Thread: Bad gas?

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I went to the car show in Tunica, MS this weekend. The drive down was fine, no problems what so ever. The drive back was a different story.

I gassed up for the trip back and within about 1/2 mile of the gas station, the truck started running like crap. It was way down on power....to the point that it would not maintain highway speeds and at times struggled to stay running.

Sometimes it would clear up and run like a hot rod. These good spells would last anywhere from 5 seconds to 5 minutes. When it was acting up, it only made power at idle and a hair above idle.....any more throttle and it would bog / sound awful / slow down.

I tried all sorts of things trying to drive it home (more timing, less timing, richer idle mixture....etc). Nothing worked very long. I ended up leaving it rich with the timing backed off a tad just to be safe.

Most of the way, I was able to find a "sweet spot" where it would maintain 65 mph.


Do I just have water in my tank?

Anything else I should check?

Need more info to be of any help....Engine? Ignition and fuel system?? Always can go with some fresh high test and some fuel dryer. Anything with methylalcohol in it.

Basic hot rod 350.

355 with flat tops, 350 horse 327 cam, Edelbrock RPM intake, Edelbrock 750 carb, recurved GM HEI ignition, NGK plugs.

With the exception of the exhaust, this combination has been together for about 13 years (in a different car). Normally, it is a great running engine.

Fuel system is 2005 S-10 blazer plastic tank, new 3/8 steel lines, 13 year old chrome HP mechanical fuel pump.....Carter maybe?

Could be a lot of different reasons. I had a bad gas problem years ago, but in my case my engine would hardly run at all after fueling up (whole lot of spitting and sputtering and shaking going on) . I used a can of dry gas and changed the fuel filter (Fram frame mount type) and the problem went away after about 15 minutes of testing.

But I won't go so far as to say that bad gas is your only problem.

It was the gas.

Switched to a lawnmower gas tank with fresh gas and it runs smooth as can be and revs like a racecar.

Filled the lawnmower tank with the crap in the truck's tank and it runs like crap again (spits, sputters, surges....etc).

Good for you...Always feels good to solve a problem...Might want to go torch that gas station You paid 4 bucks a gallon for that crap

There is more bad gas being pumped out there than we realize. I have a Mobil station near me and twice I have filled up there and had immediate running problems in my daily driver. I figured the first time it was just a fluke, but after the second time I now drive right past it and go somewhere else.

Lots of reasons for this. The lids where they put in gas can be loose and act as a funnel in the rain, or the tanks can leak or condensation can build up. Depending on where the gas level is in the tank you can get little or lots of water with it.

Don

we used to have a gas station in my town, that had leaky tanks, not only did they get a lot of water.. it was on the side of a creek/ small river, which is the headwaters to 1 of the Resivores running water to NYC.. the actual dam wall is only a few miles from the station too.. people started to complain, and loss of buisnuess caused them to switch suppliers 4 times in 2 years, and ended up just being an independent buying really cheap gas.. lasted a few months, they pulled the tanks just a few months ago

OK, turns out it wasn't the gas....or at least, not what I thought.

On the fourth tear down of the carb, I found lots of little pieces of silicon stopping up the little screen that is on the inlet for the needle and seat for the drivers side of the carb.

Apparently the carb would fill up and it would run fine. When I romped on it, the one side couldn't keep up and would run out of gas.

Cleaned everything out. Installed a new fuel filter. It's a hot rod again.

Went on a 60 mile test drive today with no issues.

I learned when I lived in Alaska to never gas up if the tanker was unloading, he stirs up all the water and crap in the tanks. Almost every case of watered gas that ever came into my shop they remembered the tanker being at the station.

Originally Posted by willowbilly3

I learned when I lived in Alaska to never gas up if the tanker was unloading, he stirs up all the water and crap in the tanks. Almost every case of watered gas that ever came into my shop they remembered the tanker being at the station.

Hey that's some great info that I never thought about...Thanks