Aviation Fuel

Mr. 'H'

The last owner of my car uses aviation fuel in his older collectible cars. :eek:

It's one of his "tricks" in preserving them, and he reckoned that it was better for the motor, and, because it's a higher quality, the stuff doesn't turn to mulch in the tank after sitting for long periods of time.

Has anyone here tried this? If so, I'd love to know if you can get it here in Ireland for your car. For example, could I go to Westin aerodrome and fill up the tank?

biggus

Use to use it in turbo rally cars ...smells a lot more potent then petrol and would think it would do more harm than good in an old yoke. BTW illegal to use in a car no duty on it .

Max_Damage

Isn't it the same as kerosene? We used to use it in our old Sierra (which was a diesel) for the NCT test. Less emissions! It worked too!

seanyleary

there is a few types, Jet a1 will run your home heating or a deisel car but you must add some oil as there is no lub in in it.
After long periods it will start to grow stuff in your tank
not sure about the stuff in for petrol cars. I think its called AVGAS, us in small piston aircraft.

Lauder

AVGAS (stands for Aviation Gasoline) can be used in Petrol cars but as it is rated somewhere around 130 octane the increased power may damage an engine in the long term. It is what is used in small prop planes and should be easy enough to source.

Jet Fuel/Aviation fuel is only "duty free" on flights ex. EU so is legal to use as the Duty IS paid if buying in somewhere like Weston or other private airfields.


If your looking for high octane fuels try E5 from Maxol which is 99octane. Or E85 (although not recommended in normal Petrol cars, but will work) is about 105octane.

kev1.3s

I worked in a petrol station on the great central road in aus and we couldn't sell normal petrol only avgas and the general opinion was that it was ok to use avgas for short periods but the cars out there that only ran on avgas would only last a couple of months.

kona

what octane do the race cars use in mondello?

130 octane youd probably pink so bad your pistons would explode, if they didnt melt first.

Quite retarded, why not just empty the tank? and fill up as you need to? Im sure there is somthing you can get to absorb moisture anyways.

mustang68

From what I read of avgas (as discussed above) I'd say that the octane rating would cause your engine to expire quickly after some interesting motoring, so probably not great for a 70yo block.

Maybe take a step back and have a look at what you're trying to achieve, seems like you are worried about leaving the car for long periods of time and the petrol going bad (for want of a better word) on you?

If you don't drive a lot do not leave the petrol tank empty, fill it up. This will remove all the oxygen and moisture in the tank (and fuel system) and will help prevent rusting. Fill up from a busy fuel station.

Get a fuel stabilizer (I had a quick google and found a few in halfords) to prevent moisture build-up and varnishing and throw that into the tank and let it run through the system for a while.

kindredspirit

If you have to leave petrol for long periods, put in some Fuel Set.

It works. (No connection with them.)

The only place I can seem to buy it is Union Chandlery in Cork.

b.c

The higher the octane the slower it burns which is why highly tuned race cars use it running hgch compression and or advanced ignition timing where pinking would be helped by the higher octane, in a standard motor performance will be about the same but for older engines the lead will only do it good and also save damage to fuel lines and tanks as they were designed for leaded, unleaded was the fuel that made motors pink under load:D

b.c

The higher the octane the slower it burns which is why highly tuned race cars use it running high compression and or advanced ignition timing where pinking would be helped by the higher octane, in a standard motor performance will be about the same but for older engines the lead will only do it good and also save damage to fuel lines and tanks as they were designed for leaded, unleaded was the fuel that made motors pink under load:D