Ryan James Irwin wrote:
>
> I'm proud to announce that I've gotten to the point that i need to worry
> about what sort of fuel I put in my car. Until the next time I
> inabilitate it atleast. So since my car is a '61, and was designed for 97
> octane leaded gas, what do you guys use as a substitute? I'm really not
> in the mood to buy an $800 aluminum unleaded cylinder head. Considering
> my whole car cost me $700...
As for the unleaded versus leaded thing, you can panic and
tear your car apart, or you can do nothing. Most people opt to
do nothing, and most people do just fine.
Besides, the 'damage' that you might get from using unleaded
is very nearly the same price to fix as the prevention you
must do to stop it. And likely both are cheaper than using
an additive every time you fill the tank over the years...
So as far as leaded versus unleaded, I wouldn't worry, but you'll
likely get emails from people suggesting you should.
As for the octane, here's what I recommend. When you first put
the car on the road, buy the highest octane gas you can, and use
it for a couple of tanks until you get it well tuned and get
to know the car.
Then start backing down the octane level until the car starts
to ping, or run on, or otherwise embarrass itself. When that happens,
go back to the cheapest gas that doesn't cause problems.
I have an MGB, a ZB Magnette, a Midget, and an E-jag. Of all
those, they all work fine on cheap gas, except the midget, which
needs 94 octane that I can only get at one chain in the city. I
suspect it's the high compression ratio to blame, if I use even
91 octane gas it runs on badly.
--
Trevor Boicey, P. Eng.
Ottawa, Canada, tboicey@brit.ca
ICQ #17432933 http://www.brit.ca/~tboicey/
"If tugboats were bigger, they could be the boats other boats tug" - Ajax
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