Check your fuel

[Pat]

Interesting event occurred last weekend. We took the '40 to a local show and as usual it ran great on the way. It was parked for about four hours (temp in the high 80's) and when it was time to leave, I had an unusual difficulty getting it started. On the way home, it was terrible at idle but OK at midrange and above. I checked plugs, leads, vacuum lines and couldn't find the source of the trouble.
A friend suggested I had water in the gas. I pulled the filter bowls and guess what, a bubble of water on each side. Needless to say that didn't do the paper filters any good. I drained the fuel and put it in my less discriminating truck and put in some fresh fuel with some Sea Foam in the '40 and now the car runs like new.
My friend speculated that there are probably several issues going on. With the price of gas skyrocketing, some dealers have been reportedly putting water in their gas. Beware This Problem That Stops Your Car Cold
He also conjectured that others may be selling far less premium as people are substituting regular and so there is unusual condensation in the station tanks compounded by the springtime change in temperature. Some dealers are also waiting to replenish their fuel stocks because demand is down and they are waiting for the seasonal blends.
I'm not sure how the water got in there but I thought I'd mention it in case you have similar issues. It may be wise to check your filter bowls as well.

 

[Dwight]

your problem may be Ethanol gasoline.

Ethanol absorbs water 6000 time faster than gasoline. With 10% Ethanol you will have a problem.
Our group changed to non Ethanol gasoline a few back. All our cars with carb's ran poorly. Weed eater, lawnmowers, chainsaws, anything but the newer cars ran poorly with the Ethanol gas.
Ethanol gas has a lot shorter shelf life than non Ethanol fuel.

Dwight

 

[Pete McCluskey.]

One of the major pre flight checks on light aircraft is for water in the fuel.
Petrol/gasoline seems to attract it somehow.if you don't drive your car very often It's a good idea to replace the fuel every six months.

 

[Tom]

Veek,
If you haven't been doing so, keep your fuel tanks as close to full as possible when you store your car in the garage. Leaving the tanks half full, then letting the car cool down and sit for days will eventually pull in moisture or creates condensation in your tank as the tank and fuel temperature cools down. You're in Florida and it's humid there, that aggravates the problem a little more. The 10% Ethanol blend also tends to absorb moisture.

I seriously doubt that gas stations add several gallons of water to their tanks to make an extra dime. What I have seen is putting regular in a mid-grade or Premium storage tank then charging you Premium prices. Hard to prove unless you can test and determine the actual octane rating coming out of the nozzle right then and there. Fuels are color coded but they can still be 'cut' or diluted with other blends.

 

[Mike Drew]

Old gas is an issue too. I was on a fun run in British Columbia a couple of years ago, where a large group of Panteras pulled into a Shell station and tanked up with the 'good stuff', i.e. 94-octane. All the cars then started reporting running problems to various degrees; two people actually removed and rebuilt their carbs overnight. It wasn't until the next day that we figured out that we all got bad gas, and that once a fresh tank of fuel (from someplace else) was introduced, the problems magically disappeared.

The theory is that few people were bothering to pay the premium price for the *premium* premium fuel, so the gas had gone bad in the ground. Gasoline used to have a shelf life, but the crap they are selling now ages about as well as milk! :laugh: