Hi Steve,
I built and flew Europa Trigear G-CDBX and did have problems when I first s
tarted using fuel with Ethanol added.
My son (a Ryanair captain) and I took off from Southampton on a warm July d
ay. Everything was normal until about 1500ft the engine misfired and contin
ued to do so.
We returned to the airfield, removed the cowels, did an engine check and ev
erything seemed normal. Again took off, and at about 1500 ft the misfire r
ecurred. Returned to Southampton and landed safely.
I trailered the plane back to my home airfield of Shenstone. There, I remo
ved the cowels, checked everything and could find no reason for the misfire
. I decided to fly it to see if I could reproduce the problem. After 2 or 3
flights and perhaps 2 hours flying nothing happened until I was just retur
ning at Shenstone when the misfire occurred again. I decide to carry on fl
ying but to an area where I knew there were lots of big fields, just in cas
e. I couldn=92t get the misfire to happen again and returned to Shenstone w
ithout further incident.
After landing I decided to put my hand through the inspection hatch and fee
l the carburettors. To my surprise the float bowls were very hot, almost t
o hot to touch. This was the clue to the problem. Next, I tied the tailpla
ne of the aircraft to our tractor to do some full power checks. This time
after about 2 minutes, a severe misfire occurred.
I let the engine cool and repeated the test. Again, after about 2 minutes
a severe misfire. A couple of days I repeated the test and the engine misf
ired as expected. I now knew I could repeat the fault and was narrowing d
own on the cause. Next I drained the fuel and filled up with Avgas, no eth
anol. This time after 2 minutes, no misfire. I continued the test and even
after 5 minutes no misfire occurred. Clearly, to me the problem was the h
igher vapour pressure of the ethanol.
The fix, I took a thin piece of aluminium to act as a heat shield between t
he very hot exhaust pipe and the carburettor bowls. I fixed it by bolting
it under a nearby exhaust pipe bolt. On feeling the carburettor bowls afte
r flight they now seemed much cooler. I continued using petrol + ethanol mi
x and during the following say 200 hours the problem never recurred.
Robert Marston
________________________________
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com <owner-europa-list-server@matr
onics.com> on behalf of Steve Ivell <SteveIvell@pestproof.co.uk>
Sent: 02 May 2021 22:04
Subject: Re: Europa-List: Re: Question for European friends re E10 car fuel
How can you or the Eurofox pilot be certain it's down to the fuel being sta
le?? It could be vapour lock, water in fuel etc, etc.
We all have anecdotal tales of "fuel" problems but there are many possibili
ties and blaming stale fuel is a bit lame TBH.
Kind Regards
Steve Ivell
07971 128842
________________________________
From: owner-europa-list-server@matronics.com <owner-europa-list-server@matr
onics.com> on behalf of JonathanMilbank <jdmilbank@yahoo.co.uk>
Sent: Sunday, May 2, 2021 10:24:16 PM
Subject: Europa-List: Re: Question for European friends re E10 car fuel
>
Hi Dave,
My question is about Europa aircraft as a whole, although perhaps I should
have been more specific. Most people I know in the Europa family and severa
l others using Rotax engines in different aircraft types, have no qualms at
all about E10 in their engines. As you say, it's the "the fuel tank, fuel
lines and electric pump" which give more concern.
But I've been informed that there's no such thing as ethanol free car petro
l such as Esso Synergy Supreme and other "super unleaded" brands in the who
le of Scotland and parts of Northern England, which all get their fuel from
the Grangemouth refinery regardless of brand name. From September this yea
r, all car petrol from Grangemouth will continue to have ethanol of at leas
t 5% and 10% in ordinary unleaded.
Furthermore a friend's Eurofox experienced partial engine failure after tak
e-off due to using Esso Synergy Supreme from a local garage, probably stale
fuel due to low sales turnover. He only just managed to get back onto the
runway unscathed! After flushing out the fuel system and filling with ordin
ary E5 unleaded, there's never been another missed beat in his engine.
So my question remains to be answered by EU pilots and particularly Europa
owners who have been using E10 for many years, as far as I know. Please let
me know if you've heard of any problems experienced by any pilot and/or Eu
ropa owner after using E10 petrol for a long time. Problems not only to do
with carburettor icing and vapour lock, but also the fuel tank, fuel lines
and electric pump. Thank you.
Read this topic online here:
http://forums.matronics.com/viewtopic.php?p=501651#501651
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