| Today our local EAA chapter did a fly-out / drive out to Ada, OK where GAMI is located, who finally received FAA approval for their unleaded fuel for aviation use. We got see them run an TIO-550 Continental engine in their engine test cell on 100LL, their new GAMI UL fuel, and also Swift 94. Their new fuel is really amazing, since we watched their chief engineer push the 550 to 41 inches of manifold pressure without any noticeable detonation or engine destruction!
They also ran the engine on the new Swift 94 fuel, and while just operating the same 550 in the standard turbo normalized mode, the engine analyzer displays showed alot of detonation taking place, which could be a reason the Univ. of North Dakota blew up a couple engines on their training birds, after switching over to that fuel
The warbird crowd is going to be pretty excited about this new fuel since the days of pulling multiple cowlings off every 50 hrs. to clean plugs will be over with this fuel. It also was evaluated by a Fuel analysis firm in Houston, and its’ octane rating came in at 160, since that was as high as their testing would go. It therefore seems that this will be a great fuel for those who push high boost levels, to ensure their engine remains in one piece!
Doug |