old fuel K&B 500

[dave siegler]

I just received almost 10 gallons of K& B 500 fuel.  Nine of the Jugs are unopened and in the original shipping case from K&B.  
The cans have zero to minimal corrosion on the.

The partial jug is clear and smells OK.  One extra partial jug of KB 100 is cloudy, and will be used to start bonfires.

the box has dates of 1982 on them.  Is this stuff OK to use?

Also I was told the specs on this stuff were all castor 18.5 % and 12.5% nitro.  Any issues on this old stuff? 

[Dave_Trible]

I've had/ used fuel this old before and should be fine- at least the unopened cans.  It might be more like 10% nitro in use.  I would up the oil content to at least 20%.  Not age, just what I think the minimum for most engines we run and a whole lot more for old Foxs, McCoys etc.  For these at least 26%. If one can runs funny then pitch it and grab another.  Don't mix cans since one could be bad and others OK.  Sometimes I've used older fuel for bench running new engines where I could use it and not worry about flight issues. 

Dave

[Brett Buck]

I just received almost 10 gallons of K& B 500 fuel.  Nine of the Jugs are unopened and in the original shipping case from K&B.  
The cans have zero to minimal corrosion on the.

The partial jug is clear and smells OK.  One extra partial jug of KB 100 is cloudy, and will be used to start bonfires.

the box has dates of 1982 on them.  Is this stuff OK to use?

Also I was told the specs on this stuff were all castor 18.5 % and 12.5% nitro.  Any issues on this old stuff? 

     Check for rust inside the cans, but generally, it should be just fine. I used to run it all the time, in about that era. I thought it was 10% but I didn't ever know for sure.

    Brett

[Jim Kraft]

I was given an old quart can of Testors McCoy fuel a few years ago that was about 3/4 full. One day I was running some old 1/2A engines on some of my stunt fuel, and the Wasp .049 was not running well on that fuel, so I got out that Testors fuel and it ran great. I have no idea how old that can of fuel is but it still works great in all my old 1/2A engines.

[Trostle]

According to an information sheet put out by Power Master several years ago, fuel can be stored "almost indefinitely". In fact, the following is from that sheet:

"Properly stored, model engine fuel will last almost indefinitely. ... Just about the only thing that adversely affects model fuel is the absorption of moisture from the air.  Keep the air away from it, and your fuel will likely be potent longer than you are!  Methanol - the major ingredient in model fuel - is hygroscopic.  This means it's virtually 100% soluble in water, and absorbs moisture from the air like a vacuum cleaner sucking up dirt. ...  While it is true that the UV in sunlight (or in fluorescent lights, for that matter) will cause pure nitromethane to deteriorate over time, it's our experience that once nitro is in solution and substantially diluted, the deteriorative effect is relatively minor.  To test this, some years ago, we put a gallon of 10% fuel out in direct sunlight for a month.  At the end of that time we tested that fuel in an engine vs. fresh product and could see no difference.  While it certainly won't hurt anything to store fuel away from direct sunlight, etc., it's our personal opinion that the adverse effect of sunlight on fuel under normal operating conditions is too little to worry about."

The Power Master sheet has some more details in it but this is the essence of the subject.  (They had 5 sheets giving fact about fuel including this one about storing fuel.  Others are:  What's the Oil Content;  Which Oil is Better - Synthetic or Castor?;  Nitromethane, the Mystery Ingredient?; 2-Stroke vs. 4-stroke fuels, Is There Really A Difference?)

Duke Fox used to have similar discussions in his monthly advertisements.

[Reptoid]

K&B 500 was 20% oil 50/50 Castor/X2c and 12.5% Nitro

 100 & 1000 were 20% oil and were sold with either castor or X2C and labeled accordingly
100 was 5% Nitro
1000 was 25% Nitro

[Steve Helmick]

Don, do you know what "X2C" oil was? I hope it was better than the soybean oil they used in early K&B Speed Fuel.  Steve

[Reptoid]

     Yes it was made for K&B  by Dow Chemical and was UCON based with some (anti rust I believe) additives and was colorless clear. I think UCON's # for it was MA731 with MA standing for model airplane. Very close to Original Klotz techniplate without red dye and the perfumy smell. Dow doesn't sell it direct anymore, at least not in minimun quantities we'd be interested in. I used alot of it when K&B was still in Downey as I've always mixed my own fuel and bought all the ingredients from them( about 8 miles from my house).
     The Soy bean oil thing was short lived and made great horsepower but turned glow plugs into "Tator Farms"

[George]

...100 & 1000 were 20% oil and were sold with either castor or X2C and labeled accordingly
100 was 5% Nitro
1000 was 25% Nitro

Per can labels K&B 100 was castor lubed, K&B 100+ was X2C lubed.

Assuming I remember correctly...  

George