spring, so they advise putting some higher octane fuel in will even things out, once you burn that up you will be fine.
I've never heard a true answer to the question of storing full, empty, 1/2 full or it doesn't matter, but I have never had a problem with any technique. I've strored empty, full and 1/2 tank and as long as it was treated for Ethanol, and a new good water separator was used in the Spring, no problem.
Anyway, the moral is if you use Ethanol in your tank, you better use something to treat it, this is NOT the same fuel we used to have and the treatment is NOT the same.
Personally I trust the Star-Tron over anything, and it also helps with microbial growth on the bottom of the tank. Not sure if the Sta-Bil marine formula does that. But I have seen Star-Tron work wonders, so not willing to save $10 and risk it with Sta-Bil, but they do make good stabilizer, so I bet it's a decent product.
Wouldn't mind hearing some feedback from actual users.
Treat the Ethanol!!
Good Luck, winter sucks!!!
