It’s been about three-and-a-half weeks now since I filled up a couple 5-gallon containers in anticipation of power outages during a winter storm. Since I’m a dumb dumb, I did not add stabilizer at the time, but I do have some Seafoam stabilizer on hand.
I understand fuel degrades over time and running degraded fuel can damage engine parts. Should I pour the fuel into my vehicle or will that gum up my car’s engine? Is it still worth adding stabilizer today so that I can continue to store it in my garage for a rainy day? The only other responsible alternative I can think of is taking it to a hazardous disposal site in my county. It’s octane rating 87, I believe it also has ethanol, in case that makes any difference.


I’ve used three-week-old fuel and I was fine, but I’m not sure about pushing it past that. If you’re a car too, you could possibly drink it to get your money’s worth. If you’d rather be safe than sorry and don’t want to risk causing harm to your engine, though, I’d just take the loss and dispose of it.