Hello All:

     I could not get some of my best stunt engines to run today.  These ae usually very easy to start but today some would pop, two would not do anything, and I had about three that would just burn off the prime and then stop running.  As I was cleaning up the mess that I had made during the 8 hours that I spent in vain, I received a call from Randy Smith.  He suggested that perhaps my fuel had been contaminated with water.  I just mixed a batch of fresh fuel using the alcohol that I purchased last Summer.  I had an ah ha moment when he suggested that the new variable was the fresh batch of fuel that I was running today.  I too had questioned the fuel but it has worked with out fail in the past.

     How did this happen? I keep the alky stored in a plastic jug with a very good seal around the cap.  I have been mixing my own fuel since 1973 and have had only great results.  I will test a small batch to determine if indeed water has gotten into my fuel.

      Does anybody else have similar experiences with water contaminated fuel?   

                                                                                                          Tia,

                                                                                                          Frank McCune

    Hello All:

    Since posting the above statement, I have been researching water in glow fuel.  What I read was that it takes a LOT of water to prohibit an engine from starting. It must be something else that is causing me problems.  Tomorrow, I have been offered the use of some "good" fuel.  However, most of the fuel sold near me has very little oil content if the oil content is stated as to how much and what kind of oil is in the mix.  A person in our club was using some locally sourced fuel that one gallon stated an oil content of 12% and the other as having an oil content of14%.

     I can not begin to imagine what is wrong with my fuel that makes it not start at all in most engines.  The only engine that would burn off the prime was a Fox .29 Stunt circa 1953.  Heck FAI fuel is as simple as it gets.

     Back in the day, I was using alcohol that had been used to flush the water out of hydraulic lines on trains.  I mixed it as FAI fuel and it worked quite well.  The only thing that I did notice was the needle was a bit touchy to adjust.  I paid $3.00 per imperial gallon of pharmaceutical USP grade castor oil at the time! 1973 and the alky was free.

Hi Frank
Actually  what I told you was if you have 6 motors that will NOT crank, that you told me had no problems and ran fine, but you have a brand new batch of fuel you mixed up, that  the common thing was the FUEL.  And it maybe  bad fuel, may have water in it, especially if it was  OLD  methanol. May not be the same fuel as  you ran before
It could also be your glow driver was weak or  bad, not charged
I also told you there was never a day when I could not crank my engines, even with bad fuel they should  cranks, the needle may not hold, they may run hot and not settle down, but they should run
You should get a fresh can of fuel, make sure your glow driver is  hot, and  clear out  the oil out of the engines, then try again

Randy

I have noticed I can get strange runs on the last 2-3 tanksfuls on the bottom of a gallon jug of fuel.  Could be the high humidity here where I live or setting the jugs on the ground at the flying field for hours.  I got to where I'd stop using the last pint or so and just open new.  I'd save the fuel for bench running or whatever.  Then I started pouring the fuel into metal cans when first opened and have soldered tubes on the cans to extract fuel rather than screwing the lid off.  All the problems went away.

Dave

    Soldered tubes?  Oy vey!

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=DUBP0807&P=FR&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_content=bingproductfeed_lp&utm_campaign=Shopping_LP_Brands&utm_term=dubro%20kwik%20fuel

    No brass to degenerate, seals up completely air tight to the point the fuel doesn't breath,  easy to use.

    Brett

Me likes dat!

Dave

       Hi All:

        Fuel problem solved by mixing a batch of new fuel.  The new batch worked perfectly so there is nothin wrong with my alcohol.  Why the fuel in the jug went bad this month is still a mystery! I wrote 2 Aug concerning the needle valves on my engines becoming difficult to adjust. This must have been a harbinger of the fuel going bad.

       Perhaps storing and using fuel from a plastic jug that has a condiment pump is not a good way to handle fuel.  I have been using this method for about 2 years without problems.  I will revert to using a metal can with two tubes soldered into the cap!

                                                                                                               Be well,

                                                                                                               Frank McCune