sorry if this is in the wrong place

in the garage i have a big jerrycan full of petrol, and i do not know if it is just petrol or if it has been mixed to make 2 stroke stuff. being a big can of very expensive petrol, i do not want to waste its content or break my bike. does anyone know of a test i could use to find out if it has been mixed 40 to 1? apart from it having a slight tinge because that isnt so obvious. thanks

Pour some into a metal dish and heat gently, as the fuel evaporates off you should be left with an oily residue, measure the oil. Divide how much fuel you evaporated off by this quantity, and there you go... Rough indication of mixture.

Only works occasionaly, may take a few goes to get the oily residue. Dont use much!

throw a match into jerry can if smokes a lot its got 2 stroke mixture init. perhaps not a very good idea. if you have a car without catalist or have a mate with one bung it into car it wont hurt it.

Poor some into your lawn mower. If it smokes it is mixed if it runs like normal with regular fuels no smoke it is not mixed. It will not hurt the mower. Just make sure the mower is empty first so you get the full mix of the gas you are testing.

throw it away or stick it in a lawn mower, not worth a siezed engine - engines cost more to rebuild than a jerry can of fuel - if you over mix more thinking more oil is still OK you actually lean everything off (more oil = less fuel)

do you feel lucky ?

tony

when i have done this in the past i have put it in the car bit of 2 stoke oil never broke the car and no waste that way. not worth risking it in the bike

i would pour some into a white container, like a white plastic cup or lid, that way you can see if it has any dye in it.

If there is oil in it, you might not be able to find out how much is in it, i.e 50:1 or whatever...

save heating it on the hob and making the kitchen stink, or doing it in the shed and coming out all buzzy. (its not nice when that happens),(or healthy i assume)

I for one would not recommend pouring petrol into an electric lawn mower.

stick it in the car you tight bugger, why risk your bikes engine.

Pour a little on to a news paper. petrol will evaporate leaving oil patch. That said I would put in the mover, wifes car, bonfire etc rather than my bike.

I for one would not recommend pouring petrol into an electric lawn mower.

stick it in the car you tight bugger, why risk your bikes engine.

Your car engine has to be more expensive to rebuild.

sorry if this is in the wrong place

in the garage i have a big jerrycan full of petrol, and i do not know if it is just petrol or if it has been mixed to make 2 stroke stuff. being a big can of very expensive petrol, i do not want to waste its content or break my bike. does anyone know of a test i could use to find out if it has been mixed 40 to 1? apart from it having a slight tinge because that isnt so obvious. thanks

I'm not aware of a reliable test the average rider could conduct that would yield fool-proof results.

I would:

Run the car down low of fuel, dump the can in the tank and top off with pump fuel. The exhaust convertor shouldn't be damaged by a little formulated-to-burn premix oil at the temps they are designed to run at, it's tetraethyl lead in fuel that fouls them and coats the perforated cores (I'm assuming the jerrycan is of pump fuel and not high lead race fuel-which is generally not available now anyway). The premix ratio in the car tank with the added pump fuel should be at about 80/120:1+ at least, which is probably no worse than if you added any number of oil-based fuel additives people use that are available at the auto parts stores. The engine might even be a little happier for a while with the slight amount of added lubrication.

Get a fresh batch of fuel, do NOT add premix oil in the future and use a smaller fuel container each time to mix up what you will use in a days riding, which will be a better bet for your bike's engine.

Jon

I'm not aware of a reliable test the average rider could conduct that would yield fool-proof results.

I would:

Run the car down low of fuel, dump the can in the tank and top off with pump fuel. The exhaust convertor shouldn't be damaged by a little formulated-to-burn premix oil at the temps they are designed to run at, it's tetraethyl lead in fuel that fouls them and coats the perforated cores (I'm assuming the jerrycan is of pump fuel and not high lead race fuel-which is generally not available now anyway). The premix ratio in the car tank with the added pump fuel should be at about 80/120:1+ at least, which is probably no worse than if you added any number of oil-based fuel additives people use that are available at the auto parts stores. The engine might even be a little happier for a while with the slight amount of added lubrication.

Get a fresh batch of fuel, do NOT add premix oil in the future and use a smaller fuel container each time to mix up what you will use in a days riding, which will be a better bet for your bike's engine.

Jon

thanks guys, the problem with the car idea is that all the cars around my house are diesels haha. i think will just have to throw it away, i have only had my bike for a week or two and i really dont want to seize up the engine already. i might try the first idea though

We dump mixed chainsaw fuel mixed at 50:1 in the cars fairly often and it runs fine (we also dump it into the lawn mowers when that season arrives. Since the fuel in this part of the US has ethanol we dump whatever we don't use in 3 months into the car. The catalytic converter is not bothered by burned oil - only by lead which coats the converter media with lead and makes it useless.

If all your cars are diesel......give the fuel to a friend as there is really no envornmentally sound way to just dump it. The least amount of environmental damage will come from putting it to use in an engine.

Get two jam jars (empty). Put known neat petrol in one, your stuff in the other; colour difference will show if it has oil in it or not though not what ratio. I don't get smoke out a four stroke lawnmower when running it on modern day 2 stroke oil ratios.

There was a lot of scare over how easily a cat would be ruined when they were first introduced but this does not seem to have been realised. Even so I don't think I would take the risk in my vehicle. I usually put larger amounts of old or "unknown" two stroke in the road bike - every trials rider should have one.

If the fuel is leaded it will contaminate the catalyst (Platinum) in a catalytic converter and render it inert. Doesn't take much either. Only throw it into a car if you know the fuel is unleaded.

edit... Uh I see Jon beat me to it. Still worth the double warning though.

Edited May 26, 201016 yr by Dan Williams