TruFuel while winterizing?

[Robert O.]

Hi everyone,

I am winterizing my rebuilt A4, which is currently on a bench, for the first time and want to use ethanol free gasoline to start her up for the process. I was wondering if the TruFuel 4 Cycle Engineered Fuel sold at hardware stores would be ok to use? Any thoughts or expereinces? Thank so much in advance for any feedback.

Take Care,
Robert

[Al Schober]

TruFuel should be fine - as long as your budget can take it.
The stuff is 92 octane - which you don't need. The A4 is only 6.3:1 compression, so will run happily on low octane gas.
No ethanol is a good thing. But if you look around, you should be able to find sources of zero ethanol gas. An alternate is to flush the ethanol from pump gas. YouTube has videos on this.
My only concern is the affect on fuel hoses. I'm not sure what's in TruFuel. I'd want to check its compatibility with fuel hoses before using it in the boat. But for startup in the shop, you should be fine.

[joe_db]

Hi everyone,

I am winterizing my rebuilt A4, which is currently on a bench, for the first time and want to use ethanol free gasoline to start her up for the process. I was wondering if the TruFuel 4 Cycle Engineered Fuel sold at hardware stores would be ok to use? Any thoughts or expereinces? Thank so much in advance for any feedback.

Take Care,
Robert

I buy avgas for about $5/gal instead of that stuff for 8$/quart, but either one will work fine for you.

[sastanley]

Robert, The experts have spoken. Agree 100%. If you are only interested in running a small amount of fuel thru the motor and it might sit for a while, I would only run E-Zero in it. In my experience, the corn from the E-10 looks like lemon Jell-O when it sits in the carb for a while.

That being said, if you are burning thru lots of fuel in the summer, I think you can safely run E-10 in an Atomic-4 as long as you do not winterize it that way and do not let that junk sit in the carb bowl/jets/etc over the winter. My $0.02.
edit - As Al mentioned, the compression ratio on an A-4 is low..people often get sucked into the illusion that high octane, high dollar $$ gas is better, but not for this motor. Higher octane numbers only mean that the fuel burns slower. On low compression ratio engines like the A-4, you want that fuel burning as fast as possible in a 6.3:1 motor. Unfortunately, my Civic Si is about 11:1 ratio and requires 91 or better octane fuel. In my Civic Si, you want to slow the fuel burn so the piston can make it all the way to the top before the fuel is ignited. On an A-4 the timing is already advanced 17° (I think) so the lower octane fuel it was designed to run on is starting to burn when the advanced ignition fires the plug. Higher octane fuel only retards that process. However, for your bench motor, do not overthink my diatribe..I simply recommend not running any ethanol gas if you can avoid it.

[Robert O.]

Hi everyone,

Thanks so much for these anwsers! Super helpful. My wallet certainly would not support running Tru Fuel for actual motoring - I think its like $19 a gallon yikes! But it sounds like it should work fine for a short run on the bench while winterizing. Thanks for the insight on ethanol and I will look up filtering at the pump - super interesting. Also thanks for the information on lower octanes, which the engine is designed for. I am getting a little better each day at this! Thanks for the help!!!

Robert

[Sam]

I'll throw in the last comment. Part of the fuel "confusion" is that the older Universal atomic 4 manuals call for "regular fuel 92-94 octane". The measurements & designations were different in the 1960s and 70's and octane in that range is now premium for high compression engines. I think what matters most is the age of the fuel and water collection in tank. Regular E10 is fine to use but not to store as mentioned. Stabilizers help in the tank. I drain the carb and fuel lines even though I have newer low permeation A1 lines.

[Wisakedjack]

I found this site that lists places where one can get ethanol free gas:

https://www.pure-gas.org

In my local area I can probably get something like this:
Ethanol-free octane ratings: 100 aka '100 LL AV fuel'
This should work for A4 right?

[Robert O.]

Thanks Sam! and Thank you Alex, This list is an awesome resource. I will let others comment on the "Ethanol-free octane ratings: 100 aka '100 LL AV fuel' part as I am just begining to understand all this! Thank you again all. I will let folks know how it goes!!!!

[joe_db]

I found this site that lists places where one can get ethanol free gas:

https://www.pure-gas.org

In my local area I can probably get something like this:
Ethanol-free octane ratings: 100 aka '100 LL AV fuel'
This should work for A4 right?

That is 100 octane aviation gas. It will work for sure, but make sure you don't ever stick it in a car. The amount of lead in avgas will ruin a catalytic converter quickly.

[Dave Neptune]

As Joe stated Av gas can really screw up a cat-converter and is a good bit of advise. And the other big plus with Av-gas is it's "shelf life", as it can sit for a long long time before going bad.

It would be nice to find some unleaded non alcohol 80 or less octane rated fuel for any old engines including the A-4.

Also don't forget "white-gas" like used in camping stoves, no lead or alcohol. We used to buy our camping fuel from a "Gulf Oil" White Gas pump in the old days. I burned a few cans of "Coleman" fuel in my A-4 just to use it up and they were really old and rusty cans and she ran just fine.

Dave Neptune

[joe_db]

Our airport now has special 94 octane unleaded avgas, but they don't want to sell it to me. It is a special deal for certain airplanes that are testing it. All I get from there is the leaded 100.
Be careful of the puregas website, some of that info is VERY old or they are counting places like Western Auto that sell fuel in cans for chainsaws and race cars.

[sastanley]

+1 what joe said...that is a user fed website, and while it is an excellent resource, I would always verify directly with the retailer before making the trek. That being said, the few places that sell it around my area are listed on that site and it has been reliable for me. I usually drive across the 301 bridge to VA with a trunk full of jerry cans and can lug about 45 gallons back...the savings in less tax in VA just about offsets the 90 miles worth of gas I burn in the car, and I can fill that up in VA too. The Murphy's in Dahlgren has (90 octane) E-Zero right at the pumps. That will be great stuff for my project car too since it requires mid-grade (89+). I am trying to get that sucker running this fall before I start working on getting my back-up project A-4 running this winter that I have here in the shop. I think it got wet though..it only spins about 90 degrees with the hand crank before locking up...but I am not fooling with that until winter.

[joe_db]

As Joe stated Av gas can really screw up a cat-converter and is a good bit of advise. And the other big plus with Av-gas is it's "shelf life", as it can sit for a long long time before going bad.

It would be nice to find some unleaded non alcohol 80 or less octane rated fuel for any old engines including the A-4.

Also don't forget "white-gas" like used in camping stoves, no lead or alcohol. We used to buy our camping fuel from a "Gulf Oil" White Gas pump in the old days. I burned a few cans of "Coleman" fuel in my A-4 just to use it up and they were really old and rusty cans and she ran just fine.

Dave Neptune

White gas is about 55 octane. The A4 is OK with that?
I recall my grandfather buying it for things like camp stoves and his old boat when I was a toddler. A buddy from West Virginia calls it "drip gas", apparently some natural gas wells bring up some small amount of liquid hydrocarbons, so instead of just dumping it somewhere it gets collected and sold for camping fuel.

[Dave Neptune]

Joe, I added 3 cans to about 5 that were in the tank and did not even notice any performance drop at all, ran just fine. We di run an old Briggs go kart a few times when we ran out of Ethyl.

Dave Neptune

[JimHo]

MOGAS at an airfield

I am not sure if all AV gas is ethanol free, but Mogas is. You can see if there are any local airfields with it by searching at flyunleaded. com