<VV> ethanol? / performance

[Steve Oxford]

WOW!!  and you couldn't hear it PING??  before???   Higher octane has no 
more energy/ power the 80 octane.....it's actually worse gas!  Dirty! [ 
lead]

The Octane allows  your engine to make the power it was designed to!  102's 
were High Compression Vairs....  Amazing you never "holed" a piston!

Matt Nall
All Vairs!
-------------------------------------------------------

You will have to explain this response!?!

Ken Pepke

===========================================
Ken - A gallon of 85 octane gasoline contains the same amount of energy (BTUs->british thermal units) as a gallon of 91 octane gasoline.  But, the higher octane rated gasoline is more resistant to "auto-ignition" or "pre-ignition" (pinging) thus some engines can achieve higher performance with a higher octane fuel.  In terms of today's computer controlled engines, if you put "regular" gasoline in an engine that requires "premium", then the computer will sense "pre-ignition" and lower the performance capability of the engine.  On the other hand, if you put "premium" gasoline in an engine that requires "regular" gasoline, the engine will likely not perform any better.  Hope that didn't muddle the issue too much...

And Matt is at least partially correct about "premium" fuel being "dirtier" in some cases. At a discount gasoline station, the regular graded gasoline might have detergent additives whereas the premium graded gasoline might not.  At most of the name brand stations (Chevron, Shell, Conoco/Phillips/Union 76, etc), the premium branded fuel will also have detergent and other additives the same as the regular branded fuel.  Of course, most of those additives are more important to fuel injected vehicles than to carbureted vehicles, but the additives could help prevent buildup on valves.

Steve O