Well said.

Although with the pisswater gas we get around LA, I know of quite a few people that have problems with knocking on Z's with stock timing.

 

this is completly opposite from the truth.

higher octane gas actually has a lower BTU rating, which means that it burns slower. when the spark plug fires, the flame front is slower than it would be with lower octane gas. with high compression, the molecules are packed very tightly together, which enables the flame to move very quickly, and cause detonation. higher octane gas slows this down. the higher the octane, the lower the available power.

this is hard for some to understand, however. like the people with low performance engines, who buy race gas because they think it will make them faster...it is actually making them slower.

 

Yeah, I wanted to post that info in my last post, but I wasn't 100% positive on the info so I skipped it. Thanks for the clarification.

 

Yeah, California's gas is exceptionally bad. It would definitely be nice to have the 93 that many states have. I don't really care about higher, but it would at least be nice to have the option (especially for all the folks running force induction).

 

this guy who is really car handy said too much high octane gas is no good for a car like the z. But he said putting like 1 gallon of the 110 octane they have by me each time i fill up would not be a bad thing? Any comments on this?

 

That wouldn't hurt anything. In fact, that's a very common thing to do when you only want to kick up the octane rating a little bit. If you do 10 gallons of 91 and 1 gallon of 110, for example, you might end up with 92 octane or so. If you want a highe effective octane rating, just add less 91 and more 110. It's a bit difficult to calculate the exact mixture you'll get since different octane gases don't mix in a linear fashion, but you get the idea. Use mostly 91, with a little 110 mixed in and you'll get a slightly higher effective octane.

 

Not all of California is crap gas. I've only found 100+ octane at some stations, but they're in wealthier areas, like Orange County. But here's an idea, what about fuel from airports? Isn't this the same? Does anyone in San diego fill up at Montgomery airport? or is this just some wild rumor? I hate ordering race gas by mail.

 

Never did that here. One of the guys who lived down the street from me in Hollywood Florida used to go to Perry Airport and buy 106 for his 68 Camaro though. Worked great...

 

How funny is that?! Going to the airport to fill up...yeah I'd like some rocket fuel please

 

Yeah, there are stations here and there (like some 76 stations) that sell 100+ octane, but they are pretty few and far between. I have none within a 2 hour drive. I don't mind so much, though. I don't have any knocking problems during the winter, although I can tell it's pulling timing when the weather here gets really hot (90+ degrees). It'd be nice to have 93 octane on those days.

As far as airplane gasoline, is that stuff leaded? I know it can be pretty high octane, but you definitely can't use it if it's leaded. If that's the case, it's possible that MIAPLAYA's friend's 68 Mustang could take leaded fuel and so things were okay.

 

Glad you brought this up. What are the downfalls of using leaded? My buddy's pushing over 600whp in his supra but he uses the leaded industrial gas, like the UPS trucks. So does leaded just clog the injectors or affect the O2 sensors? I've noticed different effects on different cars. Some of the Cessnas at the local airport actually use unleaded fuel, but I'm not sure what octane..tried finding a Sunoco here, but came to no avail.

 

Off of the 5 and La Paz

 

Not sure on everything, but I'm pretty sure leaded gas can destroy your cats. If your buddy is running leaded in his car, I'm gonna venture a guess that he's also running test pipes.