Carburetor gel mystery

[Jimal]

Has anyone experienced gasoline gelling? I started having a drivability problem that acted like vapor lock while driving it on a hot day for the first time. Long story short, I ended up with a new intake manifold and while I was at it I upgraded to a serpentine belt drive, replacing the alternator and power steering pump in the process.

The truck briefly ran okay after the upgrades, but soon returned to stumbling before just refusing to run. There was no fuel coming out of the accelerator pump squirter, so before going to the carburetor I replaced the fuel pump and the rubber line the P.O. installed to the rear mounted tank with a hard line with rubber connections on the ends. When it still wouldn't run, I bit the bullet and purchased a new carb. After installing that carb and getting the truck running, I decided to take the old carb apart to see what I could see. This is what I found.



A gel like substance in the bottom of the bowl. Additionally the accelerator pump I replaced when I rebuilt the carb over the winter had fallen apart. For the life of me I can't figure out where it came from. The tank is new this spring, the gas in it is probably a month old at most, and there was nothing in the old glass fuel filter to indicate a problem.

The only thing I can think of is that the o-ring on my bed mounted gas cap isn't as good as it could be, allowing water. But would water cause the gelling? And why wouldn't it show up elsewhere in the system? I had plenty of fuel flowing through the old hoses as I replaced them.

[Ronw435]

I have worked in the marine industry for a while and have seen this in carbs that I have rebuilt. I have "heard" that it is a kind of bacteria that forms. Have you ran any additives in your fuel?

[slepysal]

My motorcycle carbs looked like that . Here in Cali its the cheep gas .
I use "sea foam" to prevent it

[jayoldschool]

Use non-ethanol fuel, and you won't have that problem.

[TJ's Chevy]

X2 with the use of "Seafoam"....stuff works!

[michael bustamante]

here in albuquerque, all the gas has ethonal year round now. this gelling was in my old carb in my daily driver. it clogged up the bowl and outlet and the stone filter. i use seafoam now with every oil change. havent had a problem since

[Jimal]

Sounds like its an ethanol thing. Until last night I hadn't put any additives in my tank because the current tank of fuel is less than a month old, but it was sitting there while I worked on it. I added some Sta-bil to this tank and going forward I'm going to switch gas stations.

[vin63]

Sorry to see that...us diesel guys have had to deal with that from time to time, and all it takes is one bad fill up from a contaminated tank at a filling station. As the others mentioned the probable culprit is the alcohol - which is hydroscopic (attracts water). There are additives to kill the algae first, and then other additives to eliminate water from the system as a preventative maintenance measure.

[Jimal]

Originally Posted by vin63

Sorry to see that...us diesel guys have had to deal with that from time to time, and all it takes is one bad fill up from a contaminated tank at a filling station. As the others mentioned the probable culprit is the alcohol - which is hydroscopic (attracts water). There are additives to kill the algae first, and then other additives to eliminate water from the system as a preventative maintenance measure.

Ironically, I've owned Diesels for years and never once had one gel up on me. I didn't realize there was a similar problem with bad gasoline. My guess is whatever the station I filled up with has in the ground for Premium, its old.

[jdl71]

I'm not sure about where you live, but here Ethanol can be avoided by buying the "premium" (91 octane) gasoline, so switching gas stations may not change anything, but switching fuel grades might. The pumps should be labeled. In fact a lot of stations are now advertising "no ethanol in premium" on their signs. It does cost more, but you are probably not using much fuel in that anyway. I also use ethanol free in all my small engines for that very reason.

[Jimal]

Originally Posted by jdl71

I'm not sure about where you live, but here Ethanol can be avoided by buying the "premium" (91 octane) gasoline, so switching gas stations may not change anything, but switching fuel grades might. The pumps should be labeled. In fact a lot of stations are now advertising "no ethanol in premium" on their signs. It does cost more, but you are probably not using much fuel in that anyway. I also use ethanol free in all my small engines for that very reason.

That's the thing. This was only the second or third tank of gas in a brand new fuel system, and each tank was 93 octane premium from a local independent station that I started using because they sell a lot of gas and Diesel and those have worked in our newer cars. At this point my guess is that they sell a lot of regular and Diesel, but not a lot of premium.