Byron Fuel

[richardhfcl]

Gentlemen,

     Are Byron model airplane fuel components labeled by percentage by weight or volume?  I recall it as

a quality fuel but not if it were sold with components by weight or volume percentage.

     Thank you!

[bill bischoff]

Byron fuels are mixed by volume, like essentially all reputable fuel manufacturers. Their aircraft fuels are low oil content by our standards. Their highest oil content fuel is 20% oil, less than half castor. High quality fuel, perhaps not the specific blends CL'ers are looking for.

[Dennis Toth]

Randy Smith did some testing on their fuel and indicated that the helicopter blends contain higher oil levels suitable for stunt work. Other option is to get 10%N, 20%Oil and add 1.2oz of your choice of oil for each % you want to increase it. This will lower the Nitro to 7 - 8% but seems to be fine. I have run this fuel adding the oil and it runs fine. Brett Buck in the past indicated that if he had an engine that won't run on regular stunt fuel, bring on the Byron's, seemed to fix a lot of poor running engines.

Best,      DennisT

[Brett Buck]

Gentlemen,

     Are Byron model airplane fuel components labeled by percentage by weight or volume?  I recall it as

a quality fuel but not if it were sold with components by weight or volume percentage.

     Thank you!

    There are plenty of arguments about that. Byron fuel is *excellent* for stunt with modern-era stunt engines. I did boil-down tests and for close to 16% oil for the regular and 20% oil *by volume* for the "Classic", which was a touch more than with SIG Champion at the time.

   In every case I found, the Byron fuel ran noticeably smoother than the other conventional alternatives. In some cases, it resolved "stopped like you flipped a switch" issues when nothing else would. One engine I had would *only* make it through a pattern on Byron and no other fuel I tried - and I guarantee that Byron was not the first thing I tried. I routinely used it for several years in the mid-90's including qualifying at the NATs several times.

    The only technical issue I noticed was that Byron was quite a bit weaker for a given stated nitro content than any of the others. I used either Byron 15 or a 50/50 mix of 15 and 25, and that was in the ballpark with SIG.  I don't know what was going on there, it was either short of nitro, or some of it was nitroethane, no idea. But it worked a lot better than SIG in some cases - like, it kept running through inside loops!

    The other issue was the ragging I got on the topic. As with most things, people have ideas and they adopt them like a lifestyle, and one of them is fuel snobbery. I had one noted international competitor that was having problems with the "quite like you flipped a switch" flameouts at a big contest one time. I had some Byron 15% Classic, and offered it to him. He really didn't want to use it, but did, and of course, it ran perfectly for the first time all weekend, clean as a whistle and actually much smoother running all the rest of the time. I gave him a gallon, and he said "no, I can't run that, XXXX (the engine reworker) wouldn't like that" and went back to nearly flaming out in every inside corner for the rest of the weekend.

   As an aside - I also ran *regular* Byron, with the 16% oil. It also ran just fine and I had no apparent wear issues or any other problems. Don't run it in Foxes/McCoys/iron-liner OS, etc, but conventional ABC/AAC stunt engines are OK. Of course in stunt, you shouldn't run iron-liner anything in the year 2015, aside from nostalgia.

    If you are embarrassed, pour it into a Powermaster GMA can.

    Brett

  p.s. And just to be clear, I now use Powermaster fuel exclusively. I switch between Powermaster RO-Jett and Powermaster RC sport fuel (18% oil) or mix the two to get the response I want in the corners. I never found anything wrong with Byron, but Powermaster is a lot easier to get in quantity and somewhat less expensive. I also much prefer having the fuel in cans instead of plastic bottles - easier to pack/store, and a lot safer.

[Dave_Trible]

I started using Byrons a decade ago since it was all my local hobby shop carried and I didn't want to deal with the crazy shipping.  Never looked back.  I just picked up two cases to get the season started.  I actually use 15% nitro, 20% oil- 50/50 mix but add 6 ounces of oil mix to each gallon in almost everything except I dope it to 29% oil for the Fox type stuff. 

Dave

[Randy Cuberly]

I typically mix my on fuel because we have agod speed shop here in Tucson that carries fresh methanol and Nitromethane.  However in the past year after having a conversation with Brett I bought some of the Byrons 15% nitro, 20 % oil, (more synthetic than castor) and have been running it in my PA65 and it works very well.  In fact I really can't tell any difference in what I mix and the Byrons.  My fuel is 15% nitro, 15% Klotz, and 4% castor.  Either one seems to run exactly the same at pretty much the same needle settings.

Seems like good stuff and actually about the same price as what I have to pay for components. 

Randy Cuberly

[EddyR]

I have used Byrons 10% nitro 20% oil in my ST/46 and ST/35 ABC since I converted them quite a few years ago. Also in my Rustler 40's. All run clean with no build up. 
 I have been using it in my ringed ST motors for 10 years. Sometimes I use the 15% nitro ,12-14 % oil with no problems.
Ed

[Joe Yau]

 Are Byron model airplane fuel components labeled by percentage by weight or volume? 

Hi Richard,  It is by volume.  It works great on my .46LA and the Evolution .36 (with 10/20 traditional blend), and also my saito .56 with YS20/20. no need to add additional oil on both. 

[John Leidle]

  The only person I remember running Byron's is Dave Tribble  I've run Byron's Rotor Rage for 15 years. 15/20 & 20/20 all synthetic . 
                   John