Silly me, and a warning to all. Car ('68 220, with Bosch electronic ignition and SUs)had had the same gas in the tank for 2 yrs, last year i added a 10 litres for when I ran it for 30 mins to get the juices flowing, but I never insured the car last year so that was it. When I tried to start it last week, it started fine with a prime, but then the troubles started. ROugh running and then no start, checked everything, cleaned plugs ran rough then died. I was super out of practice trouble shooting as I haven't had a "no start" in at least five years with any of my vehicles, so I did a trouble shoot on the whole ignition system. By the way, with an induction pickup timing light, and a flooded plug, you will get the impression that you have no spark. So now I have a new cap and rotor, new plugs, adjusted my floats, cleaned a little gunk out of the bowls. The only problem is a 10 litre gas can on the roof, with a tube to the carbs.
SO, with a 1/6 tank of bad gas, into which I have already dumped 10 litres last week, who thinks another 10 litres will make the gas usable? I don't really want to have to dump it all, as this is a messy, stinky process.
I'm starting to feel that wisdom is making the same mistakes and being able to quickly say, "well I know what I did wrong this time"
When it finally turned over it was so sweet sounding after all the fussing and fuming. Ciao, patrick.
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Patrick, '68 220, '83 245, '92 Eurovan (work truck).

I would start by confirming that it is indeed getting gas to the carbs... just pull the fuel line at the carbs, turn it over and see if gas squirts out.

Then take the float covers off the car, and get all the gas outta there... it is all still 100% old gas. Also drain the lines. Pull the line going into the pump, and blow it out backwards. Blow the line out twixt the carbs and the pump.

Refill float bowls with 100% new gas, and put everything back together. It should start (perhaps with a prime still), and run on that new gas for a few minutes. By the time its getting the mixed gas, it should be warmed up enough stay running. Buy a can of gas to put in the trunk, and drive her till she runs dry. Then you'll know all that old gas is outta there...

Good luck with it!
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-Matt I ♥ my ♂

Patrick

I had the same problem with my 1953Land rover, I tried mixing, ended up draining and starting fresh. Learn from others mistakes(mine) and drain the tank(there's a plug on the bottom) and get a new filter, clean carb and start fresh, your wagon deserves it. Plus gas is back down under 90 cents a litre.

PS your old 122 is still going strong, I put 1000 miles on it last week, generator died, so I put in an alternator from a P1800ES, works like new.

Merci
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65 122, 73 P1800ES, 79 242GT, 80 262C, 81 242, 87 780,88 745T X2, and a plethora of parts cars and eventually to be finished projects

Personally, I would drain it, it will save you time and headache.
If you don't want to do this, try and add some octane booster, literally shake the car up to slosh it and mix it up. Check the fuel line coming out of the tank...I have found filters thier put by others in the past and it is probably plugged, change the other fuel filter and make sure you get all the goo out of your float bowls. If it runs, don't turn it off and drive around the block a lot until you can add more new high octane gas, and repeat. (I say drive around the block because it will be easier to push it back home when it stalls again.)

-Good luck.
-Erik