Ol' Brian
ArboristSite Guru
Go to the airport ask for 100LL (100 octane low lead, blue in color). You should not need more octane than that and it is also free of the crap (e.g. ethanol MBTE, etc...) they put in pump gas for cars (chaeper than auto racing gas too). By law airports also have to pump the tanks for water daily (carb icing at 10,000' is no fun....).
If 100 octane is no good search out the green AV gas (115LL), it's 115 octane.
There is a purple that is run in some military helicopters (130 octane...)
Howdy guys!
I work daily with aviation fuels... 100LL (blue) and 80 (red), and 80UL which I believe is also red, are the only aviation gasolines currently in production at this time. 100LL is very common... 80 is only available in certain areas of the country... fairly hard to find. Thanks to your friendly EPA, they are trying to phase out 100LL in favor of 80UL, but I don't believe that will happen anytime in the near future... but the minions ARE working on it. Straight 100 octane (green, which is not 115 octane and has nearly double the lead of 100LL) is no longer produced, nor is the purple 118/130, much to the dismay of the guys running the big radial engines. Neither one (100 or 118/130) have been produced for probably 15-20 years now, unless a refinery puts out a small batch every now and then, but it would be extremely expensive for them to do this, so the existence of any fresh 100 (green) or 118/130 (purple) is doubtful.
Just to stay correct, Carburetor icing is caused by the moisture in the air, not by water in the fuel, but, I know what you mean
Also, guys, just an FYI, dispensing aviation gasoline into anything other than an aircraft for use in anything other than a human carrying aircraft is an EPA violation punishable by some pretty hefty fines ($25,000 per occurrence, or more, and that might be $25,000 per gallon per occurrence...don't remember exactly anymore, I just know we don't do it anymore, it's not worth the risk), so you guys that are getting 100LL from your local airports, I would advise that you remain tight-lipped about where you're getting it from, lest the wrong ears hear about it, and your source dry up overnight. My company will not fill cans for anyone anymore, period, because of this... we got the warning letter from the EPA probably 10 years ago. Thanks, EPA! :angry2:
Nothing beats the smell of a well tuned engine running on 100LL