Ben Visser

3 weeks ago | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Visser

There is an old adage that success has hundreds of parents, but failure is an orphan. We see that when we look at the history of leaded fuels. When I started at Shell Oil in 1967, my first project was to optimize the lead and scavenger levels in auto fuels. I started by reading most of the technical reports in the company library. I was surprised to find that there was a long list of metals that worked as anti-knock additives.

1 month ago | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Visser

Recently I received an email from a pilot who watched a video on YouTube comparing the performance of several different oils, including ones for aviation, automobiles, diesel engines, motorcycles, and boats. The aviation oil included in the many different tests was Phillips 66 X/C 20W-50 Multiviscosity Aircraft Engine Oil. The conclusion of the YouTuber’s testing was that the Phillips aviation oil performed very poorly in the detergency and anti-wear tests.

2 months ago | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Visser

Whenever an article on unleaded 100 octane avgas is published, a few of the same questions always come up. For instance, many readers will comment that automobiles switched from leaded fuels to unleaded fuels with no major problems, so why can’t that be done with avgas? Well, they didn’t really solve the problem, it just sort of went away. When I started at Shell in 1967, emission controls on automobiles were just starting in California and went nationwide in 1968.

Dec 12, 2024 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Visser

I have been working in the General Aviation fuels and lubricant area for about 45 years, and for the last four decades one of the most frequent questions I get is “what are the biggest problems in these areas?”The answer for both is the same: Moisture in aircraft that are not flown frequently. Where does the moisture come from? It comes from condensation and from the exhaust, where water is a by-product of combustion.

Sep 23, 2024 | generalaviationnews.com | Ben Visser

In my last column, “One question, many answers,” I wrote about changes in the avgas world that I found at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2024. The changes in aviation lubricants were not as dramatic, considering that the formulation for Aeroshell Oil W has not changed since 1958. Probably the biggest news is that Shell introduced a new product called Aeroshell Grease 58.