I went to my LHS in need of some fuel for my new Tower Trainer 40. The manual said I need 15% nitro with 18% oil. I told him that and he grabed some fuel and I bought it for $18 (for a gallon) (its wildcat). Well i got home and was going to fuel up and I looked close at the title and it said HELImix. like its made for a chopper?... If it ok to use it?..

Thanks

It shouldn't hurt it may even have a little more oil. However, it's unlikely to have any castor in it so if you want you can add 4-5oz for the sake of your bearings. Actually, since your engine is probably an ABC I really recommend that you *do* add some castor since straight synth is not generally recommended for ABC engines.

Correct. My engine has an Aluminum piston, a Bronze cylinder sleeve, and Chrome plating.

I checked on the site for my fuel and:

"Helimix contains 18% oil content and is total synthetic"..

So I will add some. My question is can I use the same castor oil I walk into Walgreens to buy?

I suppose I should be adding this to all my gas if its fully synthetic oil. for my plane only?. truck cars?

and its recomended 4-5oz per gallon?

Thank you

Quote: "My question is can I use the same castor oil I walk into Walgreens to buy?"
__________________________________________________ ______

NO.
Medicinal castor oil is not what you need.
Be sure to get "degummed" castor oil.
Castor oil that is first pressed, filtered and then degummed has the unique lubricating properties of castor without the excessive buildup and carbon deposits. Baker's AA has been the industry standard for decades...if you can find a source for it. A good choice would be BeNOL which is available from Klotz.
Regards
JC

so definatly not walgreens. But how about a bike shop. is just about anything they have going to be ok for this?


I dont really want to order it online, i dont want to pay shipping.

Oh, you can use the oil from the pharmacy but you'd be using a more refined grade (and probably more expensive) than you need. AA may sound great but its essentially an early level in the "refining process". ( some references equate it to "Pale Pressed") Some of the additives added later to acheive different specs may be detrimental to the lubricating qualities and or contain different moisture levels. But don't get the idea that Bakers AA standard is some sort of superduper highly distilled level. Heck, its only for additional lubrication and doesn't burn at normal operating levels in our engines.

The SIG stuff is just fine but last time I saw it it was right at $10/pint, an absolute ripoff in my opinion from an otherwise really nice LHS.

The Wildcat premium fuels I purchased said they had an 80/20 blend in their oil but I topped off the new jugs with castor (Between 5 - 6 ounces) to be on the safe side.

So far so good,

Clay

I'd use the fuel without adding anything. I have an ASP 61 that is ABC construction and use fuel with full synthetic oil all the time.

The oil debate will ever end and everyone has to make their own decision about what they want to use.

Adding oil will not hurt anything. It will change the ratios of alcohol/nitro/oil but not enough to make a huge difference.

Here's a link to a pint of castor for $7.39
http://www3.omnimodels.com/cgi-bin/w...I=KSFP1175&P=0
Sometimes you can find this at motorcycle and go kart shops. If you can't find anything else locally, just get the drug store stuff. It might be more expensive per ounce, but you're not buying a lot. Here is the impact of adding various amounts to a full gallon.

adding 2 ounces
methanol - 65.97%
synthetic - 17.72%
castor - 1.54%
nitro - 14.77%
total - 100.00%


adding 3 ounces
methanol - 65.47%
synthetic - 17.59%
castor - 2.29%
nitro - 14.66%
total - 100.00%

adding 4 ounces
methanol - 64.97%
synthetic - 17.45%
castor - 3.03%
nitro - 14.55%
total - 100.00%

adding 5 ounces
methanol - 64.48%
synthetic - 17.32%
castor - 3.76%
nitro - 14.44%
total - 100.00%

adding 6 ounces
methanol - 64.00%
synthetic - 17.19%
castor - 4.48%
nitro - 14.33%
total - 100.00%

The pharmaceutical castor is okay to use, but does cost more. The last quart I bought was Sig castor at $7 at the LHS.

W8YE and I replaced bearings in a Saito .80 that a friend was flying, and he added drug store castor to his fuel for a long time. The retainer had failed on the bearings. Otherwise, the inside of the engine and the actual bearings were completely rust free. We were a little surprised at how good the engine looked from this grade of castor, and amount of metal that had circulated in the engine from the retainer.