Aviation fuel

[xavier]

My son has been given 180 L of aviation fuel. Is it OK to run my 323i on it? I will test run the stuff in my lawn mower today.

[dooce]

Aircraft fuel I work with is similiar to diesel, and works in our diesel equipment, wouldnt try it in any of my petrol engines

[xavier]

I thought it was just 100 octane petrol

[lemmy99]

That would depend if its petrol or jet fuel.
How old is it, if its petrol it will go off and turn to honey.

[E30_Crazy]

The only jet fuels I can think of would either be way too ferocious for a regular petrol engine, or they would be like Dooce said--- similar to diesel. The kind I work with everyday is like diesel... you almost need a blowtorch to light it (zippo's don't work, trust me)

[xavier]

This is like petrol. I put it in the lawn mower and it went VERY well

[retroboyo]

Is the lawnmower a diesel engine though?

[m8782538]

180l, that'll keep you going for a while then wonder if its cheaper than normal petrol??

[mrLEE30]

Jet fuel and Aviation gas are two completely different things.

Jet fuel is kreosene based and even less combustible than diesel and is designed to ignite under compression (not with a zippo!!), hence why it works in a gas turbine engine that has mutiple compressor blades to get the necessary conditions to ignite the jet fuel, and why diesels are very high compression engines.

Aviation fuel or Avgas is high octane petrol, normally about 100-102 Octane but is also found as low as 87Octane (dyed red is low Octane, dyed green is high Octane IIRC) it also has varying amounts of lead in it - so DONT run it in modern cars or else you need a new Catalytic convertor - but for the E30 this is not an issue.

I last used it to run Bernie Eccelstone's fleet of old F1 cars at the Bahrain F1 GP in 2010, along with MS 106 which is an even hgher Octane and basically race fuel.

So basically if it runs your lawnmower it will run your car, it cannot be too ferocious it just may burn a bit hotter and if it is the good stuff then you will get a bit more power (not much) and if it is the bad stuff then you will loose a little power. With proper tuning and the right fuel there can be a significant improvement using the high octanne fuel, but NOT with the standard ECU and sesnors. it wil be the difference between 2 star and 4 star...i doubt anyone can really tell the differnece in everyday driving.

Good luck (and dont forget to add oil if your lawnmower is two stroke...which knackers the Octane rating of fuel anyway so i dont know why people put high octane fuel in a 2 stroke!)

[Brianmoooore]

Bear in mind that using this in a road car is seriously illegal, so don't publicise what you're up to too much, or you'll get a visit from HMRC!

[m8782538]

thats true, lol.

[xavier]

It is the green stuff. I live in Australia. I have not heard of it being illegal here. The lawnmower is a 4 stroke petrol mower. The fuel will probably get used in my son's e21.

[m8782538]

i can get racing fuel, wonder if that would work in the E30? be great for track days, a bit expensive for day to day driving at £3.65/L

[Mikey_Boy]

Be VERY careful with this stuff - the lead content will be VERY high (54 times that of old unleaded if my memory serves - this could cause injector fouling) and could be LOW octane fuel. If it is green then it MAY be high octane.

More importantly, fundamentals of aviation fuel composition (even if it is gasoline or avgas as its known) are very different to road fuels. Aviation gasolines are designed for engines that do not vary much in terms of revs - that is, steady state running. Indeed your lawnmower is also designed to run at primarily one engine speed which is why the avgas goes well in it!! A road fuel is designed for lots of transients and changes in engine speed and the fuel composition reflects that. Whilst you may not break your engine using it, it won't be optimal...

I would suggest that you keep the avgas for your lawnmower for the rest of its days...!!

Bottom line - avgas is NOT designed for road cars, please don't use it (and yes, before you ask, I work in R&D for an oil company and used to be tech director for Shell in F1 when Ferrari were winning!)


Cheers,
Mike

[Brianmoooore]

Didn't notice the Western Australia bit. I've no idea whether its use is legal over there or not, but it certainly wouldn't be in the UK, without declaring it to HMRC and paying the road fuel tax.
I certainly wouldn't advocate using it neat, but I can't see much harm happening on a non cat. engine if it's mixed in at about 20% or so.

[xavier]

Ok the lawnmower gets it

[m8782538]

Probably best to stick with V-Power then