dodgy petrol or bacteria???

guys, i ve been having problems with my v8, and while going thru things i pumped petrol through into a bottle. i ve never seen anything like it, looks like a bad pint of guiness. splits into 3 layers; petrol, a brownish layer and a creamy head. a lad who used to be in the r.a.f thought it looked like bacteria that he used to see on av gas. i know it stood for a while but....... has anyone come across this with petrol? i ve never seen anything like it. thanks.

sounds more like yer got an oil and water mix in there some how.

aye,thanks slob, my 1st thought was also that something had got in the tank while it was standing but i ve siphoned off a two litre plastic bottle and about a third of it is this funny stuff. weirdest thing i ever did see! the guage shows 1/4 full which means at least a gallon or two of contaminant.

haven't yer got a drain bung at the bottom of yer tank? if so i'd be tempted to whip it out drain the fooker then remove the tank so you can use some of that tank cleaner stuff in it.
you can get a kit that contains an acid to clean the tank including any rust that might be in it, it also has a primer and paint/coating stuff to make the inside of yer tank like new.
try doing a search for eastwick or was it eastwood restorations

Depending on how long it had been standing it could just be that the petrol had gone off, modern petrol is only good for about 3 months tops, after that it can damage your engine as it burns. I was given a car about 6 months ago which had stood for 4 months, had half a tank of fuel in it so used it and it burnt out the valves in 150 miles.