It Can't Be Bad Gas

Back in the spring I was conferring with my pal Mac about why or why not various internal-combustion-powered stuff around Falling Downs was or was not starting up.

Mac is no Jimmy Lippert when it comes to internal combustion magic, but he’s way ahead of me. I’m just a welder. Bring me a blueprint and I can build you something that looks like it, but don’t ask me about how shit actually works. That’s all voodoo to me. They used to have a saying at the drydock; a welder is just a pipefitter with his brains kicked in. There’s an element of truth to that.

Anyway, we concluded that perhaps one of the issues confronting me was “stale gas.” That’s where you top up the tank with cheap low-lead gas, let the item in question sit for a year, and whoopsie, it never fires up again! At least not until you drain all that stale gas, flush the lines, clean the carb, and have another go at it with new fresh gasoline.

Sounded plausible.

But look at what went down today. I haven’t used the F-150 for two years. I parked it in my parts-vehicle field and have rarely given it a second thought, nor would I have given it a second thought except the Farm Manager has been on the nag about what she considers to be a lot of useless shit sitting around the yard.

My opinion is of course a little different.

The classic Mustang 50 was working as recently as May. I’m sure it’s just a little thing.

Oddly enough, the Ford 4000 diesel tractor gave up the same week as the Mustang.

And then there’s the little Escape 4×4 that’s was a blast as a “field car” right up until it wouldn’t start this spring.

Could they all be suffering from bad gas?

Well, I hooked up the battery charger to the F-150 last night, the vehicle that’s had bad gas in the tank the longest, and today it fired right up!

There goes the “bad gas” theory.