Additive

[cactusman]

As far as I know the UK is still allowed to sell leaded fuel although only in small quantities. There was a local filling station that sold leaded till about 36 months ago when their storage tank leaked and it was uneconomic to fix. There is a website somewhere that listed the few garages that sold leaded fuel. It is allowed as there is recognition that some cars cannot be converted to run on unleaded fuel....the local garage was well known on a Sunday for the exotica that would come to fill up....at £2 a litre.
100LL avgas....the LL stands for low lead...I very much doubt it will cause any issue if fed to an do engine.

[Heuer]

If you are just trying to boost the octane rating then there are various additives available. They do work and a bottle is worthwhile carrying with you in case you can't find super (e.g. Italy). http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... ccelerator


The fuel additive ratio is normally 40:1 for 101 octane but you can increase it to 20:1 if you want 110 octane. Probably an easier and cheaper alternative to Avgas.

[Gfhug]

But why, unless you're racing, would anyone want/need to boost the octane rating? Unless they can only get the 91 octane petrol in which case this is useful in places like Italy, as David suggests.

Avgas 100LL, find an airfield with relatively easy access airside (discount, e.g. Biggin Hill) to a self service fuel pump. Then buy and fill a twenty gallon jerry can at £1.70/litre, lift that up high enough to pour into a funnel resting in the fuel filler neck, decant into the E Type, with a reasonable chance of spilling over yourself. All for what benefit? Nice exhaust colour? Less chance of pinking if you're racing?

Geoff

[Mich7920]

Sorry guys but if you use octane+ you are not going to " boost" your engine.
Octane is to manage the explosion it's a flameproof.
A racing car engine has a compression ration very high. You need a Fuel with 102 of Octane if you don't want to have not wanted explosions and as you need to choose your explosion point very carrefuly for each track, you need a flameproof fuel.
In a real racing fuel you have hight octane for this fact and additives for a better quality of explosion, but I speak about fuel near 6 or 7 Euros a liter.
If you use 100 or 98, like in France, add Octane + in the fuel does not add anything to your engine.
Mich

[Heuer]

We were not looking for more power although running on lower octane does reduce power, or at least the ability to use what you have, because of pinking. Booster additives are great for when you can't find premium quality fuel as is the case in many rural fuel stations in the UK. I have a 15 - 20 minute journey to fill up with Super, passing quite a few stations on the way. This includes my local BP station which no longer sells 'Ultimate' because "no one buys it". They do have several pumps with expensive super diesel though.

[44DHR]

Just to reply to Pete and others regarding why some of us use Avgas 100LL in our vehicles - and not just regarding E types - the qualities of Avgas having a leaded content and no ethanol do have some advantages. For Cactusman the designation of LL as "low lead" is relative in aviation terms and there are even lower levels of lead content in such fuels such as VLL as "very low lead", but is the opportunity to obtain such fuels and their constituents which are of interest to some of us. For more information on the levels of lead in Avgas, just "Google" on Avgas.

For Pete, my Spanish bikes are mainly Bultacos, such as the red 1972 350cc Sherpa which has a fibreglass tank and would definitely be susceptible to ethanol in normal pump petrol dissolving the resin, but I also have a 1979 350cc Bultaco and 1996 350cc JTR Gas Gas here with plastic tanks too. For non-bike people, the Bultaco has every bolt made and stamped by company themselves, so quite an interesting bike maufacturer. A photo showing some bikes in the garage when I recently turned it into a 1970's Spanish motorbike service centre





Whatever people's opinion or potential benefit is on Avgas, it does contain lead and is a higher octane than pump gas, so I use it as an additive in the E type - the original subject of this post - as primarily it can do no harm as an additive.
I was never advocating using Avgas 100LL as a primary fuel, but a potential additive to give both lead into the fuel and also boost of higher octane.
regards,
Dave

[Simon P]

As one of a number of Cessna/Piper drivers on here, I can assure you that 100LL is most certainly not some sort of miracle 'rocket fuel'.....