Anyone ever see green gas?

I know this is an XJ forum, but I had to post this...in the process of emptying my carb floats on the newly acquired Venture, this is what came out....smells mostly like gasoline with a hint of terpentine.

 

That has been sitting for a while. Your carbs have a bacterial infection. Give them a thorough cleaning, along with the fuel lines and gas tank.

 

Just run seafoam through it

 

The gas I drained from the tank was mostly yellowish, like normal gas...smelled rotten enough though. But the float bowls came out green.....what puzzles me, why wouldn't the gas in the bowls have evaporated? The carbs will be coming off at some point, but first I need to figure out why no spark.

 

I see green gas all the time...it's what my chainsaw uses---oh, wait--that's because of the 2-smoke oil.

Seriously---yeah, you got what we call "Green Disease" in the snowmobile world around my area. You've GOT to clean everything scrupulously, and then get some good gas running through to flush the rest, AND use Star-Tron or seafoam to stabilize everything. You can get it solved, but you gotta be on top of it for a bit. It really is like a disease----if you don't eradicate it, it can come back.....and spread.

Just as often, it doesn't turn green, but it can stay yellow to deep orange, and stink just as bad. It's just as much a problem, regardless of the color. You gotta clean, flush, treat, etc.... either way.

Much of the gas DID evaporate and this is what's left.

I know quite a few people who have had no-spark issues, and it was because of bad gas like this--it gets to the plug, coats the plug, the plug can't fire right, and burns itself out. It's a rather common and unfortunate (and often avoidable) problem with sleds, but happens with bikes, too. One guy I worked with had a Venture (just sold it in the summer) and he's had numerous bikes throughout his life....he's the one that told me about his experiences with old gas/green gas that had contaminated/ruined sparkplugs in bikes he had been asked to service in the past.

Long story short, after you have all your fuel stuff disconnected, try simply putting some new plugs in and see if there's spark again. It wouldn't surprise me if that's the only reason------

Granted, there can be a whole host of reasons, but let's start the elimination procedure with the current obvious starting point.


Dave Fox

 

On top of what the guys above said think of this:
Fuel is a conglomeration of chemicals lubricating stuff, clean burn stuff, flammable stuff, blah blah stuff, winter formula, summer formula, so when left sitting for prolonged periods, the flammable (actually INFLAMMABLE STUFF)stuff evaporates off leaving behind the stuff that DOESN'T burn well. Think a bowl of rubbing alcohol and a bowl of oil. Alcohol evaporates and the oil seems to last forever(it just evaporates much slower). Now mix them together the rubbing alcohol will evaporate leaving behind the oil.
This is what happens to your fuel.
Second thing:
Old school 4 valve Suzuki's have a swedge(taper) fit stator hub. I tried EVERYTHING to try and keep it from spinning loose. Nothing worked! Not even Loctite! Old guy racer told me clean both pieces extremely with tons of rubbing alcohol. Let everything dry, paint both contact surfaces with gasoline allow that to dry then paint either lightly and assemble QUICKLY!
The stator never spun off again! Further more, when the starter clutch went out we destroyed the stator with heat trying to remove it! So just remember this amazing story when that muck in your carbs won't give up.

 

I bet the above sources are correct about why the gas is green. Just throwing this out there... I've seen some gas vendors (I believe it was for agricultural use) dye their gasoline red, in order to distinguish it legally from "tax free" gas and the stuff you normally put in your car (the highly taxed stuff).

Also, Aviation Gasoline (AVGAS) there is one grade that is dyed green.

And there's your random fact of the day!

 

No wonder some of these xj's can really fly.....