my 311 was down from feb 06 til nov 07 ... I didnt take a chance and pumped put about 120gals ...it looked smelled fine ...Then put in 10 gal fresh fuel and pumped that out ...If you had been hi and dry for almost 2 years it just wasnt worth the risk ...my kids burnt all the fuel in their cars ... no issues ......m

No way I'd run it.....I was down for 3 months and had octane issues with un-treated 93 octane ethanol fuel on a high compression motor (9.75). Once we put a portable 6 gallon tank of fresh fuel in for a test run everything was fine.

key word ....Ethanol ....

I was down for several months and just added 20 gallons of 110 octane to the tank and had no issues. I am also running 10.7:1 compression.

Sta-Bil is good for one year, and I had some problems, especially with two-stroke equipment. I started using PRI-G for the gas, and PRI-D for the diesel years ago (my diesel Ex sits for a while at times). I've not had any fuel problems using their product since making the switch from Sta-Bil. I also made the switch to strictly avgas (100LL) for my two-stroke equipment i.e. chainsaws, weedeaters/trimmers etc. since it has near-indefinite shelf life if well-stored. (and smells SOOOO
oooo good when it's burning
Remember, Sta-Bil in itself is only good for about a year- if yours is older, buy a new bottle.
Although I haven't ever tried it, PRI advertised their products as capable of restoring up to 85% of the original quality to old fuel. I use the smell and look detection method- if it smells funky or its color has gone to a brighter yellow, its not worth risking, and I get rid of it. Since MTBE has been banned, gas can go bad in as little as a month. Throw a little ethanol in their to bring in the water problem, and you now have a product that you spend more $$ for and get less quality .....

It's all to do about LOAD - the HP required to get a car to cruise at say 70 MPH is probably around 45-50 Hp or so in a mid-sized modern aerodynamicly shaped car - compare that to a lot of 'stock' marine applications that can't even get up to 70 with 350-400HP and at WOT - that's full load and full HP production out of the engine. Also think about accelerating 'normally' in each - in a car you're fairly light on the throttle - on a boat - you're fairly heavy - that's a lot of load there too...

Another main reason is most modern cars have knock sensors - they can add fuel and retard timing to compensate for poor quality fuel - thus run the 'junk' fuel through just fine.

If it were me - I'd pump it and burn it in my cars (keep the good gas for the weedeaters/mowers - they sit enough as it is...) Heck I had an old beater 88 GMC pickup that I put some 4+ year old un-stabilized gas that I drained from a resto project - put about 10 gallons into the half-tank remaining - the fuel smelled like heck but the old truck burnt it.... Still could smell the foul fuel even after burning 2 'clean' tanks of gas....

I've never had trouble with stabilized fuel. I fill both my car tanks up in the winter. 383 SBC High 11:5:1 in the Pontiac and a 355 ProCharged 8:3:1 motor in the camaro. I dont notice a differance.