Hot Rods What brand of Petrol do you prefer in your baby and what Grade?

My Ol' Furd gets plain ol' 87 regular. Here in Central California, it has around 10% ethanol. My entire fuel system is built around that. Stainless hard lines and ptfe flex lines with steel fittings.
Right now, regular is going at about 4.80/gal.

 

All our fuel has ethanol now so I run Costco ‘87 and try to drive a lot so I don’t ever have old fuel on the tank.

I think the YBlock in the woody would run on any mildly flammable liquid as long as it doesn’t eat the fuel lines and carburetor.

I bring 90 Ethanol free gas from delta sonic across the border 5 gallons at a time and try to have a full tank of it in the wagon before winter storage.

 

Cheap corn fuel

 

I have never had a problem with Avgas in 40+ years [except a green fuel wash stain on white paint from Weber Carb resonance]
No Leaks ever!
The only reason I drain my race car is to always run it on fresh Gas [Ford Recommended 100 octane minimum and Non Ethanol because it will lean out]

That sort of thing you describe happens with Methanol not Avgas.[I'd hate to be in a Cessna when the carbs start leaking]
If you want to play with dangerous sh*t try Hi Octane unleaded race gas.

I got manganese poisoning from "parts cleaning" in Unleaded Race Gas. The lethal compound was "Methylcyclopentadienyl manganese tricarbonyl" which affected cognitive ability for about 6 months.

I'll stick to Leaded Avgas , Tetraethyl Lead is far safer than those other nasty compounds [it is only banned because it blocks up catalytic converters]

 

How much is a litre of 100LL av gas?

 

E85 in the off topic car, 91 mixed with avgas in the 63 GP.

 

First of all I have no ties to Shell at all, so this isn't a plug for Shell gas. I don't have a Shell station near me but when I go to New England, Shell stations are everywhere. I may be imagining it, but my '46 Wagon always seems to run better on Shell gas.

 

I run mid grade in everything, but if it has a carb it gets pure gas. I will fill up the pickup with premium if I’m going to be hauling or towing. I run Chevron mostly, there’s one 3 miles either way from my house. Wife used to run whatever swill from whatever pigpen she stopped at with the lowest prices. Kept having plug problems on the 4.6 and 5.4 Fords, when I found out what she was doing I put her on the straight and narrow. No more plug problems running mid grade Chevron. Her Jeep she usually runs regular Chevron in it, I think it would run on kerosene and not rattle.
Have ran Shell and Texaco in the past without any problems, as well as some Murphy ( Walmart).

 

I live in the hot south so I was having some vapor lock issues in the hot summers running 87. I started running 93 and it got better. I know this is a controversial topic whether the octane helps vapor lock or not.. I'm just relaying my anecdotal experience.

I can only get ethanol blend in Texas, but when we move to OK this summer, the carbureted stuff will get non-ethanol.

 

I have two Shell stations near me and everything I own runs noticeably better on Shell gas, particularly their 91 grade.

 

Dan I’m surprised you can’t get non ethanol gas, talk with your local Harley Davidson shop they will if and where non ethanol gas is available.There is nothing wrong per se with E10 gas however older stuff - carburetor equipped cars- the alcohol attacks seals and gaskets in the carb and fuel pump along with causing rust in the gas tank and fuel lines. You can set up to be ethanol safe however as Mike notes above. Some moonshiners ran their own product.
Dan

 

What the hell is petrol anyway? lol

 

Gasoline also known as petrol is an energy-dense secondary fuel that can be thought of as an energy currency. It is used to power many heat engines, most importantly it acts as a fuel for a large proportion of cars.

During WWII a large number of allied POW's escaped a very large German Camp in quite an elaborate plan. Some did so by sewing German uniforms, commandeering a vehicle and heading west only to run out of Gas. Stopping to get fuel they were met by an attendant of some sort and not speaking the language they asked for gas instead of petrol which was the common term for gas, and they were promptly captured and returned to the prison camp. At least that's the way I recall the move I saw in my late 20's I believe it was, told. Which Hollywood swore to be 100% true.

