Winter Storage

HEET is methanol aka methyl hydrate.

 

Thanks. It's been over 19 years since I've needed those skinny yeller cans for my fuel. Hope I never do again.

 

I store mine with a full tank to minimize condensation and I also add Stabil to the gas prior to the last fillup & shutdown. I also have a battery disconnect installed and I disconnect the battery.

 

We had battery disconnects on all cars. Seemed to cause problems and dead batteries so removed all of them.
The 1955 Chevy wagon and the 1941 Ford (sb Chevy) sit nearly 2 1/2 months every summer and start right up.
I guess my winter storage is while we are on summer vacations.

 

I never argue. I just give the correct facts.

Alcohols......there are many different types of alcohol so one must define which one when discussing them. They go right up the ladder from the simplest to the complex. If you take a gas and hydrate it, it becomes an alcohol; ie, methane, ethane, propane, butane, etc become methanol, ethanol, propanol, butanol, etc.

Heet is methanol. It's poisonous and corrosive, probably the last thing you want to add to your fuel system, but it's not needed anyhow since today's gas contains ethanol. Ethanol will mix with water 1/1, but if that ratio is exceeded in gasoline, it will drop out of the gas and sink to the bottom. The resultant solution is barely combustible and your car will run like crap or not at all.

We had a special paste to check our tanks for this. This paste was different than the paste for detecting water. It was required daily and had to be kept in a log. If the paste showed color, the pumps had to be shut down and the bottom of the tanks pumped until they were clear.

Why does this matter? If gasoline is 10% ethanol and it will absorb water 1/1, then an unscrupulous dealer could add 5% water to his tanks and gain an additional 5% profit from the water. Major oil companies prevented this by taking random monthly samples and analyzing them. However, an independent cut rate station might never be caught. We also had special filters inside the pumps that would instantly plug if exposed to water. Later, electronic leak detectors were installed.

Now, for a simple test anyone can perform. Take a small glass bottle and add a measured amount of gas to it. Draw a line at the meniscus. Then add an equal amount of water. Shake it up and then allow it to restabilize. Has the meniscus moved? If so, some of the water has been absorbed by the ethanol. Next, add 1/2 of your measured amount of deicer or stabilizer. (3oz gas, 3oz water, 1.5oz deicer/stabilizer) Again shake it vigorously and allow the restabilize. A good product will show 2 distinct layers. A lousy product will show three.

Back in the day, only Malco fuel line deicer passed the test and it contained isopropanol.

 

Computer controlled cars always cause a parasitic drain on the battery and it will go dead. How fast depends on the battery and its condition. Add clocks, burglar alarms and other doodads and it happens quicker.

 

This was before computers in cars. Probably cheap battery cutouts.

 

It goes over. There is no other way. No argument.