Yesterday I put my plane on floats, yipee. To balance out my high spirits, a couple of pilots said that they had heard that the only avgas refinery in Canada, located in Alberta I believe, was going to stop producing avgas! On Jason's forum, another float friend said his distributor indicated that avgas would be suspended. If this is true, many of us are in for a real shock.

I can always burn mogas in the 180, but I'd rather not. No shortages reported in eastern Canada so far.

Ford...

You guys gonna wander up towards Bella Coola at all this summer?

Gump

Hi Gump. I just heard from a friend that just got back from Bella Bella salmon fishing. He has a friend that runs the harbor in Namu and might be able to set me up with a fishing opportunity!! I will persue this. You want to run up here??

Won't be this year unless we win the lotto. But if you head that way, see if you can swing by to check on my cabin.

FloatFlyer wrote:Hi Gump. I just heard from a friend that just got back from Bella Bella salmon fishing. He has a friend that runs the harbor in Namu and might be able to set me up with a fishing opportunity!! I will persue this. You want to run up here??

Nice

Tim

Ford, this better be a lie cause the whole Yukon & Ak will be shut down!

Backcountry Tundra wrote:Ford, this better be a lie cause the whole Yukon & Ak will be shut down!

Give it time. That's what they are working on.

This is the only other reference to a "no avgas" situation and it comes from Ontario:

"You finally did it, good for you. Summer has made it here also, though the plane has just been bobbing by the dock since it came home. Our airport's supplier has given notice they will suspend 100LL, but we thought that was just a supplier thing and a replacement would be found. Hopefully they will not quit production here in Canada, a 185 is not my choice of lawn ornaments."

I will try and call an avgas wholesaler this morning and see what he has to say. In the mean time, I will hope.

Is there a field aproval or stc to put an O470 in a 185 . Guess that is not that funny. This is just the beginning.

Tim

qmdv wrote:Is there a field aproval or stc to put an O470 in a 185 . Guess that is not that funny. This is just the beginning.

Tim

( )

Ok, I guess I should have done this before I posted the rumor I heard, a good lesson for most rumors. I just got off the phone from my avgas distributor in Vancouver. He told me that the Petro Can refinery in Edmonton, AB had a problem at the refinery a few weeks ago and stopped producing avgas. The Shell refinery, also in Edmonton, AB, has continued to produce avgas but has raised prices about $.12 per litre. My distributor was told by his contacts that Petro Can had estimated that the repair would take a couple of weeks. He is waiting to hear more and he is waiting for a load of avgas as he has none. SO, it appears that the demise of avgas in Canada is not imminent, however, available supplies for the moment may be impacted. Sorry for perpetuating concern.

Good for you on the research Ford, that is good news on the 100LL. The local airport fuel supplier must be pulling out for other reasons, hopefully our floatplane base will still be able to get product. Seriously, that 470 question came to my mind also, but then it occured to me, there isn't any regular gas around here without ethanol, so that won't help. Maybe downsizing is in the cards for the future. I wonder if I can haul 3 people, an outboard and fishing gear in a powered parachute?

Why are you guys only talking 470's? I'm pretty confident in saying a low compression 520 could easily be happy burning E10 auto fuel and you'd still have pretty good power compared to the 470. Might not be legal but it would definitely work.

Thank god...I was about to start doing research on how to make your own 100LL from Mogas or otherwise! Thanks for doing the research Ford, Cheers, J-M

You are probably right Marty, we are pretty far off the radar up here anyway. So would it just be a matter of changing pistons? Any guess as to how much effect that would have on HP, on a 300 horse IO 520? These are probably the sort things we all need to be thinking of, with such an unsure future ahead.

Steve

Steve, according to the Pponk website they take a TSIO520(low compression), put a carb on and get 275 or 285 hp. Not sure if the 275 is low comp. and the 285 high( maybe Gary can explain). According to to the Texas Skyways site they get 280 out of an O-520 and 285 out of an O 550. Those might be high compression. Would imagine if you made the 550 low compression it would still be pretty good. Also, if the 550 was still injected and compression lowered, should still be pretty good.

Thanks Marty. If that is the case, not much of a sacrifice. Maybe keep the same engine, overhaul it, change out the injection and expect slightly less zoom. Beats the lawn ornament option and helps keep the walleye from over populating on those remote lakes (in my dreams).

On a side note, you can shut off the water and turn up the heat for while, please.

Steve

180Marty wrote:Steve, according to the Pponk website they take a TSIO520(low compression), put a carb on and get 275 or 285 hp. Not sure if the 275 is low comp. and the 285 high( maybe Gary can explain). According to to the Texas Skyways site they get 280 out of an O-520 and 285 out of an O 550. Those might be high compression. Would imagine if you made the 550 low compression it would still be pretty good. Also, if the 550 was still injected and compression lowered, should still be pretty good.

Pponk will modify a TSIO-520 or In my case they took my O-470K machined the case to accept ECI 520 cylinders (.250") larger dia. add oil squirters to squirt oil on the under side of the pistons to cool them. They use a connecting rod with 3/8" bolts, rejet the carb and change exhaust lifters to high flow lifters to keep the exhaust valve guides a little cooler. The compression is 7.5:1, I mix 100LL 1 part to 2 parts 91 octane (w/10% ethanol) it brings the eth back to about 7%. I use 4 oz Marvil Mystery oil per 10 ga of this mix. Seems to work fine.

Glidergeek, forgot about you having Pponk also. Also, I went back to Pponk site and see it says 265hp to 275hp--not 285. Do you know the difference between the two hp ratings or do they just vary that much.