Dublin

It's bad enough trying to find high octane leaded fuel for my 70 Chevelle to run decent. And now with more gas stations converting to ethanol blends I'm not looking forward to replacing my injectors in my 4Runner any time soon. What are my options? Are there replacement injectors that will retrofit. What about the way the ECU handles the mix, I ran it once (because there were no other options in Milwaukee) and my truck not only seemed to run worse but the bottom dropped out on my already poor MPG (used 1 tank of gas in 110 miles). Looking for suggestions, Thanks.

ozziesironmanoffroad

i doubt it. . chevelles are awesome. i think the ethanol blends are stupid, those should be like diesel: offered at some gas stations, but not the ONLY THING at gas stations. amazingly, ive only seen one ethanol station out here. though consider this: if you wanted to play gas scientist, regular unleaded contains up to 10% ethanol. if you could find a cheap easy way to drop the ethanol blend down to regular unleaded, that would be perfect for your chevy.

MMA_Alex

No i think he's having issues with the 10% ethanol crap. what happened to the good ol' days of MTBE?

Dublin

ozziesironmanoffroad, just edited the post ( for the 4Runner) ,the Chevelle will not run well on regular unleaded, nasty pinging and decreased valve train lubrication. The car was designed for leaded, the truck was designed for unleaded.

ozziesironmanoffroad

for leaded, you use the lead supplement, right?

crolison

go to a local airport and buy low lead airplane fuel.

Dublin

Yah I use a leaded racing fuel/ premium unleaded mix for the fuel hungry big block, as for airplane fuel if they would sell it to me I'd buy it. Airplane fuel is about 100 percent octane, where the racing fuel is at 114 (thus the reason for the mix, "to bring the octane down a bit"). The lead additives started disappearing about 10 yrs. ago and still an octane booster was needed. For some reason the 454 seems so much happier at about the 98 octane range. So much for being GREEN. But back to the issue at hand, what can be done with ethanol to help save my 4Runner from early demise.

MMA_Alex

octane isnt a percent...and avgas octane is different from regular car octane. Oh, and the US is phasing out the regular lead stuff, and going to the low lead stuff only so I doubt that'd help that much

There are commercial lead substitutes, and octane boosters available at most autoparts stores...

the runner should be fine with the ethanol crap, its just stuff with older rubber parts tend to disolve.

MMA_Alex

double post

skife

propane


125 octane, if it was pinging, it won't anymore.

Dublin

My bad on the percent, must have been thinking of blend percentages instead of "rating". As for the AV fuel even if it was the same type octane I don't think they would or can sell it for a motor vehicle. I've seen the lead substitutes, but that brings me back to adding, adding, adding. As long as I can get racing fuel I'm happy for now, I have heard about racing fuel going to lower lead but I don't think that will happen too soon. As far as the 4Runner the mechanic told me a few years back "don't use the newer blended gas, you'll need to replace the injectors and seals and forget what little gas mileage you get now". So are they blowing smoke up my_____ or not?

MMA_Alex

you're talking about the 10% stuff the runner is fine. e85 you'll get a power loss because the computer isnt set up to burn it, but it should run. Might do some damage to o-rings, etc over long periods of time with the e85, but the 10% stuff is fine with everything 80's and up pretty much.

where do you get racing fuel for it? all the racing fuel i see is like 4x the price of normal gas (thats the 112 octane stuff if i remember right)

FredTJ

Show us a place that makes a propane conversion for an injected engine.

Actually E85 is pretty high octane.

You saying that there are gas stations that are ONLY selling E85 ?
I find that more than hard to believe.



Fred

Dublin

It was about $9.75 per gal last time, won't be getting any until spring again. There's a couple dozen gas stations/depots in a 20 mile radius of where I live. I usually go to Dale WI a bit cheaper there. The e85 is what worries me, seems to be rapidly growing here and I remember how quickly the leaded was phased out. In my area it disappeared in the 80's and then I had a 45 mile commute to fill my tank with leaded premium until mid 90 ( I only get 12 mpg, the price you pay for 525 HP Detroit steel). History generally repeats it's self.

MMA_Alex

I figure it'll be awhile before e85 is fully fazed in due to the shortage of ethanol and corn, and the fact that ethanol is actually more expensive than gas right now due to the high demand.

e85 is a midwest thing as far as I know, and I've yet to see a station anywhere in the northeast that sells e85

FredTJ

You won't be seeing tons of gas stations selling ONLY E85 anytime soon, so it's not a worry.




Fred

FredTJ

We can buy it here in Southern Arizona.
It will be years, maybe never, before it's the ONLY thing that you can buy.
Probably never.



Fred

MMA_Alex

i'd go with never, because of the sheer amount of corn we'd need. guess we'll turn mars into a corn colony so we can all drive cars here on earth lol

Targetnut

When they switched from leaded to unleaded fuel there was nothing really to hold it back. Anything that would run on leaded would run on unleaded, (albeit with consequences)

with E85 you can't just throw in a tank full and drive away,
it requires reprogramming the fuel and ignition maps.

Obviously there are some vehicles available that can do that on the fly. But not our trucks, and certainly not an old Chevy.

There is an aftermarket engine management system called Megasquirt that can be programmed to utilize a GM flexfuel sensor and set up to be flexfuel.

One problem however is that it is illegal to put anything other than unleaded fuel in a vehicle that is labled as an unleaded fuel only vehicle.

It would be nice to think that the federal government,
in an attempt to increase E85 use and reduce foreign oil dependence


, would make it easy for an individual to get their vehicle flex fuel or alternative fuel certified.

But I'm not holding my breath

bob200587

All so we can stop putting out a gas that isn't even a pollutant....