Bobhend

My Feedback: (1)

I have wondered if Morgan MV fuel is worth trying. The claim is they have a special blend of two synthetic oils that run at lower viscosity and provide more power due to reduced friction. As often pointed out here, fuel viscosity has a lot to do with how well the needle valves can keep the engine in the operating range. The needle valve is designed for conventional fuels so playing with the viscosity sounds uncertain. I also noted that Morgan now sells a 15% nitro 4 stroke fuel in both pink [Omega] and green [Coolpower] both 50% castor. I am assuming it is the same fuel. I also note that the rest of the entire Omega family is now 30% castor; my recollection is that it used to be more like 50 % but historic data is not available AFAIK. Comments appreciated.
Omega fuels have 30% castor so they should be OK as a 4 stroke fuel. On the other hand, the "4 stroke" should run well in 2 stroke engines. I'm primarily interested in your experience with the MV fuel though.

Fuel Dinosaur

I believe 30% and certainly 50% castor in 4-stroke engines is far too much castor. I have mixed all my own fuels for my Saito .91 and 170 radial and many older engines for over 50 years now. I am not using more than 4% castor in any of these engines and they are running great, all of them. Some of the commercial 4-stroke fuels have just 2% castor in them. 4-stroke purists will not even burn any castor in their fuels, and use all synthetic oil. I do use 18% total oil (a bit high by current fuel formulations), using Klotz Techniplate (80%) oil containing Benol at 20%. You can run oils of different viscosity, depending on the engine and intended use. I can run them as low as about 15% oil, but at 102 degrees today, I figure oil is a lot cheaper than a new engine. :-) With helicopter fuels, using low viscosity oils, 22-23% works fine at 15-30% nitromethane. 30-50% castor looks like a formulation for 2-stroke engines, not 4-strokes. My general sense of model fuels today is that manufacturers are trying to use less and less oil, sometimes oils of lesser quality and very high nitromethane levels for routine flying, running cars, helicopters and boats. Now racing boats will often use extremely high nitromethane levels, but once again, that is a totally different situation for competition. To be fair to manufacturers, they are having a hard time with regulations, high hazmat charges, product liability, transportation costs, insurance and so forth. I can tell you, I can no longer get methanol by the truck tanker for 60 cents a gallon! SIG Manufacturing still makes some of the best formulations for model fuels in the entire business. Enjoy your modeling.