Al,
Thanks for the reminder to check my EZPoxy that I started testing last year when my strakes Jeffco failed. I started it in Aug of 08. Last check...and to refill container was about 2 months ago and the samples were still solid.
Chris
Cpl. Christopher Barber, JD
Badge 330
Bellaire Police Department
5110 Jessamine
Bellaire, Texas 77401
713-668-0487
713-662-8289 fax
CBarber@BellairePolice.com
From: Rotary motors in aircraft on behalf of Al Gietzen Sent: Thu 7/30/2009 8:24 PM To: Rotary motors in aircraft Subject: [FlyRotary] Re: Using Ethanol-laced Gasoline
Steve;
What’s the chance you could add some samples of EZpoxy layups? I’d be happy to send some.
And I agree with Jarrett; plan on 6 months to a year. You probably don’t need to check them more than every couple of weeks, or a month.
Al G
-----Original Message----- From: Rotary motors in aircraft [mailto:flyrotary@lancaironline.net] On Behalf Of Steve Thomas Sent: Thursday, July 30, 2009 11:57 AM To: Rotary motors in aircraft Subject: [FlyRotary] Using Ethanol-laced Gasoline
I am in the process of testing the effect of ethanol-laced gasoline on my fiberglass tanks. My airplane is made from vinyl-ester resin, not the epoxy resins used by many other aircraft. Vinyl-ester is touted to be immune to the effects that ethanol has on other products. Someone on the Glasair list had some problems with ethanol, so I decided to run some tests. What follows is the analysis I posted on the Glasair list. It has implications for all of us rotary guys as well. When I speak of Jose Cuervo, I started a test of very high concentrations of ethanol using Jose Cuervo as my medium. It is 40% alcohol.
I thought that I would update everyone on the Ethanol "research" that I have been doing. I now have three test jars set up. One jar has the infamous Jose Cuervo in it. The second jar has pure 91 octane gasoline with 5.7% ehtanol and the third jar has 91 octane gasohol (same as above) but laced with water.
The Jose Cuervo jar has two samples in it; one is a sample of precure that is something I made up several years ago, and the other one is from the original kit. Both samples have been in the jar for a week. So far, there is no noticeable effect on either sample.
The gasoline-only jar has three samples in it. One sample is from the original factory lay-up. One is a brand new layup that I did a little over a week ago that was allowed to cure for 48 hours. The third sample is from the same layup just completed, but was cured in an oven at 200 degrees for 3 hours. Again, no noticeable effect on any of the three samples after one week. This test will go on for a while longer just out of my own curiosity.
The third jar has the water in it. it also has just one sample in it, one of the original factory layups. The water at the bottom of the jar has turned a light brown color. It has clearly leached the alcohol and some other products out of the gas as the water level has grown. There is no effect on the sample layup, either in the gas or the water (I have it standing up in the jar so that part of the sample is in the water and part in the gas.)
But the final coup de grace comes from a conversation I had with a BP/Arco technical products engineer. He told me that first, California currently has a ethanol ratio of 5.7% but will soon be changing to 10%. He also said that the fiberglass tank problem is nearly irrelevant because, as ethanol laced gasoline gets colder, the ethanol will come out of solution and unless your engine is capable of burning pure ethanol, you should avoid using any ethanol-laced gasoline at altitude. If you were to ever find yourself at very cold temperatures (he didn't specify how cold), the likelihood of ethanol coming out of solution is very high.
Now, it also possible (but not probable) that one could obtain an exemption from the Air Resources Board to get ethanol-free gas for experimental purposes, the likelihood of finding someone to sell that small volume is nil.
The engineer also told me that it is possible to leach the ethanol out of the fuel. I do not recommend this procedure (legal disclaimer). one can leach the ethanol by adding water to a tank of fuel, agitating it, then cooling it down as far as practicable to ensure that all of the water falls out. Then, remove the water layer. If you don't cool it down, micro-bubbles will remain in the gasoline that will fall out over time. Any takers?
So, at least for now, it seems that the effect of ethanol on fiberglass is somewhat moot, despite my inability to see any effect on the samples I have in process.
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