Petrols shelf life

[Riceburner]

Just drained my spare fuel tank on my lux, preveouse owner disconnected it. I got about 35 litres out but it smelled funny. I poured a bit onthe ground and lit it to make sure it was ok. I dont know how long its been in the tank. Can I use it?

[King Rat]

My experience is that petrol does go off, but how long it takes, don't know. Rather use it to wash parts.

[CasKru]

I don't think it is actually the petrol that goes of. Additives get added by die different fuel companies each with their own brand. What you might have in that tank is petrol with a high ration of additive to petrol due to the base petrol that have evaporated over time. If I remember correctly some of the additives I've seen is greenish in colour. m2cw.

But to answer your question. You could probably use it in lawnmowers etc. but not a new engine because it could be leaded

[Riceburner]

Its very oily almost like two stroke. I already added it to my other tank. half fresh half old. Seems ok when I drive it, just smells funny as if my trucks farting eggs.

[CasKru]

You might also see your car smoke a bit more than usual

[Bushwacker]

Jy kannie petrol op die rak los nie, dit sal verdamp

[leonbrink]

If I may but in...
We bought a old 1976 LC 2F a while back for our farm. It was standing for almost 7 years when we got it, back on the farm we opened the tank to find almost VROT petrol in the tank, we poured in about 10 l fresh petrol and started it. It ran with no problem other than lots of smoke and a helluva smell!

Me thinks, thin it!

[BenHur]

Diesel on the other hand can not be stored that long it thickens. My folks' bakkie stood for a long time now due to the old people being sick so they did not camp much in the second half of last year. The use this bakkie exclusively for towing the caravan and when they filled her up the other day she stopped smoking when the new diesel went in. The previous time they filled the tank was in May last year.

My brother and some colleagues also did tests at their mine, as some of the standby gennies did not want to start if they were standing for a long time between refuelling. They took several samples of fresh diesel and stored it in containers and added to the collection every month. After a year they had 12 samples and he said that after about 5 months you can see it starting to thicken, after a year it has gone totally bad (thick sludge)

[2.8 d/cab SFA]

good to knwo, I won't have that problem, drive my lux everyday

[SYRON CONVERSIONS]

We removed some petrol from the MGTC which is a 1946 model, this vehicle was put on blocks in Nov 1970, the fuel that we removed from the fuel tank was 37 years old and if you want to small old petrol, this stuff really stinks, have a few pic's will post them here when I find them.
When we started the engine, we did not drain the engine oil, it is still running on oil that is also 38 years old,