Me109 needs special fuel?

[Kenne]

was reading 'the wild blue, by ambrose, about 24 crews in ww2.

well near the end of the war an American POW convinced a Romanian pilot to fly him
(in a 109, he scrunched in the 109s radio area)
to an American airbase so he could organize an airlift of the allied POWs before the Germans
decided to move them to Germany.

the plan went well. when it got time for the Romanian pilot to lead them back to the camp, he did so
in a p51 because:

"There was no suitable fuel for the Me109."

my question is, would American av gas not work in a 109??

[morfiend]

 Most 109's used B4 fuel,though not all!  B4 had an octane rating around 87,if the allied fuel was of a higher octane it make not have worked very well in that 109 and for safety conserns the pilot used a plane that could safely operate on the fuel available.

  YMMV>


   


 PS: the engine would run on higher octane but could suffer from plug fouling,valve issues etc.

[MiloMorai]

German and Allied fuel had a different chemical make up. The octane rating was also measured differently > German lean mixture, Allied rich mixture.

One can use a higher octane in an engine rated for a lower octane and vise-a-versa but one can't run the lower octane in an engine that uses a higher octane at the output the engine would have using the higher octane.

A 100 octane Spitfire could be fueled with 87 octane but the boost level would be lower for the lower octane.