operating a 912ul on ethanol

[Slyfox]

I love Wenatchee. I fly in there all the time and take the car and go in for breakfast.

[cap01]

chris , naturally i have lots of pic and would be happy to share . pretty new to this site and havent figured out how to post them . 40kf was purchased in 1991 and has had three previous owners . when i acquired her she had been covered and painted and grove gear installed . everything else needed to be done , engine installed , panel and wiring and the like . i have gained a great respect for the guys that complete a kit from the begining . as it was it took a good year to complete 40kf and i had to get the mindset that it was like a job . if you dont put your time in , you dont get paid . it is really nice to have a site like this with people that are happy to share thier knowledge and experiences and are interested in what your doing
have fun with the choppers
chuck pierce
40kf
yelm, wa

[SkyPirate]

qoute"
i have gained a great respect for the guys that complete a kit from the begining . as it was it took a good year to complete 40kf and i had to get the mindset that it was like a job .
end quote

Try building one from scratch
I started my project on dec 5th ..the fuselage is all welded together and on wheels ,..just got minor pieces to put on to complete it ..the wing material will be here next tuesday ,..should have the wings on by next week end .
I'm averaging 3 hours a day working on it.
Chase

[Slyfox]

I did just that, built my Rv on a standard build, took me 2.5 years. I rebuilt the kitfox and changed out one tank rebuilt a complete wing and shortened one. Recovered the whole airplane, took 5 months.

Anyway, back to original post. I run my 912s on alki fuel but I really wish they would knock out the lead in the current fuel for aircraft, what this will do is lower the 100 octane to a lower number, but most aircraft can take this, if this is done, my IO360 will love it, I will love it. For one the deposites in my lyc will be less and my rotax can run on it without problems. For me this would be a great thing.

[SkyPirate]

you did an awesome job on the both of them too Steve ,...

mines not a kit ,..I designed it .

Sad thing about the fuel issues ..experimental aircraft flyers ..aside from using aviation fuels and paying the higher costs will eventually have to modify any existing fuel systems to meet the suppliers recipee for the fuel,
allot of automobiles have the "other then metal" fuel cells ,..it won't be long before someone matches the materials in these fuel tanks for aircraft fuel tanks, sad thing is ..once you think your caught up ..they change it again
Chase

[Papa Beach]

A "Highlander" acquaintance sent the following website which provides a listing of ethanol free gas stations in both Canada and the US which may be helpful.

www.pure-gas.org

[jrthomas]

We recently lost our supplier of ethanol free gas. They were forced to accept ethanol by their supplier so I did a little searching. I called a local distributer and this nice lady started reading a list of service stations with ethanol free gas. None of them were listed on puregas.org. One of the stations was about 8 miles from me so we made a run. In my search and conversations I found an awful lot of people share my concerns about ethanol. A local tractor, mowing and farm equipment dealer say that about 80% of their engine repair is gas related. I'm one of those, a Cub Cadet with a rough running engine that ended up being caused by water in 10% ethanol gas. Yesterday I drained about 15 gallons from my bass boat tank. My 150 Mercury has oil injection so the gas has no oil mixture and the boat is sheltered so no contamation like water should be present. The last time I filled the tank was from a station that only has ethanol laced gas. The gas I drained was an awful yellow color. The boat tank is plastic so it's not rust. My personal belief is don't store gas with ethanol for any length of time and I don't intend to run it in my boat or plane. It's nasty stuff. James Thomas

[Paul Z]

My recommendation is that it is not worth the savings. I have the newer fiberglass tanks and I am getting to flush my fuel system. Man what a PAIN!

[Geowitz]

Paul,

What do you mean? That the ethanol is affecting your newer tanks?

[Paul Z]

When I drained my tanks, I had a light brown film or contaminant (not sure what word to use) in my tanks. I used a clear Siphon hose, and I saw several balls of the light brown contaminant liquid pass through the hose as I siphoned the tanks. I removed my air intake and found that the inside of the Carbs to be sticky. I have cleaned the carbs with Carb Cleaner, and ethanol. I have three 5 gallon tanks of the gas in the hanger. I will see if I can can get a sample out of the gas cans, and take a picture of it this weekend! I am not sure if it was the ethanol that degraded the fiberglass or not! I used about 2 tanks of Premium auto fuel. When, I went flying the last time before the engine started idling rough, I noticed the Sight gauge (clear fuel hose) on each wing tank had gotten cloudy with a light brown tint, it definitely made them harder to read the sight gage. Prior to using the auto fuel the sight gauge hoses were clear! If your sight gauges start turning a light brown be aware! I plan on folding the wings and replacing the sight gauge hoses, so I will have that as an indicator!