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Ethanol Free 91 Fuel Source?

ntspdy

Active Member
Does anyone know of a fuel station or distributor that sells 91 octane ethanol free fuel in the Charlotte or Rock Hill, SC area? Found multiple 90 octane suppliers but nothing 91 or above. Thanks.
 
All the stations listed on that site for Rock Hill are 90 or below. Searching for 91 or above, thanks though.
 
Fuel

All the stations listed on that site for Rock Hill are 90 or below. Searching for 91 or above, thanks though.

Put 4 parts 90 and 1 part avgas 100 and you will have more than you need. That is what I put in my tank to pump into my 9A, 8.5 CR IO-320 with no problems. So little lead it does not affect plugs.

I see your info says you are in Arizona?? There is one place just south of Kershaw near Carolina Motor Sports Park that sells 93 non ehtanol for the race cars, but that is the only location I am aware of.
Ed
 
Is there any ethanol free auto gas in Arizona? I havn't had any luck finding it. I even called a couple wholesalers last year and they didn't sell it to any Arizona stations. Maybe things have changed.
 
Is there any ethanol free auto gas in Arizona? I havn't had any luck finding it. I even called a couple wholesalers last year and they didn't sell it to any Arizona stations. Maybe things have changed.

The Maverick in Dewey, AZ has it. Was up there a couple of months ago and they have it at the pumps at the new store.
 
Is there any ethanol free auto gas in Arizona? I havn't had any luck finding it. I even called a couple wholesalers last year and they didn't sell it to any Arizona stations. Maybe things have changed.

In Flagstaff the Speedway on Butler and I-40 has 91 and Carters just behind them has 88. There’s another station on HY 89 that has E0 but I don’t know what octane it is. I just moved to NC so now I’ve got to learn a whole new area.

Thanks for the info on mixing 90 and 100LL. If I wasn’t able to find 91 that was going to be my next question. Never done it this way but figured it was a possible solution.
 
Put 4 parts 90 and 1 part avgas 100 and you will have more than you need. That is what I put in my tank to pump into my 9A, 8.5 CR IO-320 with no problems. So little lead it does not affect plugs.

I agree. Just a little bit of AvGas goes a long way in raising the octane and vapor pressure of car gas.
 
I don't get it

I'll never understand this obsession with ethanol free gasoline.
What is the problem with ethanol? If you are referring to a corrosion issue,
that was 20 years ago when poorly controlled ethanol production contained wildly excessive amounts of residual acid and presented a corrosive problem for aluminum tanks etc. this is no longer the case.
Hundreds of us are using pump gas with 10% ethanol, in some cases for decades.
 
I'll never understand this obsession with ethanol free gasoline.
What is the problem with ethanol? If you are referring to a corrosion issue,
that was 20 years ago when poorly controlled ethanol production contained wildly excessive amounts of residual acid and presented a corrosive problem for aluminum tanks etc. this is no longer the case.
Hundreds of us are using pump gas with 10% ethanol, in some cases for decades.

I think it’s more of a “fuel delivery” system issue….hoses, O-rings, fuel pumps, etc. that may cause problems at some point. If your fuel delivery system and plumbing are up to par, than the engine itself really doesn’t care what it’s burning. Those of us that are running systems such as SDS or EFII have absolutely no problem running ethanol. The only potential concern is if your airplane sits for extended periods of time, because the ethanol gas can go bad. I do try to run ethanol free gas in my -8, but it runs perfectly fine with ethanol as well.
 
I'll never understand this obsession with ethanol free gasoline.
What is the problem with ethanol? If you are referring to a corrosion issue,
that was 20 years ago when poorly controlled ethanol production contained wildly excessive amounts of residual acid and presented a corrosive problem for aluminum tanks etc. this is no longer the case.
Hundreds of us are using pump gas with 10% ethanol, in some cases for decades.

Hygroscopic. Phase separation. Fun times. No thanks.
 