 

It is actually cheaper than 98 Octane Pump Gas because there is no road user taxes factored.

I can buy it at the local airport using my FIA Competition License ,but they will not pump it into a road registered vehicle.

The proper name for "Gasoline" is "Petrol" which is the name of a petrochemical product
The term Petrol predates Gasoline by a few years.
But historically it should be called "Cazelline" which was the patented Trademark by British businessman John Cassell in 1862

But there was a bit of plagiarism and a legal sh*tfighting so Cazelline got simply changed to Gazeline [and so on]

That is by volume, but not by weight [Higher octane fuel is lighter weight by volume]
This is why switching to high octane results in lean mixture because a carburettor can only meter fuel by volume.

The stoichiometric ratio [chemical balancing] is different between the two fuels [the lighter weight fuel needs to be richer]

 

One of mine has ran rubbing alcohol, lacquer thinner and weed eater gas
Didn’t like diesel

 

One other thing, since my 63 GP sat for 35+ years without running I’ve been adding a pint or so of marvel mystery oil to the tank when I put gas in it. Compression when I first got it running was 80-90 psi on each cylinder, but after driving for about 50 to 75 miles the compression is up around 135.

 

The engine in my avatar is basically 70 years old. Holden didn't use them after 1963. I think originally they were 6.5 : 1 compression ratio. Mine's warmed up a little bit from that but on a chassis dyno it dropped 10 H.P. when I replaced the 91 with 98. Put the 91 back in and straight away picked up the 10 H.P.

 

$6.50 a gallon here in NC

 

Cheapest I can find. Usually Buc-ee's regular. Drops below $3 every once in a while.

 

My BUICK has been warmed. A little . About 10 to 1 cr. Uses an OT fuel system. I run 87 or 88, whichever is the lowest here in TEJAS. Too much throttle at too low a speed in too high a gear will get my attention. Ease off or drop a gear. I have tried non ethanol. Absolutely no improvement for the additional cost.

I put over 4500 miles on the trip to the PNW last year. Pulling the 1200lb teardrop. Just shy of 20 mpg.

I usually use Phillips here at home for the convenience. Same pump . Away from home, almost any thing that looks clean and well used.

Ben

 

Mostly non ethanal 93 octane.

 

34Larry said; balljoint you mention marvel mystery oil ; not to change the subject since I brought it up, but for the longest time I thought of MMO as just another snake oil, then I used on a nasty sticky lifter in my 331 HEMI that just would not behave. Boy did it show that little piece of crap who is boss.
For the rest of you great guys, it might be awhile. keep the lights on.

Yes, MMO is good stuff! For the crankcase and the fuel tank.

 

During the winter I swapped out all my fuel line to PTFE. Last year the Feds decided to add at least 5% ethanol to all gasoline. Up until last year our Chevron 94 was ethanol free.

 

I should say, it's available in Texas, just not in the DFW Metro area. My gas buddy app says the nearest non-ethanol gas is 45 minutes away out of town.

 

RmK57, I did the same on my off topic car when I switched it to E85 over the winter. Which brand of fuel line did you use?
I purchased all of my fuel line and fittings from TechAFX, high quality stuff. I don’t think I’ll ever have to worry about fuel line degradation on that car again. I’m considering the same for the 63 GP eventually.

 

Counting, or not counting the fine?

 

....

 

I bought a fuel line “kit”(Chinese) from eBay. The old stuff I removed was the same style, nylon cover, stainless braid with a rubber centre. It was 7-8 years old but like new condition on the inside. I suspect that was because of no ethanol in the fuel. I also took apart my Earls inline fuel filter and it was clean inside. Just from my experience I don’t have anything negative to say about the cheap eBay fuel line kits.