Non ethanol or not ??

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44070dart

44070dart

How the hell did I get this old..
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Just bought a Dart with a 11.5 compression 440, 906 heads. Talking with the owner he said at the current distributor advance setting, I should use octane booster while using 93 octane. Street car for most part.

My question is about non ethanol fuel. Use it or don't ? ..also use octane boost with non ethanol or stick with 93 octane ? ........... car is a beast !
 
I am using ethanol free gas in my bone stock 273 because the standard pump gas vaporizes too easily in hot weather.

The result is 100% satisfaction. I have not had any issues after I started non alcohol fuel


As for octane, at 11.5 to one, IMHO the higher the better. How you get there I don't know.
 
If you drive it enough the gas won't go bad, stick with the 93 ethanol. It has greater resistance to detonation. As long as you drive it often, it will be fine.
 
My street/strip Dart was built for 93 (E10 I guess?) pump gas. There is non-alcohol available about 12 miles from me and it's kinda unhandy, so I just drive the 2 miles to the little country store and buy the alcohol gas.

My car sits all winter with gas in it and it's never been an issue.
 
RustyRatRod said:
If you drive it enough the gas won't go bad, stick with the 93 ethanol
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For me it's not about gas going bad, it's about the fuel vaporizing in the fuel system and starving the engine on really hot days or when under hood temps go up from ideling in a long drive through line.
 
I don't know if I would spend the extra for non-ethanol or not, but it would be nice to have a choice.
In california, alcohol is not REQUIRED in gasoline, but oxygenated fuel IS, and alcohol is the oxygenation agent of choice, so non-ethanol fuel is effectively illegal in california.
 
So the main difference as I understand it is the ethanol in the fuel. Like triple r was saying it's fine if you drive it all the time and you run it through but letting ethanol set attracts moisture and then that moisture is what does damage to small ports in your carburetor and stuff like that.. and that generally happens if it's left in a place where there's a lot of moisture. If it sits in a dry weather control garage probably not going to have as many issues as if it's outside or in a non-weather control garage... I don't drive my stuff as much as I would like to so I generally tend to put non-ethanol gas in it so I don't have issues. I absolutely use it in all my lawn equipment and stuff because it will sit all winter long in a moist storage shed...
Now as far as my personal experience goes with 11.5: 1 which is pretty close to where I'm at I can run 92 93 octane and it will run fine but it will diesel when it shuts off. If I just add a half gallon of race gas or a gallon of race gas to 5 to 10 gallons of generally non-ethanol 92 I never have any problems.... It tends to like just a little bit more than 91 or 92 I think we get 91 here...
 
Best advice is don’t take the POs advice on tuning as gospel. Do your own testing and come up with your own results. Some engines at 11:1 will run just fine on 91 octane and some won’t. Do some experiments and get familiar with your new engine and come up with your own conclusions on what it likes, needs, or runs best on. There are WAY too many variables for anyone on the internet to suggest an appropriate octane level for your engine without knowing the particular build details of said engine.
 
Dana67Dart said:
For me it's not about gas going bad, it's about the fuel vaporizing in the fuel system and starving the engine on really hot days or when under hood temps go up from ideling in a long drive through line.
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Even a “clear” fuel will vapor lock today. All pump gas blends are designed to work with EFI, so the distillation curve is built for that.

Blocking the heat crossover is a must any more. The fuel doesn’t need all that heat. Keeping engine temperatures at 180 degrees or less is a huge help.
 
44070dart said:
Just bought a Dart with a 11.5 compression 440, 906 heads. Talking with the owner he said at the current distributor advance setting, I should use octane booster while using 93 octane. Street car for most part.

My question is about non ethanol fuel. Use it or don't ? ..also use octane boost with non ethanol or stick with 93 octane ? ........... car is a beast !
Click to expand...
Can you even find non-eth pump fuel with the same octane rating?
When I 've been in areas where it is available, its been lower octane. I tried in my '85 wagon and on the long highway drive the engine pinged on moderate uphills. So there was a case where it did not work out.
You can try racing on Avgas or race fuels. Of course those are generally not sold for street use, so if you accidently still have some in the tank, don't advertise that. You may not get in big trouble but the sellers might.
Race fuels are available both with eth (oxygenated) and without. This may be where its worth discussing your engine with the a rep from the fuel company.
 
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