[Healeys] Fuel (was: tuning and timing)

[Chris Dimmock]

Bob. With all due respect...
1. What speed average did you cover your 3,773 miles in?
Full throttle?? 3 weeks??
Seriously. Modern cars. Modern fuel. Your car was never designed to run modern
ethanol based fuel.
2. Bob. Run your car on a dyno for 20 mins on 91 octane fuel at the factory
redline. Go on. On a dyno. Why not? Go on.
Well, i wouldn't either. that's not the fuel the factory specified. Is it???
If you believe your own argument. Then just do it. Run your car at factory max
rpm on that crap fuel. If you believe it's all good - just do it. 20 mins.
Why wouldn't you?
Me? I wouldn't run my Healey with 91 Octane (US octane, not UK or AU) for
longer than it took me to drive to a proper service station. And I wouldn't
drive at over 2,000 rpm
BUT - i'd happily put my BJ8 on a dyno at 6,000 rpm for 20 minutes, running
100 octane (AU) fuel. But you have to put yours on a dyno at 5,700 rpm with 91
octane (US) for the same 20 minutes.
Deal??
That should explain the difference... It's not just about octane. It's about
fuel quality.
Sincerely.
Chris

Sent from my iPhone

On 06/06/2013, at 11:13 PM, Bob Spidell <bspidell at comcast.net> wrote:

> re: "With the poor quality of todays fuel ..."
>
> What quality issues are we having with today's fuel?  Many modern
cars--'family' sedans, even--will do 150MPH and 0-60 in six seconds or less on
'pump' gas.  I just put 3,773 miles on my BJ8 over 6 states on pump
gas--granted, my car is not high-compression; nominal at best--with no
fuel-related issue.  I generally buy the 'name' brands--Chevron, Shell,
etc.--but will buy no-name gas if necessary.
>
> AFAIK, the octane-rating tests--motor ('M') and research ('R'); the US uses
the average of the two--haven't changed in decades, if ever, so today's
91-octane gas has the same anti-detonation quality as 91-octane gas from 1950.
Many, if not all, gas stations have had to replace their underground tanks to
prevent leakage into the environment; the side-effect being there shouldn't be
much 50-year-old crud and water sitting on the bottom.  It's only anecdotal,
but I put pump gas--probably containing ethanol--into an unlined steel can for
my lawnmower and have had it sit for 3 years or more with no visible
deterioration of the can or the gas (and the mower still runs fine on it).
>
> Not heckling here; I'd just like to know what fuel quality-related issues
people are having--I haven't heard of any (the carping about alcohol is
another issue--I'm not a fan of the fuel or the political policy, but I
haven't had any trouble with it).  Now, if the issue is 95-octane ((R+M)/2)
gas isn't available at the pump any more; well that's not a quality but a
supply&demand or maybe a cost issue (you can get 100-octane avgas at some
stations in the southwest if you're willing to pay $6+/gal).
>
> Bob
>
>
> On 6/5/2013 11:48 PM, Derek Job wrote:
>> John
>>
>> With the poor quality of todays fuel I think that 35 degrees advance is
too
>> much for a road car.