More Fuel Questions?

[39-J3]

Has anyone ever seen lead separate from 100LL? I am just asking because I put some 100LL in my motorcycle and it started running real rough. When I opened the gas tank I could see these little ball like contaminates floating around in my tank. At first I thought it was that the Ethanol had eaten away at my tank liner (BUELL motorcycle w/fiberglass tank and liner). I drained the tank and found that the debris in the tank was lead. Does mixing Ethanol fuel with 100LL cause this or did I just get some bad, possibly old fuel? My big reason for concern is that this is the same 100LL I run in the cub. Maybe I should find another place to purchase fuel….. :evil:



Larry

 

[DW]

I mix pump gas and 100LL all the time and I've never had that problem.

 

[supercrow]

Fuel

I sometimes run 100LL in my Harley which has a 10.5 comp. ratio and have no trouble whatever. Comp. makes a big difference in aircraft engines for forming the lead balls which end up in the bottom plugs of low comp. engines ( Lyc. l50's at 7-1 ratio). Less problems with the balls in the l60's (8-1 and 8-5 and 9). I run 10-1 and they don't form at all in my engine. I don't know how or if the same type thing happens in bike engines. The fact that you are seeing it in the fuel tank is a little different than anything I have run into. I've seen the av-gas loosen up old deposits and in fact use it sometimes to do that on purpose; but the balls forming in the fuel is new to me. Interested to see what you finally come up with. Reid

 

[180Marty]

Lance wrote

I am running ethanol in my RV-8 with a 0-360.

Here is a quick clip of it running on 30% e-98 and 70% 100LL.

I am running it on 50% now, and it runs great.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y7Hckl3t4Y

 

[brown bear]

180 Marty wrote
"I am running ethanol in my RV-8 with a 0-360. "
Well Marty one nice thing about that is there is no need to sump your RV's tanks before flight.
So then are you doing a phase separtion test for water each flight? Or are you just trusting in God an luck?
Doug

 

[39-J3]

Re: Fuel

I sometimes run 100LL in my Harley which has a 10.5 comp. ratio and have no trouble whatever. Comp. makes a big difference in aircraft engines for forming the lead balls which end up in the bottom plugs of low comp. engines ( Lyc. l50's at 7-1 ratio). Less problems with the balls in the l60's (8-1 and 8-5 and 9). I run 10-1 and they don't form at all in my engine. I don't know how or if the same type thing happens in bike engines. The fact that you are seeing it in the fuel tank is a little different than anything I have run into. I've seen the av-gas loosen up old deposits and in fact use it sometimes to do that on purpose; but the balls forming in the fuel is new to me. Interested to see what you finally come up with. Reid

Reid, I think I just got some bad fuel. I do have a sample of the contaminated fuel in a jar, it is very strange looking and you can see the lead balls about the size of a BB in the fuel. The 100LL did not come from my local airport, I got it from a local gas station that now carries aviation 100LL fuel. It is hard telling what was in that tank before.

Larry

 

[DW]

Why would a local gas station carry 100LL???

 

[39-J3]

Why would a local gas station carry 100LL???

He also owns a couple of planes and wanted 100LL at his disposal. He only sells fuel to people that he knows.

Larry

 

[cubdriver2]

Why would a local gas station carry 100LL???

We have a public 100LL pump in Fonda NY out in front of the fair grounds so that the dirt track guy's can fill up their cars on the way into the race track.

Glenn

 

[180Marty]

We have a public 100LL pump in Fonda NY out in front of the fair grounds so that the dirt track guy's can fill up there cars on the way into the race track.

I'm pretty sure I read that just because it is 100 octane, because of the slow burn characteristics, it really doesn't do anything for high speed car engines at the race track. They'd do much better burning ethanol and it is safer than methanol if you get it on your skin.
http://www.ethanolontap.com/ethanol-racing01.asp

An added bonus is that ethanol is not toxic or corrosive, unlike methanol, so fuel-system maintenance is similar to gasoline. I was so impressed with our results in dyno testing that I'm going to convert one of my Super Comp cars to ethanol for further on-track testing."

 

[aalexander]

I'm pretty sure I read that just because it is 100 octane, because of the slow burn characteristics, it really doesn't do anything for high speed car engines at the race track.

Allows them to run at higher compression and/or boost.

 

[180Marty]

aalexander, I just dogpiled this

.Avgas 100 LL:The color is blue. This product sometimes has a high level of aromatics which can contribute to lazy throttle response and dissatisfaction of the consumer.