I would ditch the stabil. Use seafoam in everything.

Never had a tank of fuel or fuel/mix go bad with seafoam in it.

Neal

seafoam is great except for the price

Good products cost money. Last time I bought Seafoam, I got it for less than $5 per can, so I bought a half dozen or so. I would say it would protect as well as Stabil does. plus all the other benefits.

Has anyone ever had stabil go bad? I had some that I kept in an isolated dry storage shed and after a particularlly cold winter it had gotten these sparklly flakes in it.
I threw it out and filtered any fuel that was in the tank out there. I think it broke down in very cold weather.
Since then I've been using seafoam with nothing like that happening.

Like Echoman, I am able to purchase seafoam on sale at various parts stores for around five dollars to six dollars a can. It goes on sale quite frequentlly at Carquest stores I've noticed. When it does pick up a couple cans.

I personally can't say enough good things about the stuff.

Neal

I wasn't aware it has fuel stabilizer in it. In that case, there would be no reason to use both Seafoam and Sta-Bil. I have mainly used Seafoam in the past to maintain old vehicle engines. It's great in the oil to free rings and un-stick valves. Funny, isn't it? All of us 'gas doctors' have our favorite witch's brew for fuel. The thing is, most all of them actually work. Mine is 1:1 Sta-Bil and MMO, about 1 oz/gal for 4-cycle OPE. For 2-cycle I leave out the Sta-Bil because the oil already has stabilizer. Maybe I'll take another look at Seafoam sometime.

I've been mixing like that for awhile too saxman with those products, and never had any carb related issues other than cleaning up used engines/carbs I've bought, or fixed for other people. Neal, my Dad had an older steel can of Stabil several years ago, of which must have lasted him close to 15 years, since he owns only a mower. It did turn from pale red to a yellowish clear form sitting in his shed, but I told him to use it up, and he never had any gumming or varnish issues in the off season. The "flakes", I would have thrown that out too as you did.

Here's what the SeaFoam website recommends.
For Fuel Stabilization

1. Use 1 pint to 25 gallons or (average of 1 ounce per gallon) to stabilize and condition fuels. One pint stabilizes 25 gallons of regular, unleaded and diesel fuels.

2. Use 1 pint to stabilize 6-12 gallons of 2 cycle (gas-oil mix) fuels (average 2 ounce per gallon).

Advance Auto is selling Sea Foam @ $38/gal till the end of the month.

$4.75 per pint is a good price. I may check that out and buy a gallon. Stuff doesn't go bad with temperature changes.

Who has it for $4.75/pt? It would be well worth it for the smaller more convenient size.

Advance Auto...1 gallon equals 8 pints. $4.75 X 8 = $38.

I'll probably buy a gallon, and when my pint cans are empty, refill them. I toss a pint every now and then in my vehicles too for good PM. Thanks for the math formula rdaystrom.

I've tried Sea Foam and Stabil and I think Stabil works a lot better. Plus, my dad uses it too and has for years. Pretty sure it's the top selling brand for a reason.

Why do you say that autodude? How have you compared the two?

I've never heard of Sea Foam. I've always used sta-bil with no problems, but this conversation raises a question for me.

I recently switched mowers to an old LB 5254 from 1986 that I'm fixing up. I've bought some LB oil to mix in the gas, and I know it has stabilizer in it. Would it be helpful to put sea foam in the mix as well, or would that be overkill?

booner; you don't need any more stabilizer in the Lawn-Boy mix, but one ounce/gallon of Seafoam won't hurt anything and will help keep the engine and fuel system clean.

SeaFoam has been on the market for 65 years now. It was originally developed for the marine industry to combat the problem of moisture and algae build up in diesel fuel tanks. It has since been refined and marketed also to stabilize, remove carbon/varnish, deice, etc fuel sytems and combustion chambers of both 2 and 4 cycle engines both gasoline and diesel. I've never seen or used a better cleaning and PM product than this to date. Using it will restore power and performance to any used engine.

"Pretty sure it's the top selling brand for a reason."

Thanks to some good marketing.

Neal

Is Sea Foam available in Canada? I've never seen it here in Quebec.

I would imagine it is somewhere. It's made in Hopkins, Minnesota. Check out www.seafoamsales.com

Also check marine supply houses since it started as a marine product and spresd to general automotive use as it became better known.

