Topic: Sta-Bil Ethanol Fuel treatment

[kammery]

 Was at Loews the other day and bought this Sta-Bil fuel treatment . The front states "prevents Ethanol Fuel related damage" The SKU # is 73905 22264 . I put it my 550 and 750 fuel tank and ran both of them . Has anyone else tried it yet ? The fuel here in Pennsylvania appears at times to have a little to much Ethanol in it at times .

[Mo]

If you're planning on storing it for a while stabil is good. Otherwise pointless. It doesn't reduce the ethanol as you seem to imply? I use seafoam (maybe works maybe not). IMO, it's all personal preference with little backed up with research.

At the end of the day, it's all personal preference. Ride on.

[HondanutRider]

Stabilizing fuel is something of preference, that in my opinion and experience is over-rated.

Around here we reverse store our snowmobiles in the summer months, putting them away in the spring until winter.  We have a seldom used rig that is over 15 years old, used only for breaking a trail these days.  It is a 2-cylinder, 2-stroke, oil injected and I run it on regular gas that now has ethanol included.   Last spring, as usual, I put it away by just draining the carbs (shut off gas supply and ran till dry) and disconnected the battery in case there was a drain.  As usual I got it ready and went and started it up just the other day.  I didn't add any gas as the tank was still about 1/4 full, but I did charge-up the battery for a day on the trickle-minder.   Turned it over a few times with no response as the gas probably wasn't through yet, so I pulled the plugs and dropped a bit of fresh fuel into the holes for the cylinders.  Re-installed the plugs and it fired right up!  Smoked a lot as it warmed-up (normal for this 2-stroke) so I thought I'd move it out of the garage to do a bit of a run on the barely snow-covered trails, only to find the belt engagement frozen and not engaging.  So I stopped it and greased the mechanism a bit, wriggled it to "unstick" it, and started it right up again.  Had a nice ride in the bush and parked it, adding a bit more "fresh" fuel.

Did I say anything about adding any stabilizer?   Nope.

[hondabbqman]

I have used it with good success but you must "freshen" it every 30-60 days as it has a limited working life.  Better for me has been to run completely on non-ethanol fuel.  I keep about 5 or 6 fresh cans of non-ethanol fuel at all times and this keeps me in good shape for local riding.  Occasionally on long rides I use ethanol gas but I try to plan on running that tank out right away.  I also add Marvel Mystery Oil to each tank fill (1-2 ounces) according to the recommendation of Hondaman and others.  I always turn the petcock off and try to run the carbs dry (as much as possible) when I know I am not riding it for a week or two.  I live in Birmingham, AL and non-ethanol fuel is available at area lakes about 45 minutes from my home but I usually know when I am traveling in those areas and fill my cans at that time.

You will only have limited success using Sta-Bil in my experience if you let your bike sit for prolonged periods.  Before I switched to non-ethanol my Honda outboard motor (9.9) had it in it at every fill and every spring I still had to totally clean the carbs to get it to run right.

[Sami1987]

Star-Tron is much better! I have used it in all my power equipment for three years now and everything starts right up in the spring

[MRieck]

Star-Tron is much better! I have used it in all my power equipment for three years now and everything starts right up in the spring

Star-Tron is a very good product for sure. Yamaha now has a fuel treatment product that addresses the corrosion problem AND the water absorption problem associated with ethanol. The Star Tron doesn't address the water problem. I have been using the Yamaha product for about 4 months and it appears to work as well as Star Tron (some of my bikes sit for long periods) That being said....I'd use Star Tron over Sta Bil any day....it does work.

[Bob Wessner]

What is the name of the Yamaha product?

[Duanob]

This always a big discussion with the boating crowd, but then we deal with tanks anywhere from 25 up to 200 gallons of fuel. I use the Stabil green for marine use. It's supposed to fight the effects of ethanol in gas but who really knows. So far no problems but then again I can't look inside my fuel tank.

As far as motorcycles go I just drain the bowls and gas tank completely. it's only 4 gallons or so, then i dump that into one of my car tanks. Then I spray some kind of coating like WD40 or whatever inside the bowls and tank to keep from rusting. I wish the PO had done the same!

[MRieck]

What is the name of the Yamaha product?

Sorry for the late reply...it is called Fuel Med Rx  Yamaha part # ACC-FUELM-RX-16

[Bob Wessner]

No problem. Might look into getting some. Thanks.

[Mooshie]

Star-Tron is much better! I have used it in all my power equipment for three years now and everything starts right up in the spring

Star-Tron is a very good product for sure. Yamaha now has a fuel treatment product that addresses the corrosion problem AND the water absorption problem associated with ethanol. The Star Tron doesn't address the water problem. I have been using the Yamaha product for about 4 months and it appears to work as well as Star Tron (some of my bikes sit for long periods) That being said....I'd use Star Tron over Sta Bil any day....it does work.

+1 on Star tron