Today I was at a small airport and at the gas pumps they had both 100LL and V-Power (91 Octane auto gas by shell with no ethanol). I decided to try the V-Power, and i filled my right tank, which only had a small amount of 100LL left in it. It ran fine and i burned through most of it this afternoon, but i immediately got a very strong smell of the gas in the cockpit when i started taxiing with it. It subsided a bit at high power, but when i throttled back for approach it came back strongly again. The V-Power gas is much more smelly than avgas.
I?m now grounding the airplane till I can figure this out. I recently sealed-up the firewall really well, so it?s gotta be coming from somewhere further back. But I?ve never seen a hint of liquid gas in the cockpit, so it?s a bit of a mystery. Is it possible to get a vapourized fuel leak through one of hte fittings in the cockpit which would give the strong smell without leading to pooling liquid gas?
Any suggestions or tips on how to diagnose this would be much appreciated...
I?m now grounding the airplane till I can figure this out. I recently sealed-up the firewall really well, so it?s gotta be coming from somewhere further back. But I?ve never seen a hint of liquid gas in the cockpit, so it?s a bit of a mystery. Is it possible to get a vapourized fuel leak through one of hte fittings in the cockpit which would give the strong smell without leading to pooling liquid gas?
Any suggestions or tips on how to diagnose this would be much appreciated...