contaminated gas

I recently did some repairs on the boat..water was getting into the gas. I had to drain out the "bad" gas as part of the repairs. Are there places to dispose of the gas..cant be used for mower or anything with water in it...about 15 galons went to waste...maiking me nervous in cans behingd the shed.

Re: contaminated gas

Can you let the water settle out, and pour off the good gas? I had pretty good luck doing that even with ethynol gasoline.

Re: contaminated gas

not sure how to do that...how do you separate it?

Re: contaminated gas

Got a fire pit? Just burn it all. Makes for a great starting fluid on logs and whatnot outoors.

Re: contaminated gas

bigdaddy08302 said:

I recently did some repairs on the boat..water was getting into the gas. I had to drain out the "bad" gas as part of the repairs. Are there places to dispose of the gas..cant be used for mower or anything with water in it...about 15 galons went to waste...maiking me nervous in cans behingd the shed.

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Take it to your city collection center.

Re: contaminated gas

Go buy a fuel funnel sold commonly at snowmobile dealers, parts stores, etc.
Get one that has the water filtering screen in it. The gas will pass but the water will puddle on top of the screen.

Ever try to fill a snowmobile with gas in a blizzard?

Or just wait a month and the water will have settled to the bottom of your gas cans.
Then gently pour off the gasoline above the water.

Re: contaminated gas

If it's E-10 (ethanol) fuel, it has been damaged beyond repair. It's called "phase separation and you can look it up.

Yes it could be used for fire starting but how many of us have a need for that?

Most cities and counties have a place to dispose of unwanted gasoline. Call and ask.

Re: contaminated gas

Pour the fuel into a 5 gal container. Now let it sit for an hour. Siphon the bottom of the tank into a clear container. You should see the phase seperated fuel and the water, and can pour it off.

When the gasoline is clear, it is water free, and may be reused. If it is cloudy, it needs to settle more, or it is toast.

Re: contaminated gas

If the fuel has separated you can use one of the water separating funnels or a siphon to get rid of the lower layer which is the water/ethanol mixture. Once that bottom layer is gone you have just gas remaining.

Keep in mind that the ethanol is an octane increaser and without the ethanol the remaining gas will have a lower octane rating than when it cam out of the pump with the ethanol in it.

After getting rid of the water I would still run the remaining gas a couple gallons at a time in my car.

Re: contaminated gas

109jb said:

If the fuel has separated you can use one of the water separating funnels or a siphon to get rid of the lower layer which is the water/ethanol mixture. Once that bottom layer is gone you have just gas remaining.

Keep in mind that the ethanol is an octane increaser and without the ethanol the remaining gas will have a lower octane rating than when it cam out of the pump with the ethanol in it.

After getting rid of the water I would still run the remaining gas a couple gallons at a time in my car.

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Read my post above. You cannot repair phase separated fuel, nor can you use what's left after trying to drain the water. It might work for starting fires or killing weeds but it will not work in an engine.

Don't just believe me, do some research on the Internet.

Re: contaminated gas

rwidman said:

Read my post above. You cannot repair phase separated fuel, nor can you use what's left after trying to drain the water. It might work for starting fires or killing weeds but it will not work in an engine.

Don't just believe me, do some research on the Internet.

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The lower layer can't be used for anything because it is ethanol and water mixed, but the remaining upper layer is just gas. It is true that you can't get the layers to re-combine, but I never said that. The remaining gas is a lower octane, but just gas.

Also, I don't go to the internet for this stuff. The internet is full of misinformation. You can find anything on the internet to support your point of view, right or wrong. I happen to have a friend that works for Mobil as a petrochemical engineer at one of their refineries. I just called him and he verified what I thought. He said the remaining gas octane rating after separation would be lower because the ethanol that is no longer there and the ethanol (RON=113) serves to increase the octane of the blend. He said that the octane rating of the separated fuel (top layer) would be about 84. The math for 87 octane e-10 works like this (10*113+90*84)/100=87. Given that, I still would run it a couple gallons at a time in my car (24 gallon fuel tank). Working out what the resultant octane rating is --->>> (2*84+22*87)/24=86.75 That's close enough for me. If you have a smaller tank run less at a time. If not good enough for you, then run 89 octane mid grade and it works out to (2*84+22*89)/24=88.6

The octane of the top separated layer has too low an octane rating to run in most engines these days because they are designed for higher octane. So I guess I sort of agree with what you said, but I didn't say to run it straight, but to mix it with a larger portion of fresh un-separated fuel. I stand by that.

Re: contaminated gas

rwidman said:

Don't just believe me, do some research on the Internet.

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I did....found this little tidbit from the state gov. of Hawaii revolving around using a water detecting paste with ethanol gas and what to do with what's found.

3. If a large amount of water enters the UST (e.g. storm water entering through a defective fill cap or groundwater entering a hole in the UST), phase separation will occur rapidly when the 0.5% threshold volume is exceeded. Water paste on the gauge stick will turn yellow at the phase separation levels and, below that, red at the excess water bottoms level.

4. If phase separation has occurred, the phase separation layer and any excess water bottoms can be pumped out of the UST. The proper amount of neat ethanol can then be added to the remaining amount of sub-octane gasoline to bring it back up to spec.

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http://hawaii.gov/dbedt/ert/new-fuel/files/phaseseparation.pdf


This was taken from a discussion about gas underground storage tanks (like at your gas station), E10 and how to detect water and phase separation.

If you'll note, they recommend, if the UST is contaminated with a large amount of water, to pump out the ethanol and water layers and then reintroduce replacement ethanol to bring it back to spec. So apparently, it's not completely ruined but can be repaired and even sold to you as E10 gas, straight from the pump.