To each his own

Phase separation is a result of ethanol laced gasoline absorbing enough water
to cause the aforementioned.
This is a concern if you are dealing with seasonal maintenance equipment that is not used for months at a time.
The short of it is that gasoline turns stale well before phase separation occurs, or literally many months before such an event occurs.
It is like saying, the airplane will corrode eventually so I am not going to fly it.
Many of us are flying with unmodified fuel systems and using E10 mogas without any issues. Generally we are silenced by those who have not even tried to use mogas E10. Keep an open mind my friend.
 
Ernst, I'm not trying to be close-minded, and I'm glad you and others have enjoyed success in using E10 fuel in your aircraft. What I am trying to do is reasonable risk-mitigation, even at the recognized expense of paying a premium for no-ethanol premium mogas for my 8.5:1 IO-540. There have been batches of this fuel that I paid very nearly as much for delivered to my house by the farmers' co-op as I would have paid at the pump for 100LL at the cheapest airports around these parts, largely negating my chief reason for running mogas.

Here is my chief reservation, aside from the uncertain pedigree of certain seals and elastomers in my fuel system and the sealant in my tanks. This is from the internet, of course...
*****
As noted on Chevron's Web site, while conventional gasoline can dissolve up to 150 parts per million of water at 70°F, the situation is different for gasoline oxygenated with 10% ethanol. This 90% gasoline/10% ethanol blend can dissolve up to 7,000 ppm of water at 70°F. When this blend is cooled (insert adiabatic lapse rate here) , both the water and some of the ethanol become insoluble. Contacting the blend with more water also draws ethanol from the blend. The result, in both cases, is two layers of liquid, an upper ethanol-deficit gasoline layer and a lower ethanol-rich water layer. This phase separation of the gasoline/ethanol mix lowers the octane number and may cause knocking in an engine, while the engine will not run at all (I don't like the sound of that) on the ethanol/water layer (which of course collects down there at the bottom of the wing tank where the fuel pickup tube sits).

Because of this potential for phase separation at any ethanol level, it is imperative that motor fuels containing ethanol not be exposed to water during its distribution (and just how are we to assure ourselves of that?)or use, making housekeeping at the service station and any other points along the supply chain very important in the prevention of water contamination. Another property of ethanol blends is that they are hygroscopic, meaning they absorb moisture from the air, raising the potential for phase separation during storage if the tank is vented to the atmosphere (which is how we build our RV tanks, of course)and is subject to condensation formation as a result of temperature change.

*******

Like I said, not trying to lecture or be snarky - just reasonably risk-aware. My take thus far is that use of E10 in aircraft fuel systems is not a problem right up until the moment when it is. I am choosing, for now, not to buy a ticket on that ride. Budgetary considerations and the relative price of E10 and 100LL may force a rethinking of the issue, but it will be with the uncomfortable awareness that bargain-hunting is shifting my window of acceptable risk. Perhaps when I cannot afford the pure stuff, it's time to get out of the game altogether and let a more affluent person own my plane. Who knows.
 
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Put 4 parts 90 and 1 part avgas 100 and you will have more than you need. That is what I put in my tank to pump into my 9A, 8.5 CR IO-320 with no problems. So little lead it does not affect plugs.

I do something similar that does not introduce lead to the Rotax. I, too, mix the 90 octane ethanol free 50:50 with 93 octane premium unleaded. Net result is 91.5 octane unleaded with very limited ethanol.

When you see "10% ethanol" on the pump it really means "maximum 10% ethanol." The Southern States Co-op 93 octane turns out to actually be about 7.5% ethanol on average so when this is blended in equal parts to the zero ethanol mogas it lowers actual ethanol content closer to 3%. I would rather deal with 3% ethanol than any amount of lead.

Hopefully airports/FBOs will quickly adopt the GAMI 100UL or at least the Swift UL94. PLEASE airport/FBO managers PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take a moment to learn about these options. It's surprising that EVERY airport/FBO I have asked in the past year (most recently 14 days ago at KHUF) when they would be offering Swift UL94 or GAMI 100UL not a single one even had a clue what I was talking about.
 
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