I tooled into the local Sunoco recently with my '82 F-150 (400 engine 335 series) This motor will ping on anything but high test Sunoco. What a strange sight when the "94" choice at the pump was GONE ! So I put 93 in the tank instead- went inside and asked where's the 94 ?? answer- Sunoco reps came to the station, changed all the pump signs, and said no more 94. This is a real bummer for me, because my truck can get by with 93, my Firebird only runs well on the 94. I tried the 93 in the Firebird, and I could feel it making less power due to marginal detonation. Has anyone else in other parts of the country noticed, 94 octane fuel being pulled from Sunoco stations ? this ****S ! It's like 1990 all over again, when everyone pulled the leaded fuel off the market, and BP kept it on until March of 1990, then also relented.
consider yourself lucky that you have sunoco. we don't have any around here. the best we can do is 93 at bp. at least in columbia and for 20 - 30 miles around it. except for bp the best you can get around here is 91. my el camino and one of the harleys run ok on 93 in the summer but i wish i could get 94. when it's colder the el camino will run on (as low as) 89. i'm too much of a wuss to ride in below freezing weather so i don't know what the harley would run on.
If you have Shell, the 93 seems to satisfy my cars that run Sunoco 94. The Sunoco 93 would ping in mine also. Some people have said Marathon also, but I have never tried.
STP octane booster seems to help for me... 'bout half a bottle per tank raises it right back up, or at least the car thinks so.
Hmmm...guess I'm building my low compression race motor just in time!!! (I learned some things years ago...low squeeze and low octane can be a GREAT combo! )
One gallon of Napatha,to 5 gal.93oct. will raise octane reall well. Toluene will raise the octane also,it can be absorbed through the skin,and kill your liver,and you,so be carefull.Sparky
Here in the So******t People's Republic of CA you can not get anything higher than 91 octane, and even that is watered down with oxygenators so it "burns cleaner". The only real option is to build any engine with lower compression so it will run on the low-octane modified water they call gas.
i say tear down the motors and see why they are detonating in the first place, and fix it. sure it may be a lot of work, but there's no reason any normally aspirated "street" car can't be built to run on 91 or 93 octane. i know, easier said than done, but it's probably something simple like no/too large of a quench zone, a hot spot from spark plug threads, insufficient cooling system, timing, etc. i just like the thought of being able to run on any kind of gas i can get in the middle of BFE. some people like seeking out the racing gas, or hitting the airport for av fuel. different strokes.
I always thought that was why the magazines don't build street motors with anything higher than 9 to 1 compression. The only Sunoco with which I'm familiar is two hours away, so I don't know if they've changed. Getting 94 octane hasn't been a big deal with me because the local stations (which carry 92 octane) all use a blended fuel containing some alcohol. I haven't had any detonation problems at all running 10.5 to 1 in my 327.
The Sunoco that is about half a mile from one of the circle tracks near me has two pumps with 104 octane racing gas for around $5 something a gallon. I think they still had 94 at the pump too. You probably have to go in and sign your life away to buy it like you do for Kerosene (they're paranoid you'll do something other than heat a home with it, even though it costs just as much as the gas does). Probably no one is buying the 94 because it's like $4 a gallon or something now ($8 a gallon closer to the west coast) - no one can afford it anymore.
well nascar is going to run unleaded in 2008 so i wonder as the raceing goes so goes the private gas buyer, wont be able to buy any high test anymore soon enough
The tree-huggers in California started it all, and the cancer/population rate hasn't improved. History will show that EPA is the biggest farce of all time.; Unleaded has both Napatha and Toluene. Adding a little more can't hurt anybody.(any more than using unleaded for a deoderant)
Hahahahaha no wonder our fuel is so expensive,We start at 95 and move up to 98 with super..............Marq
yeh, but I'd rather have 93 octane and live on a continent, than have 95 octane and live on an island ! hey, what about that tea of yours that ended up in Boston Harbor back in 1776 ? DULP !
That mean I can sue Testors for all the model car glue fumes I inhaled building the kits as a kid (and still occasionally mess with)?? It sure would explain how f'ed up I am..
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