Merugo,

I gave my 10% ether fuel mix ingredients as

To make 1 litre of fuel with a 10% ether content ...

2.5% ignition improver 25mls
12.5% Synthetic engine oil 125mls
16% modified olive oil 160mls
10% ether 100mls
8% castor oil 80mls
kerosene 357mls

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(extra kerosene is incorporated through diluting the 30% commercial fuel mix and this brings the total kerosene content to around 51%)
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The quantities shown add up to 847 mls which is apparently some way short of 1 litre !

I should have pointed out that there is actually more kerosene in the mix than those figures show.

There is a further 153mls of kerosene in the mix which is there as a result of diluting the 30% commercial ether, 24% castor oil, 2.5% IPN and the balance being kerosene in the 1 gallon can.

Sorry for any confusion, but I overlooked the fact that the extra kerosene was coming into the mix as a result of diluting the commercial fuel..... of course I know this but it is not apparent to anyone adding up my fuel ingredients !

I have added this information to the ingredients shown in this post.

The semi synthetic car engine oil is a 10w40 oil produced in the UK by Millers oils and is specifically for diesel engined cars and those using turbos also.

The ignition improver is a diesel fuel additive for cars and is also made by Millers Oils. The ingredient of use to me is 2-ethylhexyl-nitrate. PAW (the UK model diesel engine manufacturer) advise that 2-ethylhexyl-nitrate can be used as a direct substitute for IPN which is becoming harder to obtain.

The test weather conditions varied considerably. Testing was done over a period of time and conditions ranged from very hot, sunny and dry,temp around 26C to cold, damp and windy with temp around 6 to 8 C.

Engines were PAW diesels some with control line carbs and others with RC carbs.

The oil content of this fuel mix is high at around 36% and I intend to work this down to 30% and possibly 25% . I will initially drop the olive oil to 10 % and see what happens.

I am quite happy to run a reasonably high oil content 25% to 30% as long as it enables good and consistent running... the higher oil content serves to reduce the total amount of kerosene in the mix and this helps in keeping engine temperature lower, not as low as when there is more ether in the fuel but still acceptable to me.

Greg mentioned that one thing that hasn't cropped up in discussion is what benefit do we gain from increased kerosene levels ?

I haven't really got any figure around this yet but hope to get some idea when the weather is good for flying again. I did several flights with a 15% ether mix and this looked pretty good.

The plane was a 100 inch wingspan glider. The engine was a PAW 09 (1.49) with a straight venturi - no RC carb so that the engine was running flat out all the time.

A 2 oz tank of the 15% ether mix was giving me 23 minutes running time. If the engine could have been throttled back after gaining sufficient altitude then I would probably have got fed up before the fuel ran out !

As Greg stated - the initial purpose of the thread was to reduce, or eliminate ether in the fuel mix.

Here in the UK model diesel fuel is only available in 1 litre cans, bigger amounts have to be got by mail order.

A gallon of 30% ether mix costs £30 which is approx $56 US and a further £6 or $11 for delivery

Reducing the need for ether or eliminating it entirely makes the use of model diesel engines much more attractive.

It has been mentioned that olive oil is not cheap.

In the UK a good olive oil is about £5 to £ 7 a litre .... $9 to $13
Castor oil is £8 which comes to $15 !

By comparison olive oil is cheaper than castor and is used at lower percentages.
The semi synthetic oil I also use costs approx £3 or $6 a litre.
Using a combination of semi synthetic and modified olive oil is still cheaper than using the castor oil which is normally found in commercial model fuel mixes.

Reg