Possible bad/stale gas purchase

[Trae]

Today I purchased 18 gallons of Ethanol free 93 octane gas.
In the last 50 miles, the car has been very difficult to start.
It takes many revolutions to get the engine to fire, however, once it fires, the car drives normally.

Is the hard starting a symptom of stale gas? If so, would Red line fuel treatment help?
The hard starting is definitely related to this recent fill up. The car always fired right up with Shell gas.

 

[gsxr]

Any codes? Hard starting can be related to fuel pressure regulator or CPS. Could be a coincidence. There will not be any codes if it's a fuel delivery issue, btw.

 

[gerryvz]

Here is a bit more information on the topic. Luckily, for the M119, the FPR is a relatively inexpensive part. They DO wear out given time and use.

http://www.500eboard.com/forums/sho...O-Replacing-M119-M104-fuel-pressure-regulator

Cheers,
Gerry

 

[jhodg5ck]

indeed, sounds FPR related. Common on LH cars.

Some guys have played w/ high pressure regs, but IIRC, I don't believe any gains were realized.

jono

 

[gsxr]

Any non-stock FPR would be for special needs like 6.xL displacement, NOS, or forced induction. I'd never mess around with that for a stock motor. A new Bosch FPR is cheap, think Amazon carries 'em...?

 

[Trae]

Well, I put 4 gallons of Shell and half a bottle of Redline S1 in the tank yesterday.
So far, the engine starts immediately and runs normally.
Don't know why it had such a problem after the fill up.

Hypothesis:

The station selling the 93 octane NON ETHANOL fuel said that they don't sell very much at $3.90/gal.
They sell a LOT of the 87 and 89 octane @ $3.30 and 3.50/gal.

The fuel I bought MAY have been stored for a while and possible oxidation may have occurred, thereby causing the hard starts.