I stored a car once with Sea Foam, and when I went to start it a few months later, the gas had gone bad -- there was moisture in the tank. My dad said, "I told you!" So I've never NOT used Sta Bil again, and have had no problems.

Seems strange that happened due to the fact that Stabil does not remove water or condensation but SeaFoam does.

Not sure where you get your information, but Sta Bil does remove water and condensation.

Checked my can of S-F sticker on botton of can $6.99!

Will go for that gal deal of $38 tomorrow.

Been doing a 50/50 on the Foam and Sta-Bil but will go only with the Foam will the S-B is gone.

You're correct autodude. It is capable of moisture removal. I've only used it for stabilization. I bought a new bottle a few months back just for backup to when I don't use SeaFoam-not sure if the older formula claimed to do the same or I'm sure I would have remembered that. I had a quart container that lasted me quite a long time. Has Stabil always been capable of this and the "performance enhancers" as to clean carbs also? I don't remember them marketing it as such even many years before I used SeaFoam.

If it takes 1 ounce of a stabolizing agent to protect fuel from going bad, how much of the stuff is really in two stroke oil. It takes 2.54 ozs/gal to make a fuel mix 50/1. If 1 oz of that is stabilizer that leaves the oil ratio awful lean.

Something tells me that 2 stroke oil claims of having stabolizer in it are more myth then reality in terms of being very effective.

I don't totally agree with that nevada. If these top tool makers that have their "name brand oil" produced for them didn't have a fuel stabilizer of some kind, then they would more than likely see a significant number of fuel related repairs especially in these newer catalytic engines from burning stale fuels. It would have to have an impact on service repairs and warranty work. How many of us actually can use(on average), more than a gallon or two every 30-60 days, about the same time you'd see a measurable decrease in performance from untreated fuel? My .02

Not sure if Sta Bil has always had a water remover, echoman. The thing with Sea Foam that bothers me, is the many clams it makes on the can. I mean, is it an ice-cream topping also? ;-)

Not sure about the "ice cream" thing, but I'll try it tonight and let you know! Just a different form of alcohol, right? It does great at removing fur balls from a cats stomach though! Haven't seen or heard the neighbors cat since!

jus' kiddin......

Echoman, I'm just questioning it. Unless stabilizer can be condensed so something less then .1 oz, the removal of oil from the mix could get dicy. Besides, bad fuel from whatever cause is not a warranty problem anyway. The wrong oil or bad fuel is going to show up as excess staining or varnish on piston and cylinder which should be a flag to any shop that carb or CAT problems were caused by the fuel mix.

Not saying the oil doesn't have a proper amount of super condensed stabilizer but just questionable enough in my mind to go ahead and use an additive to make sure.

It would be interesting to know by a "oil blender" or chemist, how much exactly of the claim is true. I would think, that the firms that test and rate the oils for TC-W, ISO-l-EGD and FASO-FC etc, would also test the claim of how well or long these oils w/stabilizer keeps fuel fresh. How could a company claim and market it as such, if it couldn't hold up to the task?

Hello all.

Very interesting,(food for thought) nevada walrus.

Good day.

I've been using a lawnmower and snowblower that my parents gave me a few years back, and both pieces of equipment are over 20 years old. At the end of the summer and winter seasons I've always used Stabil and haven't had any problems with starting up each season.

I've use Stabil because that's what our family has always used. I went on Sea Foam's website and I really like their packaging, but I'm not sure I could force myself to switch over...old habits die hard I guess!

For overall fuel stabilizing, Sta-Bil may be better, but SeaFoam can clean and remove fuel system/engine deposits as well where Sta-Bil can't. Use SeaFoam to help clean and maintain the engine and Sta-Bil for longer term fuel freshness.

Saw something in Great Lakes Scuttlebutt about a new Marine Formula Sta-Bil coming out soon. It has a complete fuel system cleaner, etc. Says it's good for use in all two and four cycles. Definitely going to keep my eye out for that.

I ran across this new additive/stabilizer the other day. It's carried at Wal Mart so everyone should be able to get it. With it's claims of enzyme action it may be something to look at.
http://www.startron.com/stretch.php?sec=2

Here is a link that might be useful: Star Tron

Check out this demonstration on YouTube of some guy using SeaFoam:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzqohWTChwY

Here is a link that might be useful: Sea Foam in use