Technical Green gasoline???????????

Where did all this green junk in my carb come from? I've been working on this car for years, but have driven it in the past and have maybe 100 miles on the engine. I changed direction several times and recently changed the intake and carb. It ran poorly for awhile, and it will now start but not stay running. Took the carb off and found all this stuff. The tank has been the car for years but not much gas has been run through it. It has recently been sitting for several months while I completed the interior so I'm thinking the old gas has gone bad. It's plain old pump unleaded like I run in all my cars, but they get flushed out more regularly. Is it time to pull the tank (I hope not)?

Oh, btw, it's a 34 Chevy coupe with a stock-ish 327 and 4 speed. Don't think that matters, but someone will ask.

thx.

.bjb

 

Maybe you got some bad gas tainted in the station tank...years ago there were a number of stations charged this way with tampering with the gas to make more money cutting it with other shit...I suppose you got it from your regular haunts or did you?

Are you running a filter...that would be the second thing I'd do after purging the tank and starting out fresh...and run stabilizer so if it sits your good...

 

Goofy stuff. Never seen something like that. Tank sealer stuff maybe coming apart?

 

Do you use Sta-Bil??

 

Several forums say age (old) and reaction due to becoming acidic.

 

..I suppose you got it from your regular haunts or did you?

Plain old pump gas from Quick Trip or 7-11. No additives.

 

No sealer. Tank steamed before installation.

 

Old gas ?

Tinted gas ?

up here gas and diesel for farmers is tinted .
Diesel is pink / red
not Sure what colour gas is tinted

how old is the gas ?

I know 20 years ago or more you use to be able to buy “ sunoco blue “

could it be some gas station gimmick?
Old and dried out now ?


Just re read your post ? Tank was New Years ago ?
Maybe some kind of shipping / storage wax / oil inside the tank ?

 

Old gas smells like moldy old paint or thinners...I let mine overwinter and haven't had any problems...I store mine in a heated garage around 60°...not sure if Kansas climate effects things differently...

 

Looks very much the correct color for brass oxidizing.

 

Maybe some butthead poured some Gatorade in your filler...I have an unlocked cap but knocking on wood haven't had any issues...I just shut the Hotrod down at shows and walk away, I like to think people will do the right thing and most do but you do have a mystery to resolve...

 

Gas doesn't tend to break down in non vented tanks that vent though a charcoal filter up front. At least on my personal daily drivers that is the case. The gas in the tank vented to the air goes bad in a few months but the gas in the OT car with sealed cap and a filter system up front seems to last a lot longer.

Back in 1973 when I was working in a Ryder truck shop and they had a gas/fuel crunch my boss was getting loads of fuel from Mexico and it was green in color at the time. I don't know about their gas. I don't remember seeing green sludge in a carb or tank though.

 

The VP C12 leaded race fuel in my vintage two wheel racers is a green color...Probably not the OP's gas, lol.

 

Ethanol or 100% gas?

 

Try putting some in a dish and see if it ignites and how it burns. Doesn't ethanol burn like diesel and kerosene and has to be soaked in something to ignite (inflammable as opposed to flammable)?
I just found out that downunder, ie , Australia they can put up to 10% ethanol in the petrol without having to advertise the fact.

 

The only time I've ever seen green gas like that is when it had Sta-bil in it. I added some to the tank of the lawn mower in the fall, and in the spring it looked like your carb. I'll never use it again.

 

I agree. Same thing happened to me. Sta-Bil turned to green slime! Never again for me.

 

Might be old Chinese gas…did you buy it at Walmart?

 

I'm with @PhilA, see the ring around the float bowl, the fuel may have corroded the coating on the carb body, or other part of the fuel system. Could also be the normal yellowish tint to gasoline that's been concentrated down to green as the liquid evaporated.

I'd flush the system, clean the carb and see if it will run. Dig in deeper if it doesn't run well.

 

MOGAS is green. I doubt it's what turned your system green.

