I have put my 1956 Corvette to sleep for the winter. As I have done every year for the last 10 years I topped off the tank before covering it up in my unheated garage. Currently ethanol is max 10% in our gas. My question is should I have drained the tank and used the gas in my snowblower because it will break down over the next 4 months? Leaving me with water in my tank in the spring?
Did you put in a gas stabilizer, like Stabil?
You should run stabil or seafoam through the system as a minimal action. I have done wintering on a number of things, and yes in spring you may have a loss of performance due to deteriorated gas. I think the full tank is not bad as an empty tank is a breeding ground for condensation. It is hard to kee a carb from varnishing with gas in it so an additional thought is to put a shut off in the gas line and run the carb dry. Fogging oil is good also. Looking for additional input!
I did not use any stabilizer. Has not been necessary in the past.
Geez! You’re using E10 in that classic car? Not a good idea. Back in 56 there was no ethanol in the gas. So the fuel system was never designed to handle the corrosive nature of ethanol, and damage to the fuel system components can occur.
Back in 1993, Minnesota mandated the E10 gasoline be the main motor fuel. When this happened, all sorts of problems cropped up from using E10 in older fuel systems, so Minnesota came back and said they would allow some gas stations to sell non-oxygenated gasoline for older fuel systems. The Minnesota Street Rod Association even puts a list of these gas stations on their web site so those who have older fuel systems in their vehicles can get non-oxy gas. Here’s the list http://www.msra.com/NonOxygenatedFuel/Non-OxyFuel.htm
Tester