Winterize Your Fuel System

The winter season is quickly approaching. This means lots of loose ends to tie up around the garage and equipment that needs to be put in storage until next spring. From a young age I was always taught to drain the gas out of all the lawn equipment and run the engine until the carburetor was completely empty. Otherwise, there would be problems and more work in the spring. That has always worked for me but isn’t there an easier way? Yes, Sunoco Race Fuels have a wide variety of specialty fuels that can solve all of your fuel issues. Of course, fuel for racing is our primary market but our fuels excel in many other applications as well, like storage. We have products designed for everything from collector cars to modern day hyper cars.

Storing a car for months or even years without any fuel related issues takes 2 things: a quality fuel and the correct procedure. A complete list of tips on storage can be found in our Race Fuel Storage article but listed below are the main takeaways. Keep the tank full, run the engine until the storage fuel has circulated through the entire fuel system and keep the tank sealed as much as possible, cap on tight.

All Sunoco Race Fuels are made from highly refined products and contain an excellent additive package to make them stable for years. Our non-ethanol blends are recommended for storage applications to prevent any water from corroding the fuel system. Pump fuels contain dissolved gums that can form varnish over time during storage. Varnish forming in your fuels system can mean carburetor rebuilding and overall poor engine drivability. Sunoco race fuels are engineered to prevent any varnish or deposits in order to leave a clean fuel system all the time.

Sunoco Surge is the fuel for any classic or vintage car that was born when leaded fuels were still around, this would be pre-1975 vehicles. Surge was developed for the classic/vintage car market. This fuel is dosed with the same amount of lead as found in 1960’s fuel and has an octane of 105 which will surpass the needs of any stock or lightly modified collector car. Surge is also a non-ethanol fuel which makes it compatible with gaskets and fuel systems on older cars.

For the modern car that can’t digest leaded fuels we offer a fuel called Sunoco Optima. Optima is a 95 octane unleaded fuel that is safe to be used in anything with an oxygen sensor or catalytic converter. Optima is non-ethanol which also makes it great for carburated applications that struggle with 10% ethanol fuels like weed eaters and leaf blowers. Optima has been proven for over 5 years to keep lawn equipment and small engines running season after season without carburetor rebuilds. Optima is a very versatile fuel and has shown great success in all gasoline engines.

Now that you know which products to use to get through the winter; what is the best choice for next spring to get your vehicle back on the road? Sunoco offers street legal unleaded 100 octane fuel for any performance vehicles. If you are in California you can find it as Sunoco SS100 while the other 49 states can use Sunoco 260 GT. Both of these fuels contain 10% ethanol to attain their street legal status. For drivers looking for the best performance on the street and on the track this 10% ethanol will allow for slightly better performance. Ethanol contains oxygen in its molecule which helps increase the efficiency of your engine and can account for about 1% better performance over a non-ethanol fuel.

If this article has left you curious about other specialty fuels, you can find more technical articles on our Tech Corner page. You can also find a map of locations that sell our race fuels and if you need to ask a specific question feel free to call 1-800-RACE-GAS.