Can 3 to 6week old gas cause hard start?

Mike Puckett

Mike Puckett

SCCoA Member
All of a sudden it seems, my SC has gotten hard to start. When cold it takes at least 3 turns of the key and after it's been running and then cooled down, it takes at least 7 or 8 turns of the key to get it to start. In the meantime it does try to catch but not enough to start. The car's just been sitting and the gas, Shell 93, is anywhere from 6 to 3 weeks old. It runs fine after it starts up. I'm wondering if I just need to burn off the 1/4 tank that's in there before I refill it and it'll go back to normal. I recharged the battery last night thinking it had gotten rundown but nothing changed.
 
I've never had any problems with gas even 1 year old in my EFI cars. :cool: I'd look for vac leaks as they tend to be the primary cause of hard starts.
 
Probably not

I only drive my SC a handfull of times per year. The gas is always more than a month old except for the trip to the shootout. Never been a problem.
 
Not likely Mike. But if it has water in it then its another story. Definatly would be a good idea to run it as low as possible before refilling.

Maybe keep a can with you full of fuel and let it die on whats in there now. Then use the portable tank to get you to the station.
 
I may just disconnect the fuel line from the rail and pump the tank empty into a fuel can and put it in the Caddy, then refill with the Texaco I normally run. It is a bit odd that it has shown up on this tankful. Supposedly gas is only good for 30 days before the additives break down is why I was wondering. I talked to the people who tuned it and they don't like Shell that much preferring BP or Texaco.
 
During my rebuild my car sat for 2years and gas was still good, no additives or Stabil.

Mike, if memory serves Quick Trip is the same as Texaco.
 
You should start looking for your starting issue some place else. I have a 95 with 66K on it so you can imagine how much time it spends in the garage and it doesn't go out in the snow so that's sitting 6 months right there. Never had a problem with the first start up in the spring in almost 18 years.

Something else is acting up on it. Maybe the ECMs temperature sender is starting to fail and it's leaning the engine out, cracked vac line ?? Have you had much rain lately, are the ignition wires getting up there in age ??
Have you or anyone else been under the hood recently before the problem started ??
 
It's similar to a problem I had a few months ago but the new tune cleared that up. I'm going to get a can of starting ether and see if it'll start Ok that way. If so I know it's the gas and I'll empty out the tank and refill it. If it still doesn't want to start I'll start hunting for another problem. I can smell raw fuel after cranking on it for awhile so I'll check to make sure it's getting spark. It's good to know that it's not because the gas is over a month old.
 
Are you seeing full fuel pressure at the first turn of the key? If you cycle the key to "ON" quite a few times before attempting to start the engine, will it start on the first or second try?
 
My Sc sat from 08/13 and started right up on the first try with the gas that was in it. No stabil no octane booster just old crappy gas
 
Last night before going to bed, I tried it again and after cranking it a dozen or more times it still wouldn't start. I gave up and as I was going back inside when I remembered what Terralex said about the temp sensor. That was easy enough to check so I popped the hood, unplugged the ECT and tried it again. On the 2nd turn of the key it almost fired up and on the 3rd try it fired up and ran. That's a new ECT sensor from Autozone I put in back in August. I think I'll replace it with a new one from different parts store. It'll give me something to do over the weekend.
 
Agree, gas dosen't go bad.
My 4.6 cougar some times when low on fuel, (e85) is hard to start.
Really low.
Check gague light on low.
 
Well Mike that answered my question about which ECT you got. Guessing not Motorcraft.

I learned with oil pressure sending unit to not go to AZ.
 
I think I've found it. So far so good. First I replaced the ECT with a known good one and brought the coolant(Evans) level up to the top of the fitting. I also replaced the cam sensor and the coil pack, all to no avail. No codes either. Vacuum was around 15 at idle, probably not bad with this cam. It also cranked up in the stock chip position and wouldn't in the tuned positions so I recleaned the connections on the EEC which didn't help either. So I started looking, checking hoses for loose connections. Finally, I noticed the air inlet hose wasn't on the throttle body quite all the way and the clamp was at a little bit of an angle at the bottom. I loosened up the clamp, repositioned the hose and cinched the clamp back down and Ta-Da it's back to normal. It looks like it was sucking just enough unmetered air thru the bad connection to lean it out and keep it from starting up.
 
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