 

You need one of these for sure.

 

I bet you had an ethanol blend. That stuff goes bad way quicker than pure gas. I never put it in any of my cars that won't burn through it within a month.

 

@Jokester

I've had Marine Sta-Bil go bad in my small engines over the off season and it looked just like that! It was dark greenish brown and kind of gooey... like pudding.

Here's a link... https://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/threads/sta-bil®-fuel-stabilizer.1000705/

 

That looks like one of my concoctions

When you mix High Octane Unleaded [Yellow] with Low Lead Avgas [Blue] it results in a Green color similar to what you're showing.

When in doubt, Run it in your Lawn mower or 4 stroke Line Trimmer.

 

I don't know WTF is in the fuel were getting. I recently had a drain pan 1/2 full with fuel and thought I'll just let it evaporate. Not so much. Ended up with some thick green oil like liquid that clearly was not going to evaporate anytime soon. This gas (e5 or e10) was relatively fresh and runs fine in my lawn mower and without any issues or stabilizers.

 

I cant say what is in your fuel, but looking at it made me thirsty.

 

It is now all the rage, to go GREEN. As I remember in grade school,Chlorophyll is the name of the green pigment that plants use to make food during the process called photosynthesis. So, .... it is the color of the plant based ethanol, it just got to be.

 

That green stuff looks a whole lot like algae that forms in diesel fuel when it goes bad from water in it & then being very warm for awhile. You probably don't want to know just what, how much, & what kinds of chemicals are in "gasoline". Who the hell knows how any of that crap reacts w/anything else these days. Could try an "MSDS" sheet, but I'd bet it won't tell you much, for sure not all - "trade secret" & all, + it's always changing anyhow. Back in the ~70's, Smokey had done some evaporation tests & found it took ~900*F to get the gas to evaporate. In the 90's, a few guys did some more evaporation tests using old lab equipment, & found that it took ~ 1200*F to get what could evaporate, to evaporate. The black goo left in the bottom of the test tube didn't ignite, chemically burned the guys' skin when he touched it, had some miserable toxicity to it. One reason cat's are used, since not everything in the cc's burns.
To help w/the carb cleaning, I was told by a Kwak bike service rep, maybe 10-15 yrs ago, that using the thick blue toilet cleaner worked better than either the new - or old - Berrymans carb cleaner(they required their techs to use the blue, as it's not real toxic, & it works). He was right. Just make sure to watch the cleaning real closely, as it doesn't take long, use water to flush the parts clean. I use rubbing alcohol to flush n dry any water after that, & a non-oily non-chlorinated brake clean to finish it off. I also use a very thin hypodermic syringe w/out the needle to force the blue thru the thin passageways. Wear eye protection, & keep your mouth shut. I doubt it tastes very good... .
Marcus...

 

I would do a litmus test- see if what you took out is acidic or alkaline, using some fresh gasoline as a baseline.

If it's acidic then that may well be the answer, you've been dissolving your fuel system.

If it comes back normal, it may be algae but that's unusual in gasoline. But, who knows what sludge was in the bottom of the tank at the station when it got filled.
You may have got flush through a bad or broken filter.

 

In my experience, the 10 percent ethanol gas that we have in Washington will evaporate into a green goo. My old dirtbike, that I hardly ever ride any more, will have a float bowl full of green jelly if I don't shut the fuel off and drain everything when I park it. Being gravity fed, old fuel evaporates, more fuel enters and the shit just piles up, clogging jets and making the carburetor pretty much useless.
Pump fed carburetors aren't quite as bad, just a thin layer of green crap in the bottom of the bowl. It usually breaks up with fresh fuel and clogs idle circuits. I've had fuel go bad in 3-4 months. Toward the end of summer, I now start using ethanol free gas and then add fuel stabilizer when the weather starts getting bad. That has eliminated the springtime ritual of taking my carburetors apart abd cleaning them out.

Dave