[Phil Waterman]

Hi Rick

I see your location says Manchester, I assume Manchester England where non-ethanol containing gas is still and option, you are lucky.

Don't want to hi-jack the point of this thread on Fuel Tanks, but in the US for a strange combination of environmental, renewable energy, and out right political manipulation, the powers that be have decreed that all US gas shall contain ethanol right now the argument is over should it be limited to E10 or 10% ethanol or as the producers of the ethanol want it should be kicked up to 15%.

Only way you can get non-ethanol fuel reliably in the US now is Aviation or Marine fuel locations.

The issue of protecting fuel tanks and fuel systems on antique vehicles from changing fuels though is in keeping with this thread. Keeping the fuel tank full is the best option if you drive the vehicle enough to use all the fuel in the tank every 30-60 days. Because the adding of ethanol has come the problem that the fuel goes flat very quickly several companies now are selling fuel additives such as Sta-Bil which help protect the fuel system of older vehicles and power tools using small gas engines.

I have a very simple test for how stale gas gets and which fuel additives work, run it in my standby generator and see how many watts the generator can produce. Use to keep all of the tanks on my trucks full during the winter so that I would have 50+ gallons of fuel,we would use in the generator when we have extended power outages, . Then they change the fuel, and suddenly fuel that has been sitting around for more than 60 days the generator will only put out 75-90% of what it will on fresh fuel. Also the trucks run like crap until you use up what has sat in the tanks over the winter. Using it up is not a problem because MPG drop like a stone when the fuel is stale.

Guess the bottom line is if we are going to drive old vehicles we have to pay attention to changes in fuels.

Looking at your pictures I've got a question did you patch those tanks or make new tanks?

Cheers Phil