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Just the other day I bought a pressure washer from a guy that said he bought it new last year and used it once or something. When I was at his house it started up pretty much instantly and ran great so I bought it. Of course, after I cleaned off a couple transmissions it started running rough and even backfiring or popping out the exhaust and in general not having much power and being very difficult to restart.

In general, these issues could be caused by poor fuel quality, timing, poor spark, excessive carbon buildup, etc. but obviously none of those aside from one are likely to change in the span of a few minutes or even be a reasonable likelihood on a year old engine. Drained out the year old fuel put in fresh 93 and it works great now.

In terms of using old fuel in general for my 55, it has a 56, 9 and 1/2 compression in it. So I have to use fresh high octane fuel to not worry about pinging and I can reuse the fuel that was in it that's a few months old and was high octane to begin with and something else. If the fuel is so old that you wouldn't run it in a Packard straight 8 with something like 7.0 or 7.5 compression, then you certainly shouldn't run it in any other engine with 7.0 or 7.5 compression (i.e. basically any small equipment engine).

As Guscha said it works VERY well to clean things. Just be sure to wear gloves and use it in a very well ventilated and spark free environment...

If you do a lot of driving in your daily driver, the other thing you can do is mix like 1 gallon of old fuel into the tank whenever you get gas and slowly dispose of it that way.

Octane rating is not the issue with old fuel. It physically attacks fuel system parts and can plug jets, foul spark plugs, and cause valves to stick. It becomes very hard to ignite and burns more like kerosene with sugar or paint in it, if and when it does ignite. If in doubt, throw it out. It is not valuable, and it can and almost certainly will cause a lot of trouble. My dad bought a new mower at a fall sale, and stored it over the winter along with about half a gallon of gas. The following March, he rolled it out and filled the tank with some of the stored gas. It ran about 3 minutes, then bogged down and quit and would not restart. I found the intake valve stuck wide open and a gooey deposit in the new fuel tank. It took several hours to clean the tank and carburetor and free the valve. But he did save that 75 cents worth of gas....

I finally was able and to finish cleaning out the fuel system. I had to that the old gas to get disposed of at the city transfer station. The dude that took the gas cans said "whoa, that is some nasty gas".

Today I unhooked all the lines, sprayed Chemtool B-12 through all of them until it came out clean, then dried it will compressed air. I cleaned the bowl on the fuel pump, and the bowl on my new Carter filter. New filter for the Carter as well. I removed the fuel filter I had next to the fuel tank. No signs of debris. Replaced that section with some new fuel hose.



Poured some acetone into the empty fuel tank to break down any varnish that was sitting at the bottom. After letting it sit for a while I drained that out and let it air out. Then put 5 gallons of fresh non ethanol fuel in there. After priming the system for a while I got it started and let it idle for a while. I drove it up and down the gravel road by my house. Fuel bowl at the pump is nice and clear.



Fuel bowl at the carb seemed to do fine. But after painting the car and letting it sit for a while, there is no fuel in the bowl anymore. It's definitely warm to the touch with the manifold right there. But isn't non ethanol fuel not supposed to boil off? And I thought non ethanol fuel wasn't supposed to go stale?



***EDIT: I went out there and checked again after 15 minutes of sitting, and now the bowl by the carb is totally full. So I don't know.

Non-ethanol gas may be slightly more resistant to vapor lock and boiling, but it isn't much. Both types of fuel have to meet EPA mandates. Any type of gasoline will go stale in time, and modern gasolines will deteriorate more quickly in a vented fuel system than in modern closed system.

It's not uncommon for gasoline to evaporate or leak off from the carburetor when a car sits for a period of time.

I'd re-check all the fuel hose clamps. It's not uncommon for them to need tightened. Don't over do it, but make sure they're snug. The best type of clamp for fuel hoses is the spring type. They do a better job of applying pressure all around the hose diameter than the other types, and they will self-tighten in cold weather or when the hose shrinks or compresses, which it is very prone to do.

Just make sure you buy new spring clamps. They are known as Corbin wire clamps. Ones that are ancient are no longer springy.

On my Deluxe I always have to take off the air cleaner and refill the carb by unscrewing the cap by the fuel line and just pouring fuel in there. I test it by actuating the linkage and making sure the accelerator pump is charged before I hop in the car. Then I can just press the gas once and start.

My 400 has an electric pump so I just turn the ignition on until the fuel bowl fills up and thenceforth until I stop hearing air leak out of the carb indicating that the carb bowls are full. Then I just press the accelerator twice to fill and dispense the accelerator pump then start.