Got a Gas Problem ?
Yes, I know, slight distortion to get your attention,
What is it about modern gas anyway, it is certainly not what it used to be. When I were but a sprogget I bought a Singer Nine in Oxford, it has been in a garage for two years, the gauge said I had half a tank of petrol, With a new battery it started right up and I drove it home to N Notts, no problem.
My last flight last year back in November was just a hop so I did not put in the two (plastic) cans worth of gas I was hauling around in the back of the car. (Rotax 912S on Mogas,) Seeing as how our local Muni is pretty well controlled by the greens now no one can build a gas station this end of town so we all have to drive 15K to buy the stuff and seeing how it was over the new year and the temp was down to minus 15C we let the gauge in our old guzzler get down to nil, well no problem, just dump in one of the cans. The poor old thing started playing up, well it might ,being that cold, might it not? Poor starting, missing while cold, bad bout of kennel cough, snorting like a unicorn, poor pick up, stalling at the lights (it's auto) couldn't be that surprised though, it has only had two oil changes and one plug change in ten years.
Next day wife 's new guzzler was also short so I dumped in the other can. Same result only with flashing lights, illuminated pictures of engines in distress, signs saying "take this car to your nearest dealer for ultra expensive service, do not pass go................"
So we wheeled them both down to the end of the town and filled them up with new gas, Instant cure.
Now you would think that if there was one engine that could suffer bad gas it would be your good old gas guzzling N American giant V8, so what, I am wondering, would be the effect of this stuff on my little Rotax come a couple of thousand feet? Be sure the first thing I am going to do when I get up to the airfield is drain the gas from my plane and replace with new.
So why does modern gas not last two months in a can?
And if you stash your plane three months over the winter BEWARE.