I'd contact Mike Nixon of Vintage V-12's check out our web page at
Vintage V12s
You don't really need 87 octane fuel. Your local airport should have an appropriate fuel. General Aviation fuel will work. Here's what he mailed me to a few questions about Synthetic Fuel and using 100LL.
I've talked to an engine rebuilder that has overhauled quite a few DB's and he sets them up to factory specs. He runs them at 100% power on 100LL wit no problems at all. Of course with 100LL they won't run them at WEP settings just as the Merlin's he rebuilds.
My questions:
Hi Mike,
I've always been intrigued with the synthetic B4 and C3 fuels the Germans
produced from Coal.
Since you've posted your website and you have rebuilt DB 601/605's and
now in the process of rebuilding a BMW 801; I'm curious as to the fuel
you are using to run the engines in.
I have chemical breakdowns of them and the percentages of the
hydrocarbons and additives are much different than fuels derived from light
crudes.
The question/s I have are. Do you have a fuel specially blended to
match the Synthetic B4/C3 formulation? If not how demanding is setting up
the the injection pumps to run on crude based fuels and is there a difference
in the boost pressure maximum that can be used?
Thanks so much for your time and answer.
His answer when I asked the question on fuels and how they run them without having a synthetic fuel with the qualities of German fuels of WW2. Mike Nixon of Vintage V-12's sent me this answer to my question.
The simple answer to your question is that I am using pump 100LL aviation fuel. I have tested the fuel with a 10% lean condition but flight settings are the original flows. we can run higher boost, but the cost of the testing and the value of the engines make that a non-issue. Why the fuels used by the Germans were of a lower octane, the high power settings usually included Nitrous, water/alchol or some other additive injection for the combat power setting.
We have used much higher power setting with race engines with good sucess and the quality of the internals of the engines are very close.
The construction of the fuel is different but the burn rates are same to a point. I have used 100LL pump av gas at original and as lean as 10%. I set the injectors at the book setting and the engines run normal. The internals of the engines are very good and the potential powers would be higher with 115/145 fuel.
mike nixon
I guess there is a lot of information you guys don't have. when I have time I will start posting some of my data. Mike Nixon of Vintage V-12's check out our web page at vintagev12s.com.
Best,