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If you use a tankful of gas every 2-3 months, I do not believe there is any advantage to the stabilizer. If the car sits unused for months at a time it may be pertinent, and in that event it will be advantageous to keep the tank full or nearly so to reduce water accumulation from the air inside the tank. If you use gas with ethanol, the consequences of condensation will be minimized because ethanol is miscible with water and it just goes away when you drive. Water does not mix with non-ethanol gas and accumulates in the bottom of the tank. One knowledgeable source from the petroleum industry remarks that stabilizers slow combustion and increase deposit formation, and should not be used except when necessary (ie long storage) or in greater than recommended dosage. Stabilizers are anti-oxidants; fuel burning in an engine is oxidation.
Ethanol has been blamed for a lot more problems than it has ever caused. It is not a problem on modern cars which are all designed to be happy with 10% or higher. Ethanol has probably caused some problems with rubber compounds that are no longer used (in hoses and carburetor parts) and your Sonett may have some such...but mostly it causes a lot of imagined problems and few real ones. If you want to be really safe, change all rubber fuel hoses and put in a modern-production carb kit. Methanol, on the other hand, is much more reactive than ethanol and undesirable in gasoline.
The only reason to use your 96-octane non-ethanol fuel would be if the ethanol scares you which I am suggesting it should not. The extra octane in a stock V4 will do nothing but lighten your wallet. It is in no way "more powerful" than 89 octane nor will it improve gas mileage. It is necessary only in high-compression engines to prevent knock. I know of no downside to high-octane gas except the cost, but there is no upside unless you have a specific need.
Ethanol has had some use in gasoline for decades. MTBE is maybe still used in some places but has been illegal in CA since 2007 and the 10% ethanol that supplanted it has never caused any issue in my V4, nor in any other vehicle that I know of.
Lead in gas is another issue. Your engine may develop valve seat problems from prolonged use of unleaded (regardless of ethanol, MTBE, Sta-Bil) if the heads have not had hardened seats installed, but ethanol has no bearing on this issue.
posted by 75.147.23...
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