Bad gas?!?You be the judge!

[amodea1]

So i was almost out of gas the other day after letting her sit for a while...stopped to get some at the local Sonoco...put bout $4 in it so bout 1/3 a tank and turned out on my merry way to get a steak from the mother across town for dinner...no sooner had i pulled onto a very busy street then the bike felt like it lost all power and would not rev past 4k...
first thought for some reason was that the chain had fell off(neglect on my part getting that done today)...wasnt that so i pulled off into the parking lot of a nearby pet store to see what was up...turned off BG(Her initials cause i call her Blue Green)....turned her back on and she started idled ruff, then died..and did so several times....would stay on with the choke all the way on but at about 500 rmp lol....
so had my dad tow her back to my house(luckily he bought a nifty 3 bike trailer for a steal locally).. and he mentioned it was bad gas...Read KKIM's post on the gas tank removal and then another about how to blead the carb bowls...did that filled the tank up with Chevron midgrade...and guess what...It was like having a threesome for the first time all over again she started soo nice......here is a pic of the gas that i pulled out just from the first of 3 of these jugs approx 1.25 gallons...
needless to say i was disgusted...but hey i learned alot about BG while i had her in the O/R..THANKS KKIM!!!!!!

[Snake]

Yea that sure does look like bad gas. Did you take it back to the gas station to show them and get your money back?

[utahninja]

Could it be Diesel fuel and gas mixed (or separated) in the bottle? Ugh!

[CZroe]

I've had the exact same symptoms that do not appear to be bad gas related, though I strongly suspected it at first. It's hit me a four times total in the last 5.5K miles. It usually starts and runs fine when I add gas or let it sit for several minutes/open the gas tank and try again.

[DEXSPEED]

Same thing happened to me when I installed my jardine slip on with stock motor then I shimmed the jets ran smooth ever since
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[kkim]

Make sure you never go back to that station again.

Some gas stations are more prone than others for water intrusion in their storage tanks. Live and learn which to avoid.

Good to see that forum members make use of the DIYs even though the one you used is missing some pictures, I believe?

[250rStar]

This is why i only use Chevron 91 octane! i've tried shell and its a no go for me i feel like my baby doesn't cry as much with the yummy food and hey its only like 30 cents more per tank and come one you could find it under your couch!! ok so soap box over now later

[kkim]

come on... look at the picture of the gas in that bottle. That is not caused by purchasing a particular brand of gas, but by conditions in which the gas is stored at the station in their tanks.

[Banzai]

Originally Posted by kkim

come on... look at the picture of the gas in that bottle. That is not caused by purchasing a particular brand of gas, but by conditions in which the gas is stored at the station in their tanks.

Agree there. We have some pretty old gas stations around here, and their tanks are being slowly eaten away and more and more contaminants are getting into them. There's a lot of stations ripping out their old tanks and putting in new ones.

Many gas pumps have inline filters on the hose up by the pump, and they usually have a sticker as to when they were last serviced. If you can find something like that, get gas there, as long as they're servicing their filters regularly. If they're servicing them too often, likely as not they have bad tanks.

Another byproduct of the slowing economy is that more expensive grades of gasoline aren't turning over nearly as fast as they used to, making for larger stocks of old gas sitting longer in the tanks.

More and more reasons to run a gas filter every day!

[coolbreeze]

Could part of the problem be the 'up to 10% ethanol' mixture that gas stations are using?

[null0]

It happens, this happened at a Chevron close to where I live.

Samples of Mill Valley gas show high levels of ethanol
Mark Prado
Posted: 04/28/2010 06:05:31 PM PDT
Updated: 04/28/2010 06:33:25 PM PDT

Gasoline at a Mill Valley service station that may have damaged cars contained extremely high levels of ethanol, according to laboratory test results.

A car engine can typically handle a 10 percent mix of ethanol when blended with gas, but the samples showed much more than that - a "very high level," said Stacy Carlsen, who heads the county's office of Agriculture, Weights and Measures.

He couldn't confirm the exact mix, but he said it could approach 90 percent ethanol.

"It could not have been the shipper or the service station," Carlsen said. "It may have occurred at the refinery as it was being blended. There are still some things we have to figure out."

Motorists who fueled up Sunday at the Chevron station in Mill Valley at 5 Ashford Ave., along East Blithedale Avenue, reported trouble with their cars. A mechanic who worked on some of the cars had speculated that water in the fuel could have been the problem.

"There are a wide variety of redundant processes to maintain fuel quality," said Sean Comey, a spokesman with Chevron's corporate office in San Ramon. "It is still unclear what the cause is. We will take the appropriate actions to address this situation."

Comey said the station is independently owned and operated.

"This appears to be an isolated situation, affecting only this one station," Comey said, adding the gasoline truck that delivered the fuel in question made several other deliveries. "Any of our customers who believe their vehicles may
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have been affected by this situation should contact the station owner."

The station owner, who could not be reached for comment, can be contacted at 510-778-3138.

Contact Mark Prado via e-mail at mprado@marinij.com; IJ reporter Christian Goepel contributed to this report.

[coolbreeze]

Well, at least they seem to be owning up to the issue. I hope they will pay for all repairs related to this.

[amodea1]

YESH THE GUIDE WAS MISSING A FEW PICS THAT PROLLY WOULD HELP UNLESS UR CRITICAL READING IS PRETTY GOOD.. THE TWO PETCOCK LINES ALMOST GOT CONFUSED,...BUT IT SAYS THE ONE IN THE back IS THE FUEL LINE..SO THAT WORKS OUT I GUESSE..MY BROTHER MADE A GOOD POINT.. IT LOOKS ALMOST LIKE RUST...THIS STATION IS PRETTY OLD AND HAS HAD MORE THAN A FEW NAMES INCLUDING BP SONOCO CURRENTLY AND I THINK PHILLIPS 66 AT ONE POINT SO IT MAY BE RUSTY TANKS BUT FROM WHAT I UDERSTAND THERE IS A # THAT I CAN CALL TO HAVE THEIR TANKS INSPECTED...BUT YEAH I DID PUT A 2 BROTHERS EXHAUST ON MY BIKE ABOUT 600 MILES AGO AND WAS THINKING THAT WAS MY PROBLEM FROM READING SOME OTHER POSTS BUT WHEN I SAW THAT GAS...YEAH...RUNS GREAT NOW..THOSE CARB FLOAT BOWLS ARE SOO EASY TO GET TO AND I AM SOO THANKFUL FOR THAT...JUST UNSCREW THE DRAIN ON BOTH AND UR GOLDEN..
ALSO I PUT SOME SEAFOAM IN THERE JSUT IN CASE CAUSE THAT STUFF COMSE HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

[amodea1]

A SIDE NOTE AS WELL..THE WHINING THAT OUR ZX-2.5R's DO QUITE FREQUENTLY HAD COMPLETELY STOPPED WHILE THE BIKE WAS OUT OF COMMISSION FOR THAT TWO DAYS...JSUT WIERD IS ALL

[OldGuy]

Hey Aaron - your CAPS key is on and you are shouting