Aviation fuel?

**quickbuck** · 6th February 2010, 13:24

Originally Posted by marty

If it's Avgas, it's Low Lead,(110LL) and will be green or blue/purple.

Don't be a dick - it will NOT make your bike run any better - in fact, it will more than likely damage it if you do not tune the engine to run on it.

Last time I used 2 litres of avgas (and I have access to unlimited supply of it) in a tank topped with 15l of 96, the pipes ran grey for the next 250kms. There was no increase in performance.

The way I learnt it, and this was 19 years ago mind, is:
100 is Green
100 Low lead is Blue (Could well be 110)
The Purple stuff is 130....

Can't remember what colour 115 was....

Haven't had to look. We only use the stuff that comes out of the tanker, and it has been quite a few years since I actually put any into, or water checked an aircraft.

Doesn't really matter though, and you are right, all it will do is give you a grey pipe, assuming you are not running too rich, and the motor isn't burning oil...

**Pussy** · 6th February 2010, 13:39

Don't be fooled by the "low lead" description, either.
Still LOTS more lead than even the old 96 motor spirit

**quickbuck** · 6th February 2010, 14:01

Originally Posted by Pussy

Don't be fooled by the "low lead" description, either.
Still LOTS more lead than even the old 96 motor spirit

Amen to that.... There is something like 6 times the lead of the old 96 in normal avgas, and the low lead version is about 4 times... or some such statistic that may have been made up on the spot....

**Flip** · 6th February 2010, 14:24

Unless your motor is designed to run on leaded racing fuel, don't use it. The lead will kill your cat, your exhaust will run hot and its a waste of money.
To get the benefit from high octane fuel you need a high compression motor. The motor makers spend a fortune to insure their motors run as efficiently as possible on standard pump gas. The std pump fuel in NZ is pretty good stuff actually. Just try that 98 unleaded fuel from BP, they seem to think it might be worth a few more bhp in Ferrari or some other high end performance car.

**Pussy** · 6th February 2010, 16:00

Originally Posted by Flip

Unless your motor is designed to run on leaded racing fuel, don't use it. The lead will kill your cat, your exhaust will run hot and its a waste of money.
To get the benefit from high octane fuel you need a high compression motor. The motor makers spend a fortune to insure their motors run as efficiently as possible on standard pump gas. The std pump fuel in NZ is pretty good stuff actually. Just try that 98 unleaded fuel from BP, they seem to think it might be worth a few more bhp in Ferrari or some other high end performance car.

Amen to that!
My Aussie spec (E24) sem fiddy LOVES BP Ultimate.... Shell V-Power 95 goes well in it too

Edit: I also reckon the quality of 95 isn't always the same. Almost as though it varies between batches sometimes

**pc220** · 6th February 2010, 16:37

[QUOTE=cs363;1129637687
check with someone in the know regarding your model bike. (like a dealer/mechanic etc., rather than that know it all mate.....)
[/QUOTE]
ie. dont ask DB

**Mikkel** · 6th February 2010, 17:32

Originally Posted by Flip

Unless your motor is designed to run on leaded racing fuel, don't use it. The lead will kill your cat, your exhaust will run hot and its a waste of money.
To get the benefit from high octane fuel you need a high compression motor. The motor makers spend a fortune to insure their motors run as efficiently as possible on standard pump gas. The std pump fuel in NZ is pretty good stuff actually. Just try that 98 unleaded fuel from BP, they seem to think it might be worth a few more bhp in Ferrari or some other high end performance car.

+1

A higher octane rating just means that the fuel is less vulnerable to pre-ignition (aka knocking, detonation, pinging, etc.) than lower octane ratings. Unless you have a turbo or supercharger and are playing around with upping the boost pressure there's really no benefit in using avgas. People are mentioning high compression engines, and while that is true you won't have a high-compression engine unless you've modified a stock engine extensively.

As was said, it contains tetra-ethyl lead which is some nasty shit indeed. ...and not just because it will fuck your catalytic converter! The long term effect of this shit might yet turn out to be much much worse than what has been predicted. However, unless you are running a catalytic converter I can not see how leaded fuel would have any detrimental effect upon your engine - the lead should not dissociate from the fuel until it has been combusted and cars ran for ages on leaded fuel with no problems. However, that is my quick and dirty analysis and it may be wrong.

**Dak** · 6th February 2010, 19:27

Another point, if a station is selling Avgas straight to Joe Public and actally letting customers fill vehicles with it, they will eventually get screwed. It is illegal to run Avgas in any street vehicle on a public road.

**motorbyclist** · 6th February 2010, 20:31

Originally Posted by sl8er4lyf

I know that BP out near Kumeu sells aviation fuel, i think its 105 octane, anyone used this? if so are there high risks of melting your engine? haha

They have on the pump that it is "race gas" and yes it is leaded (says on the pump and upon my enquiry)

Just go buy a big drum of the proper stuff if you're that keen but it's illegal to run it on the road as it isn't levied, it's fucking expensive, and it won't do jack unless you've tuned for it

**Pumba** · 6th February 2010, 21:53

Originally Posted by Dak

Another point, if a station is selling Avgas straight to Joe Public and actally letting customers fill vehicles with it, they will eventually get screwed. It is illegal to run Avgas in any street vehicle on a public road.

Never brought it there myself but my understanding was that you needed to produce a race licence in order to buy it

**quickbuck** · 6th February 2010, 22:02

Originally Posted by Pumba

Never brought it there myself but my understanding was that you needed to produce a race licence in order to buy it

Or, fill the bikes on the trailer with race numbers on them......

Sometimes the spanner man has to fill the bikes, and not all of us have a race licence

**motorbyclist** · 7th February 2010, 00:30

Just for those that aren't in the know - many dirt riders pass that station on a sat/sun morning on their way to woodhill or riverhead for a ride/race and might conceivably want some of that gas....

**Jay GTI** · 7th February 2010, 03:17

Originally Posted by motorbyclist

Just for those that aren't in the know - many dirt riders pass that station on a sat/sun morning on their way to woodhill or riverhead for a ride/race and might conceivably want some of that gas....

In act I've been told that it's there for the dirt riders, not tried it myself, but 2-smokes apparently run quite nicely on a mix of normal fuel and avgas, jetted to suit obviously.

**DEATH_INC.** · 7th February 2010, 06:34

:slap: this has been done to death previously..... but, a quick summary.....avgas or any other high octane gas burns SLOWER than 96 or 91, so you actually loose power with the higher octane fuel. run the lowest rated gas your engine will run on properly ( no detonation or pre-ignition etc) to get the most from it.