What fuel do you use ?

[Irish Lad]

Hi all,

I shortly hope to be operating a Citabria as part of a group. I was curios as to what type of fuel most of you use ? A friend of mine operates his 7GCAA on Mogas, and he never seems to find it poses any problems.

The current price of Avgas is outrageous and I'm wondering would I be putting my engine under any difficulty by using Mogas ?

 

[wjwilson2000]

Well you can get as many pros and cons as you care to see. And this question is ask many times, so here is my opinion. Car gas burns great in my O320A2D and has since I bought it several years ago. The real big thing to watch when using car gas is the quality. Your aircraft is not the place to find out that the service station got a load of bad fuel,water, dirt ect.. Fuel containing alcohol could also be bad. That being said if you watch what your using it can save you a bundle, as for damage to the engine I don't think you'll see a dimes worth of difference when it's time for overhaul but you'll probaly save enough in 2000 hrs to pay for the overhaul. the lead serves several purposes a couple are ,preventing detonation another is the coating of the valve and seat. The older engines had soft exhaust valve seats and without lead coating the seat they wouldn't last but a few hours before they would beat out. The new engines and overhaul's use hard seats which do not require the lead. Hey flip a coin!!!!

Woodie
N29763

 

[mikeberg/wi]

I just recently sold my Cherokee 140 with a 0320 in it. I used auto fuel in it for the last 20 years or since a STC became available for it with zero problems. I'm not sure what engine you have but auto fuel works great in low compression engines. I found no negatives other than having to monkey with 5 gallon cans which can be a bigger problem with a high wing aircraft, I suppose. My STC (from Peterson) recommended running a tank of 100 LL every 75 hours or so to build a lead cushion on the valve seats, etc. We also have a A65 Champ on our field that went over 1800 hours and used auto fuel almost exclusively. If it's legal for your aircraft and you can get a STC for it, I see no reason not to use it. As the poster above indicated, do pay attention to the condition of the fuel you use and no ethanol, of course.