Want E0 gas but not for $25/gal? Get yourself some AvGas

Joined
Mar 7, 2018
Messages
142
Location
MA
I was sick of buying the canned ethanol free gas at my work, even with a discount, $17/gal is still ridiculous for any gasoline. There is no regular unleaded e0 near me whatsoever. I bit the bullet and went to my local municipal airport. Very easy in and out, the operator filled up my 5 gallon can from the tanker truck. $5.50/gallon for 100LL, 100 octane, leaded gasoline. Just putting the snowblower away, drained the tank/carb, filled it up with AvGas. Runs great! Even when the engine is stone cold, it fires up notably faster with fewer pulls as compared to E10 87. 100LL has a generally agreed upon ten year shelf life, perfect for the generator which sits for indefinite periods, and I won't need to clean out the carb and replace the fuel lines after the ethanol soup turns them to goop every couple years. Most places will fill any gas container.

A few caveats: I would NOT use it with any vehicle/equipment with any sort of exhaust catalyst - it will clog them, and I wouldn't run it year round as from several videos I watched, there are observable lead deposits after even a tankful or two, this is just for long term storage for me. Maybe change the spark plug once a year instead of every other.
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Also, some airports will not sell it to you if you claim you are using it for "non-aviation" purposes per FAA regulation, the airports don't care but the FAA does. If asked, I would urge you to say its for "my ultralight that I'm building" or something to that effect.

I even confirmed with my Stihl corporate technical service manager that this stuff is fine for 2-strokes, lasts forever and they love the lead!

Just thought I'd share my experience!
 
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To be clear, 100LL is LEADED.

And it has a LOT more LEAD than leaded auto gasoline used to have.

The "low lead" is compared with 115/145 octane for wartime supercharged aircraft engines.

But it is not low lead at all, when compared with automotive gasoline. It runs about four times the concentration of the leaded you could get at the pump.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avgas#Grades

And lead is a neurotoxin.

There are better ways to get ethanol free fuel...
 
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"$5.50/gallon for 100LL, 100 octane, leaded gasoline."

Yes, as I said I am aware it is leaded.
 
If your livelihood involves using gas powered equipment most of the day, I probably would skip the leaded fuel.
 
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I think it's a horrible idea. High lead concentration.

Four times the lead concentration of leaded gasoline.

Which has been banned in every country because it's a neurotoxin.

It's not the FAA that cares, it's the EPA.
 
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Lead is readily absorbed when you breathe exhaust or get it on your skin. This poison is very slow to leave the body. It's crazy to use leaded gas in a handheld engine like a chainsaw.
 
Oh yeah I agree with all of you, this would never be something used on a daily basis or on a saw that is spewing exhaust 2 feet in front of me. Like I said, this is exclusively storage gas for the OPE with large gas tanks that sits for extended periods of time and is infrequently used.
 
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You can make your gas E0 if you really want to. All you need is a 2 liter bottle and some water. Must use 91 or 93 octane as removing the ethanol reduces the octane number. There are Youtube videos showing how to do it.
 
how can we get legislation reversed that forces the use of E?
and it's surprising how much the lead contaminates the oil. pull the dipstick on any piston powered aircraft.....
 
Originally Posted by PantherFan88
Like I said, this is exclusively storage gas for the OPE with large gas tanks that sits for extended periods of time and is infrequently used.


Makes no sense. When it's time to put it away, either run it until it's dry or drain the tank and run until the carb is empty. Cheap and easy.
 
Don't want the metal gas tanks to rust as they sit empty in my shed with fluctuating temps.
 
Originally Posted by Astro14
I think it's a horrible idea. High lead concentration.

Four times the lead concentration of leaded gasoline.

Which has been banned in every country because it's a neurotoxin.

It's not the FAA that cares, it's the EPA.


Not 4x that of yesterday's car gas.... 100LL "CAN" have a maximum of 2gm TEL per gallon. However, you will not find 100LL with that level of TEL today. As I mentioned above, much of the 100LL available here in the USA is actually 100VLL, with less than 0.5gm TEL per gallon.
 
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bla-bla-bla lead is bad BUT so are cell phones + all the chemicals sprayed on our food + all the FAKE additives used to make things taste better, BUT cheaper with more health issues!! in the end $$$$ runs everything in the USA good or bad!
 
If you put MMO at 1oz per 1gal you won't have any problem at all either. I leave my mower/leaf blower full with this 1oz to 1 gal and never have a problem at start up.
 
I actually disagree with one of your purported selling points and believe that science would be on my side. Lower octane gas including that with 10% ethanol will more easily ignite than 100LL in the combustion process. The use of higher octane fuel is that it won't pre-ignite before the optimum point of the combustion cycle. Your claims of "Firing up faster' are just in your head. The rest of your points are not imo very sound either. There are ways to mitigate gasoline with alcohol content that are cheap and easy and much more environmentally friendly and your engines won't know the difference.
 
Why do you feel the need to store equipment with gas in it? Why not just run it dry and then add regular gas treated with Sta-bil when you need to run the stuff?
 
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