Re: Ethanol and Renewable Fuel Standards

Posted by Hans Ahlness On 2015/7/14 22:27:01

Fuel standards change with time, aviation fuel went through similar steps to take out most of the lead for instance. Old airplanes with small engines were certified to run on 80/87 octane, bigger ones on 100/130. Both replaced by 100"low lead" which by auto standards still has plenty of lead in it. Can't get the old types anymore, and the 100LL fouls plugs on the little engines (like my old family Cessna) so the big debate is approvals to run car gas in those engines. Of course that is incompatable with the seals and gaskets, so then that leads to problems. And ethanol gas is worse for that, and actually doesn't qualify for aviation use at all. Oh, the humanity!

So I clean my plugs more often, and life goes on. And it will with our old cars too, heck I bet even ethanol gas is better quality fuel than what they had when they were new. It's just the hassle of updating seals, o-rings, gaskets etc. but that stuff needs to be renewed anyway, so at some point the bullet is going to be bit.