Ethanol tester

[jpowell]

Re: Ethanol tester

I was given a glass beaker about 10 inches tall that is graduated in mililiters. 100 ml total graduated by 1 ml. This is very good for telling the exact amount of ethanol in percentages. But frankly my STC says NO ETHANOL. It doesn't matter the percentage. So any jar or bottle or glass or whatever will work as long as you can see that there is a difference if there is ethanol in the gas.

[Robert Lees]

Re: Ethanol tester

mililiters

Isn't that some funny European measure?

Whatever happened to quarts?

[jpowell]

Re: Ethanol tester

The beaker came from a chemistry lab. Everything is metric in the scientific community. But 0-100 works very well for percentages in the decimal system, you know, the uS Dollar.......

[flyguy]

Re: Ethanol tester

The restriction on use auto gas with a low percentage of ethanol is, IMO, mostly a bureaucratic case of working to the least common denominator. That is to say the government continually tries to dumb-proof everything. It is a losing battle of course, but considering the behavior of a ever-present percentage of the public, I can understand their motivation.

The most sensitive item I have found with engine systems is sealers for gaskets and pipe threads. Most of the ones intended for use with fuel or oil have an alcohol-based solvent which makes them resistant to petroleum but they quickly dissolve in the presence of even low percentage alcohol-bearing fuel.

In contrast with that, modern fuel lines, gasket materials, and most rubber-type products that are made for exposure to fuel seem to hold up well. I suspect that is due to the growing use, in some very large markets, of ethanol in fuels. Since such large quantities of these items are made for the automotive market, it is just easier to make everything from the most widely used and manufactured material.

I am seeing reports of continuing work by aircraft manufacturers and fuel suppliers to come up with a lead-free solution, but unfortunately the research is slanted towards the 25% of the aviation population that uses the most fuel, likely leaving 75% of owners with a less than satisfactory solution in the end.
Darryl

[jpowell]

Re: Ethanol tester

My 65 hp Continental was certified to run on 73 octane gasoline. In those days it was unleaded or what they used to call white gas. The suggestion to remove the ethanol/water combination from current 87 octane would indeed lower the octane and would work fine for engines like mine. Other engines with a higher octane requirement may not work as well. The truth is, the Government in its infinite wisdom, or complete lack of, is responding where the money is, The Huge Corn Lobby. Because of them, we get the very dangerous HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) which can be found as a sweetener in almost everything in our food supply. And now we get ethanol, which is a net loss for every user, not only in loss of efficiency in our engines of all types (cars, motorcycles, aircraft) but every food with corn, every animal that we eat that is fed corn, and every thing that is sweetened with HFCS is now higher priced. We still import foreign oil to produce it. The Brasil model uses massive amounts of ethanol but are using non food sources to make it and they burn ethanol to produce more. Bad science + big lobby money equals GREEN EARTH. Yeah, green for the corn lobby. My two cents

[flybikefarm]

Re: Ethanol tester

The board of trade closed down again today. Estimated biggest corn crop in history. Board price is half of what it was one year ago. Cattle and hog prices are also lower than last year. Maybe it's the government, not the corn lobby. George

[flyguy]

Re: Ethanol tester

RE: Large corn crop. Global Warming? Wait 'til the Russians start farming Siberia, Chuckle.
Out here a former government dude ( I forget if politician or bureaucrat) owns the biggest ethanol plant in California. Think maybe he might have had some inside info that ALL California gas would be 6% ethanol?
Are we off topic yet?
DC

[fearofpavement]

Re: Ethanol tester

Although I live 50 miles south of Atlanta on a dirt road with no high speed internet available, I am still considered to be in the Atlanta metro area. This 47 county area all has ethanol in the fuel now. I made some phone calls to fuel distributors and found that if I go farther away yet from Atlanta (Macon) I can purchase ethanol free fuel. So I load up my truck with cans and drums and get a good supply.

All that said, in many areas, the ethanol is added to the truck at the distribution location so it is not necessarily reducing the octane below 87 by taking the alcohol back out. (they don't want that crap in their tanks either...)

Regarding chamois filtering, it is not slow. I have poured hundreds and hundreds of gallons of fuel through chamois and it flows at a pretty good rate unless you have a lot of junk in the fuel. The chamois takes out water, debris, rust dust, etc. Chamois lint can be an issue but it is a very effective way to clean fuel. I have seen ancient rust contaminated avgas salvaged by this method in a situation where there were no other sources for fuel. For the chamois to flow well it needs to be suspended above the bottom of the funnel

[jim cooper]

Re: Ethanol tester

Making fuel out of corn is about as sensible as deregulating wall street. Lobbyists AND the Bush administration threw BILLIONS of dollars at farmers over a ten year peroid. Corn fuel costs more to make than its worth (its all about BTU's expended) and as the earlier fellow wrote, drove the price of food and meat up a lot! Real dumb idea. About as bright as deregulating electric companys (monopolys) which started with Enron. Remember that many of these farm producers are major CORPORATIONS! At 4 and a half gallons an hour I use 100 Av Gas, throw in some MMO and go for it. Its cheap flying! Chamois, labratory equipment, lugging gas cans around just aint fun flying to me. JC