What octane

[Al_Smith]

All perhaps a good subject for debate but it questions practicality  .

Maybe AV gas or Cam II in a race engine but how much actual good would they do for a standard 2 cycle ? In addition some airports get real anal about selling AV gas for non aviation usage .

They're just saw engines they aren't quarter million dollar sports cars .Generally speaking if it's good quality to begin with ran on the approved octane rated gasoline at the proper oil mix ratio and not had the pee beat out of it the thing will run for years .

[John Mc]

... For 10¢ a gallon more, I can get regular without ethanol. Use it in the car and for all my gas needs.

And if you ever track the mileage you get in that car, you'll probably find the extra cost of non-ethanol gas more than makes up for it in better gas mileage.

When I can get ethanol-free here, it's only available as premium gas. It costs me about 7% extra over regular-grade E10 gas, but I get 11-12% better gas mileage in my 2004 Toyota minivan, and 10% better in my wife's 2001 Subaru Legacy. A friend has checked in detail on his 3 family cars with similar results.

Ethanol does have less energy content, but that alone would not account for the big drop in MPG... it would have to have ZERO energy content to account for that.

So much for this renewable energy source helping to reduce our dependence on foreign oil...

[John Mc]

All perhaps a good subject for debate but it questions practicality  .

Maybe AV gas or Cam II in a race engine but how much actual good would they do for a standard 2 cycle ? In addition some airports get real anal about selling AV gas for non aviation usage .

Al, some small airports make a point of stocking non-ethanol autogas (usually premium grade) in addition to 100LL AvGas. Not all piston aircraft can run on it safely, but many can. (And some of the older, smaller aircraft engines tend to get lead fouling when they run on 100LL... they were designed when lower-octane aviation fuel with a lot less lead was readily available). The airports that have it usually sell it for more than the "street price" of auto gas, but it's still about a buck less than AvGas.

For most airports, their problem with selling gas to the general public is that they do not add the fuel tax to it, which is tied to on-road use. Some of them may not sell it to you anyway, just because they don't want the hassle (or the "ramp jockey" might not know WHY they don't sell fuel to the public). A lot of them will sell you the fuel if they know it's for off-road use.

Norridgewock, ME airport sells autogas for $4.40/gal (100LL avgas for $5.40/gal).
I don't believe Bowman, ME sells ANY fuel -- at least that's how they are listed in my airport directory.

If anyone is interested, here's a website that searches airports for fuel prices:
     www.airnav.com/fuel/local.html

You input a zipcode or airport identifier, and it will come back with airports in the area and prices. You can chose whether you are looking for 100LL (AvGas) or Mogas (automotive gas). Those that sell Mogas tend to go to great lengths to assure that they get ethanol-free gas. Ethanol-blended gas is a definite no-no in aircraft (with a few rare exceptions).

[John Mc]

Unfortuantely for me, the airports that do stock auto gas in my area tend to run out of it in September each year... the same time the local gas stations lose their source.

[Al_Smith]

To be quite truthfull about the only time I run into anyone using av gas is at a GTG or at the saw races .At the later though anything goes .

The smell of Cam II or av gas laced with nitro and castoroil or Klotz is a smell you can pick out even if you were were in a hog barn .

Now I personally know a lot of pro fallers and tree service people .Nary a one of them goes to great lengths about the gas .Just pump gas with a good oil is all they use .They complain about the ethanol like the rest of us but unless you have an easily accessable source for non you about have to make due with what you can get .You just get real good at rebuilding carbs is all .

[John Mc]

The Pros also probably run through the gas quicker than some of us weekend warriors. That could help avoid problems. Never good to run old gas through a saw, but even more of an issue to keep ethanol blends around... the shelf life on that stuff is shorter.

[Al_Smith]

  Well yeah ,I'm not much more than a weekend warrior myself .Altough at times I can burn two gallons a day or more depending .Then again a two gallon jug might last a month .

If I think the gas is too old I just dump it in one of the mowers or my 1951 Fergeson because they really don't care what it is .If they smoke big deal .You kill two birds with one stone,mow the grass and fog for mosquitoes at the same time .