Avblend oil additive

[Dale]

Does anyone use avblend in their Mooney or Turbo Mooney?  I understand a lot of flight schools have been using avblend in their training aircraft with pretty good results.  American Flyers is one of the flight schools using it in their training aircraft and I understand they have had really good success with it.  I would be interested in knowing if anyone is using avblend in their Mooney and what results, if any, have you had?  Thanks.

[FAST FLIGHT OPTIONS LLC]

I used cam guard in my 201 when I had it and really liked it.  I  have been looking for a comparable replacement for my 231 and just went to the company's web site to check it out.  Their results seems impressive and I might be all for using it.  I will talk to Don Maxwell about it as it is currently in for annual 

[tony]

I use camguard as well

[HopePilot]

Which oil do you use camguard with?  I am not sure if it would be too much to blend Aeroshell 100 Plus, which already has additives.  I'm not sure if I should go back to regular Aeroshell 100 and just add camguard.

[FAST FLIGHT OPTIONS LLC]

When I had my 201 I was running camguard with Phillips XC

[scottfromiowa]

Camguard & Phillips X/C

[tony]

Phillips X/C

[PTK]

My plane was annualed and serviced by Dugosh for 14 years straight before I bought it.  The previous owner had always used Avblend with each oil change. Dugosh highly recommended it also.  I continue to use Avblend with Aeroshell 15W50 with excellent success.  My current MSC also likes it.

[scottfromiowa]

I used AeroShell initially w/Camguard...why pay for higher priced oil with additives, only to add additional additives?  Redundant, see redundant.

[Jeff_S]

I have started using AvBlend, based on the recommendation of Jerry Manthy at one of his Mooney maintenance classes last year. I was using it with AeroShell 15W50 but have switched to Phillips 20W50 based on the recommendation of Mike Busch.

Now, Mike says in his personal analysis of running AvBlend in one of his engines and nothing in the other (on a Cessna 310) that he could detect no noticeable difference. His feeling is that it doesn't harm, but maybe doesn't help much. But his data is not exhaustive. On the other hand, doing the same comparison with CamGuard, he sees a noticeable difference on the oil analysis from one engine to the other, which mostly occurs when his plane has sat idle for a few weeks. He feels that CamGuard really does help prevent corrosion in engines that are not getting regular workouts.

Jerry said in his class that with AvBlend in his automobile he noticed an immediate 3 mpg increase, and that he always felt his Mooney engines ran cleaner and stronger with it. I've only had it in now for the last six months, so I won't claim an outstanding benefits but my oil analyses are all looking nice and stable.

[danb35]

According to its MSDS, AvBlend is simply mineral oil, with a small amount of dye and perfume added.  I'm not aware of any actual evidence of its usefulness, though anecdotes abound.  It's been around for a long time, and I suspect it doesn't do any harm, but I don't see how adding more oil to a sump full of oil is really going to help.

Camguard contains wear- and corrosion-inhibiting additives, and I've seen some data indicating that it does well in that regard, though I don't know that it's conclusive even so.

I currently use Exxon Elite in '48Q, but after realizing that I just went 2 months without flying, I'm considering changing to Phillips XC and Camguard.

 

[lahso]

Another using Camguard with Aeroshell w80 (winter)/w100 (summer).

[FAST FLIGHT OPTIONS LLC]

Does anyone know the status of CamGuard getting approval to run in turbocharged engines?

[danb35]

I'm not aware of any progress on that front, though the designer of Camguard states that about 1/3 of their sales are for turbocharged engines, FWIW.

[Jeff_S]

This is one of those debates that no one will win or lose because the hard evidence can always be questioned. One might say it's like a religion! But for what an "expert" has to say on the AvBlend website, you can look here:

http://www.avblend.com/faa/kas_thomas_lenckite.html

Reading into this and comparing it to the MSDS someone else posted, this article does provide some additional scientific explanation of why this "mineral oil" is not just the same thing in the 1 quart bottles. I'm no chemist so totally unable to validate or refute this.

[Dale]

It seems that camguard and avblend attempt to do approximately the same thing.  It sounds like they will both do the job pretty well.  The difference I see is that the flight schools have been consistentily using avblend in their training fleets which get a lot of rough use and put on a lot of hours on those engines.  I understand that the engines treated with avblend have been consistently making tbo and upon overhaul of the engines there was little to no wear on the critical parts of the engine.  The flight schools have been very happy with it in maintaining their flight training fleet and have continued to use the product and do not appear to be interested in changing to another product.  I have also heard that some of the Mooney shops are now recommending avblend.  Has anyone that has been using avblend in their engines to the tbo time find that the avblend helped keep their engine running cooler or smoother?  Thanks.

[HopePilot]

Where's the least expensive place to buy Camguard?  The price has been the only thing keeping me from trying it.

[kallend]

.

[MooneyMitch]

Normally, Aircraft Spruce beats everyone even when you calculate shipping and tax.

[HopePilot]

Thanks Mitch.  I'm heading there in the next couple of days anyway.  I've decided to switch to Philips XC and Camguard.

 

 

[jetdriven]

We are switching to either X/C or W100 with camguard.   The creator says it has 15x more corrosion additives than W100+.  

[flight2000]

Has anyone used Exxon Elite 20W-50?  It's a little more expensive, but they say the additives are already mixed.  It would be about the same price as the Philips X/C and camguard I'm using now. They also claim that Lycoming and Continental approve their oil for use (don't they all??).

http://www.eliteetc.com/exavoilel20.html

[jetdriven]

Aeroshell has the additive in the W80+, W100+, and 15W50, but i think its just enough to say it is in there.  Philips X/C with camguard you get much more additive, and AD mineral oil is better for aero engines than synthetic blends.  Synthetic doesnt dissolve lead.

[FAST FLIGHT OPTIONS LLC]

Mr Maxwell did not recommend the Avblend for my 231 so I'm sticking with the straight Aeroshell for the time

[jetdriven]

Avblend is NOT approved for turbocharged airplanes.