Gelled gasoline?

[LoDownSinner]

Has anyone ever seen gasoline gel?

I pulled the carburetor off of a KTM 400 last night (see below for details on THAT little feat...) because it had been starving for fuel. Inside the float bowl there was plenty of gas, but there was a gel-like substance in the float bowl. Not a lot of it, but enough that it looks like it would have messed with fuel flow to the main jet.

It felt kind of like grease, and that's what me and Mechdziner thaought it was at first. After hitting air and drying out, it looked a lot like the crud you find in a carb or gas tank if all the gas dries out.

I've never heard of pump gas doing that before. I know some of the exotic racing fuels will do funky things if left in a gas tank/ carb for a while. I dunno. Maybe the prefious owner used one of the racing fuels?

OK, disassembly story:

After removing the seat and gas tank, I was naive enought to think that the clamps would be loosened on the boots on either side of the carb and just pull it out. Nope. Not that easy...

Fine. Let's pull off the side panels. Aha!!! Right there is a big, uh, airbox.

Fine, let's pull the airbox. 6 or 8 bolts later and no dice. The airbox is going nowhere with the rear subframe in place.

Fine. Remove the exhaust can, no biggie, just cut all of the safety wire I put on the springs in case Stephen ever rides it again ( ). No problem, anothr 6 or 8 bolts later and...

Holy crap! It looks like (and I'll verify when I reassemble it in the next couple of days) I could have loosened one clamp on the air box boot, removed two bolts off of the top of the subframe and just pulled it back like a hinge. Airbox, subframe and all just pivoted back as pretty as can be. Pretty slick...

[mechdziner714]

Isnt Napalm a jellified gas?

Dont you love how the first time you make a repair it takes 3x as much time as it will the next time.

Give me a shout if you need help finding places to put the leftover parts when you get done

Hoping to get the Chappy goin this afternoon.

[skuli65]

Jellied gas would be napalm...easily made. Wonder is a little foam plastic got into your gas tank...

[MarcS]

While you weren't looking, I peed in the gas tank...

No, really...I google'd it, and apparently there are a lot of things, including ethanol and temperature fluctuations, that can cause gas to gel...

[LoDownSinner]

I probably should have worded it a bit better. I meant to ask if anyone has seen regular old pump gas gel up. I know VP U4 can gel, but it has a very distinctive smell. I believe U4 is oxygenated with ethanol or something similar.

It was weird, there was just a glob of it in the bottom of the float bowl. The rest of the gas was fine.

MMMMMMMM.... VP Race Fuel!!! If they could make perfume that smells like that stuff...

[bobinottawa]

I had the same thing happen to a snowblower. The tank had about 1/4 full of gas that had certainly gone bad. It wouldn't start. Lucking, with a large-tube siphon, I got most of it out. Filled it up with fresh gas, swished it around of a couple of minutes to dillute any remaining gellied gas aned then the snowblower fired up right away.
I realized what I had done to cause my problem. I bought some gas late one winter and used it most of the next winter. I didn't put any Stabil in the original gas or in the tank storing it over either of the next 2 summers. It eventually turned to a dark kerosene colour and was quite thick. It no longer had the same flow properties as regular gas and wouldn't ignite. Darn funny smell too.

[mechdziner714]

Dewayne you may wanna take a looksy at the fuel filter & petcock as well.

[LoDownSinner]

Already did. Disassembled the fuel supply valve out on the trail...

Was my description of that stuff accurate?

[mechdziner714]

Yea, only thing I'd add is that is was fairly light colored almost whiteish to clear. Looked to me at first to be old dried up silicone.

[SKnight]

I probably should have worded it a bit better. I meant to ask if anyone has seen regular old pump gas gel up. I know VP U4 can gel, but it has a very distinctive smell. I believe U4 is oxygenated with ethanol or something similar.

It was weird, there was just a glob of it in the bottom of the float bowl. The rest of the gas was fine.

MMMMMMMM.... VP Race Fuel!!! If they could make perfume that smells like that stuff...

They do, you just have to go to the track to smell it, because it is perfume.......I gotta sell something for track money.