Regular or Premium gasoline ?

[C26Pinelake]

I use regular gas in my Model A's and have never had an issue. Is there any practical reason to use or not to use premium gasoline besides the cost ?
Thanks, Wayne

[huddy]

These engines ran on about 70 octane in the day, so Regular should be just fine. Higher octane fuels are made for high compression engines - they actually burn slower and longer than the lower octane. That said, I buy non-ethanol gas, which only comes as higher octane. I don't think it hurts anything but my wallet.

Bit of trivia - the octane displayed on the pump is not the true octane of the gas. It's the average of the measured octane (which tends to be lower) and the theoretical octane based on the mixture of the fuel's components, hence the "(R+M)/2" shown on the pump.(Actually the R stands for "Research" and the "M" for "Motor" and they are both measured values, but using different standards). Anyway, the PON (pump octane number) is slightly inflated from the actual octane.

[Purdy Swoft]

Not now, it isn't . Back in the day when we had good 100 octane leaded gas, it ran good in my model A's . Timing knocks were mostly non existant with tetraethyl lead in the gas. When they took out the lead, 87 octane run the best for me. Thank goodness that we have a Shell station here that sells unleaded gas without ethanol. The pumps are around back and you have to go inside to pay. This is what I use in my model A's, lawn mower, power saw and weed eater . That ole alky-rub gas will ruin anything that it is left in for any length of time.

[Benson]

Wayne,

The list shows 129 Ontario stations without Crap in their Gas.

As noted above not all grades are "Crap Free"

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=ON

[C26Pinelake]

Originally Posted by Benson

Wayne,

The list shows 129 Ontario stations without Crap in their Gas.

As noted above not all grades are "Crap Free"

http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=ON

Thank you Benson that was very kind of you. The list shows one in the city I live in ( Sarnia ) and one 5 miles away in Corunna. Both stations cater to farm vehicles and guess what, they have a new customer because of you.
Regards, Wayne

Also thanks to Purdy and Huddy

[Mike V. Florida]

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Originally Posted by C26Pinelake

I use regular gas in my Model A's and have never had an issue. Is there any practical reason to use or not to use premium gasoline besides the cost ?
Thanks, Wayne

"hi" octane gas was developed for high compression engines. It actually slows the burning of the fuel to prevent pre-ignition.

this is from Dr. Cathryn Hickeys
Technical Fuels Manager of Shell UK

What is octane rating and how does it effect the running of a car?

The octane rating is a measure of a fuel's resistance to knocking. Knock, also known as 'pinking', occurs during combustion when the fuel-air mixture explodes ahead of the name front rather than burning smoothly, causing a knocking noise. Using a method established in 1929, petrol is rated on a scale of 0 -100, and given a research octane number (RON). In the 1920s petrol had an octane rating of around 50 to 60 RON. Today, 4 Star has a minimum octane rating of 97 RON.

[crock]

I remember "amoco" gas. The white gas that you could burn in the coleman stoves. It was so good, it would even remove carbon.

[1931 flamingo]

Used to get that for my Dad for his lawnmower.
Paul in CT

[bikejunk]

I worked in a Amaco station as a little kid , all the high preformance cars of the era would get half a tank of leaded regular and half of the premium "the lead combines with the regular to make a race mix" dont know if that was true or not but they all did it .

[glenn in camino]

I use regular even in my B engine with a 7-1 Thomas head.

[tbirdtbird]

from theoretical standpoint alone you don't need hi-test until you hit compression of 10:1

But if you can find crappo-free gas in any octane, drink plenty of it while you can.

Thanks, Iowa, for nothing....

[kwisor]

hello all
i was at our club tech meeting last sat on rebuilding the carb. that said in the a it is best not to use ethanol gas. but if you had to the higher the octane the less ethanol in the gas to use the highest octane you can get it get the less ethanol
kevin
1930 model a
1923 model t roadster p/u

[Willie Krash]

When asked at the station what kind of gas I say the cheap stuff. I point out that you can get really dunk, piss in the tank and drive her home. It's very low compression stuff guys.

[JOES31]

With the compression ratio of a standard A or an A with a high compression head there is no reason to use a premium fuel. The reason for premium was for compression ratios over 9.3 to 1 to keep the engine from causing damage do to detonation. Even new cars that say use premium if you use regular the electronics will keep it from detonating. I'll bet that with the compression of an A it would burn kerosene. Premium around here is 92 and regular is 89.

[Purdy Swoft]

It will burn kerosene, it just won't crank on it unless maybe when it is hot.

[Mike V. Florida]

Originally Posted by kwisor

hello all
i was at our club tech meeting last sat on rebuilding the carb. that said in the a it is best not to use ethanol gas. but if you had to the higher the octane the less ethanol in the gas to use the highest octane you can get it get the less ethanol
kevin
1930 model a
1923 model t roadster p/u

Here in Florida, unless it is recreational gas, it is all 10% no matter what octane.

[C26Pinelake]

Obviously if you have a question, you go to the experts for the answer! I did, now I know the answer and I thank each and every one of you.
Have a great Independence Day my friends !
Best regards, Wayne

[Brobrian]

My Grand dad ran his A's on some stolen gas called "Drip gas". It wasn't even refined as gasoline. From what I understand, it was condensation from natural gas pipes running through his Kansas farm land. I too heard that he could run his car on kerosene, though I've never tried it.

[leo]

Hey guys, I'm annoyed! Why is it that you have the option of buying unleaded gas without ethanol? I'm in New Jersey (stop laughing) and I don't know of any station that sells gas without ethanol........

[Elcastor]

You might be right about New Jersey not having any non-ethanol gasoline. See the following web site for a USA list. http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=OR

This list is for Oregon, but you can change it to most any state. NJ not listed!