Octane rating..Circa1970

[3macs1]

I only know from 77 on and I think it was not even 94 maybe 87 by then. L-72 hated it, retard the timing and eat plugs, worse in hot weather. However Saturday night was time to eat Dodges and almost all of us kept a drum of avgas behind the barn with a pump.Thinking back it was hard to imagine but true we would go out the the airport and they would fill your drum. No problem. Like to see that today.L-72 liked avgas very much and hated dodges.
We tried that 104 additive many times but it never seemed to make a difference. Maybe just me

[jtower1969]

Av gas is wrong for use in a car. It is designed to run at a constant RPM...around 3500 or so. The specific gravity is also diffrent than what is needed to run on land. I was told by Rockett that Sunoco 260 would be about 95 octane by todays test methods. I run 3 or 4 gallons of 110 to a tank of Sunoco 93. (Please note it is illegal to run leaded gas on the street) Not that I would ever do that
The Rockett website has alot of information under http://www.rockettbrand.com/technicals/bulletins.htm

[3macs1]

[ QUOTE ]
Av gas is wrong for use in a car. It is designed to run at a constant RPM...around 3500 or so. The specific gravity is also diffrent than what is needed to run on land. I was told by Rockett that Sunoco 260 would be about 95 octane by todays test methods. I run 3 or 4 gallons of 110 to a tank of Sunoco 93. (Please note it is illegal to run leaded gas on the street) Not that I would ever do that
The Rockett website has alot of information under http://www.rockettbrand.com/technicals/bulletins.htm

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh I'm sorry I thought we were talking in the 70's. See back then we didnot have access to racing gas so we used avgas since it was 1/2 the price and no tax.As did every other racer I knew in our area. The SG you mention was actually the different distillation curve to ensure the plane would not experience vapor lock.
We discovered to over come this and not fry your engine on initial acceleration we would mix it 35/65,rejet the carb and slow down the spark advance. You knew if your combination was right if the car would start like normal. If it became hard to start you had too much avgas in the mixture. Then no problem and no spongy acceleration.
I think the use of leaded gas actually became a federal crime in 1995 however if you go to our local airport today the small prop powered air planes still use the leaded product.

[jtower1969]

I'm sorry. after re reading it...you guys were talking about the ratings in the 70's.

[TDW]

Well, that explains why the fresh, 11.2 to 1 350 LT1 doesn't like the 93 gas. We broke it in on the dyno with 110, then tried to run some 93. No go. It rattles. We played with timing and jets quite a bit, different heat ranges for the plugs. I thought the Premium, or Ethyl, back then was closer to 96 or 98. I read on a bunch of different sites that guys are running these engines on 93, so I wanted to try it. My L78 and my 302 both will run on 93, but they seem to run better when I mix the 110 with 93. Thanks for all the responses. Hope to have the engine running in the car in a day or so. Can't drive it yet because of the salt and snow, so no real hurry on it.

[PeteLeathersac]

[ QUOTE ]
Thinking back it was hard to imagine but true we would go out the the airport and they would fill your drum. No problem.

[/ QUOTE ]

Here too, no problem at the airport and even to as recent as the late 80's we could pull the car up to the airport pumps and they'd clip the groundstrap to the bumper and fill'er up w/ 110!.

~ Pete

[3macs1]

Only In Canada Pete. Wow you had a full service air port. We had to put the drum in the back of the truck and take it out.They would not fill the cars directly. Same time one guy that worked there ran a 70 chevelle. If I hooked him when he was working the fuel was 10.00 a drum.