Hi folks,
this is a topic close to my heart, as my '70 1600 has a thin head and
pings like crazy on ordinary fuels, though it goes like a cracker.
Since we got BP Ultimate 98 up here in Townsville a few months ago, I've
not had to doctor the fuel with Nulon octane boost (best one I've found
so far). By phasing out leaded fuel, the suppliers here gained storage
capacity allowing the good stuff to be on hand.
I used to use a blend of avgas and premium unleaded, about 30/70. As
it's a military airport, the green 100/130 fuel was easily purchased if
you knew someone and that always made the car run great. I could get
the local fuel supplier to drop off a 44-gal drum of the stuff, but
having drums of fuel around wasn't the safest. I also tried Shell
racing fuel 100 (the blue 100/100 avgas type) for a while - it was good
too, and easier to get until the Environmental Protection Regulation and
excise requirements changed a few years ago. After that, I could only
get it by showing my CAMS competition licence and my name went into a
book where I had to sign that I would only use it on a track......
DiMethyl benzene (xylene) can work too and I've tried it as an
experiment, but it's hazardous, smelly and not recommended even in small
doses for lots of reasons, health and mechanical.
I use the Hitachi Full Transistor electronic ignition module that used
to be supplied by Nismo - magnetic pickup, high intensity coil, and
normal advance curve in my distributor. Without high octane fuel, I
could never get the pinging to go away even by setting the timing way
back so the engine ran like a dog.
The only small problem at the moment is that this BP fuel costs $1.398
per litre, but what the heck - it's cheaper than using octane boost, and
I always try to use as much fuel as I can in my roadster anyway.
regards
Eric in Townsville
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