[sixt9coug]

i was telling a buddy of mine about pinging issues today and about how it might be carbon deposits that are causing this in my cars case. he agreed that its possible and suggested that i try running a few gallons of race gas through my car and see if it makes a difference. he said that in some engines hes taken apart that the ones that ran on race gas didnt develop the deposits like the pump gas ones did. oh yeah.. leaded race gas.... he told me of a place that sells it around here but i forgot what kind he said to get. i think he said VS? it was some two letter combination like that. id like to do something like that as it seems the car will still ping even with mild timing setups. all i run is 91 Octane and i still cant get a decent timing curve out of the damn car. im willing to try this at the moment as i figure i wont hurt anything except my wallet for a lil bit. i dont plan to continually run it, just maybe a few gallons here and there every so often. plausible? any other way to remove teh deposits? i have an extra pair of heads around here that are kinda carbon filled so i do know at least that parts possible. i just want to know how to get rid of it without pulling anything apart. i see crap in the auto parts stores but i dont like alot of thsoe treatments as they never seemd towork for me. lil help?

 

[texrep]

Try some 120 AvGas found at most airports... But be careful...

Just kidding


Don

 

[sixt9coug]

he he he.. strange thing is that i CAN get that... lol... didnt want to frag anything with that stuff though. no idea how to mix it with the gas

 

[texrep]

have you ever tried the ole water down the carb trick???? some of the old school mechs say it works to get rid of some carbon.....
but I can't really say why do you think your all carboned up??

 

[sixt9coug]

you know what... i havent thought of doing that yet... my auto paint teacher said they used to work on hearses and thats what tehy did to get the carbon out of them...... hmmm. he said they unbolted the header pipes held the carb at about 3K and pourred water down teh carb a lil at a time... tehn chunks of crap would come out the pipes ( dont want it in the mufflers.. hence unbolting the pipes ) cant say why i would be carboned up... it was an older persons car before i got it and ive been told alot of city driving will carbon up an engine. hell i dont do alot of freeway driving either.. not till the last few months and even then i still do a hell of alot of citry driving.. less than 5 mile trips ya know? might try the water and carb thing one day and youll see me writing about how i flooded my engine.. literally lol

 

[modifiedmark]

Steve your thinking of VP racing fuels. I got to know about them real well with that 13.8-1, 377 that I had. Very expensive but probably the best stuff. I'd try the water trick but unless a motors carboned up real bad thats not useally the pinging problem. mm

 

[Royce Peterson]

Union 76 sells their race gas at sevice stations throughout Southern California. It is kept in drums and hand pumped into your container. You can also purchase full 55 gallon drums at a discount. I was buying it from the station on Lakewood BLVD abot two miles north of the 91 freeway. It was convenient for me because I went to Mustang Country (also on Lakewood BLVD) at least once a week and could stop for race gas on the way back. I believe the station is in Paramount but very close to the Lakewood city line.

They have 100 octane unleaded which is street legal, 110 octane leaded and 115 octane leaded. Prices last summer were from $4.50 - $5.00 a gallon.

Avgas (commonly available)is called 100LL (Low Lead) but has more lead per gallon than any of the Premium leaded fuel of the 1960's. It is typically around $2.00 a gallon and a bargain. Avgas is much more strictly controlled these days and most FBO's won't sell it to you without having an airplane to put it into as penalties are severe for selling Avgas to anyone except an aircraft operator. That said, Avgas works great in my cars.

My green 427 GTE has something like 11 to one compression and likes either 50 percent 110 race gas or Avgas mixed with a tank of Sunoco 94. The 428CJ seems happy on Sunoco 94 alone if timing is set at factory specs.

 

[greggieatthebat]

Man, Royce, you really do love your Cougars.... driving from KY to Mustang Country in SoCal "at least once a week"....

 

[cougarguy]

its only an hour drive in a gte aint it royce. thats what ya get with one of the fastest cougars made.

 

[Royce Peterson]

No,
I moved to KY last year. Now I have to get race gas at Edgewater Drag strip 25 miles away near Cincinnati, OH. They have VP 110 for $5.00 a gallon.

 

[sixt9coug]

I was buying it from the station on Lakewood BLVD abot two miles north of the 91 freeway. It was convenient for me because I went to Mustang Country (also on Lakewood BLVD) at least once a week and could stop for race gas on the way back. I believe the station is in Paramount but very close to the Lakewood city line.
.

i think that you are confirming the rumors which i have heard of... but two miles north??? more like two blocks i think... the one across from Team C right? if so i know the station. its worth a shot i mean, hell im practically around the corner. well closer than KY at least

 

[sixt9coug]

went to that station today and they have the gas... maybe the big ass banner they have for it out front would have let me know lol. they said $6 a gallon so i think ill get a few whenever i get a 5 gal gas can

 

[Cougrrcj]

Race Gas Cautions!

Racing fuels can cause problems if run in our old classics. Let me share an experience with you about the time we put a couple of gallons of racing fuel into the wife's 70 Mach 1...

We were out for a nice romp in the country, just driving around for a few hours looking at the scenery, when I decided to stop at a gas station that carried racing fuel and add a couple of gallons. Just to top off the tank that was 3/4 full of premium unleaded. Since leaded fuels have been gone for many years here, I thought it would be a treat for her all-stock 11:1 compression 351C-4V car to add a couple gallons of race gas. We didn't get more than ten miles away when the car started running like crap, loading up at traffic lights. We cut short our little trip and headed directly home.

I couldn't find any obvious problems with the car, other than it was running waaaay rich, so I tore into the carb. The race gas must have affected the stock carb float, soaking it and making it heavy, so it wasn't floating properly, that raised the level of fuel in the carb, making it run rich. What I'm trying to say is that the race gas was eating/disolving the stock 'plastic' float! I got a replacement float and all is right with the world. They make brass replacement floats for most carbs, and in fact, most aftermarket carbs have brass floats already, and as such are impervious to 'gas soak' like the plastic foam floats.

Why, you ask?

Race gas contains a high percentage of Toluene, which is more commonly used as paint thinner!. In fact, my one racing buddy from years ago used to run his race cars on straight toluene. He had a 55 gallon drum of the stuff in his garage ! Yikes! I'd hate to have a fire in his garage with that stuff!

Just a word of caution to y'all!

Milo,
Senior Motorhead

 

[kvinmn]

When I was trying to sort out my carburetion problems with 68 KAT over the summer I tried a 50/50 mix of our local race gas (100 Octane). It ran a lot better on it, but I still decided to go to a smaller carb and vac secondaries.

I did notice LOTS of black deposits on the floor of my garage while I was working on the carb switchout. Almost like soot. I am assuming this stuff is carbon. The car has always had at least 92 octane premium.

If it is carbon, and since there is a LOT of it, what can I do to eliminate it? A friend suggested running a can of SeaFoam through it to clean it out...

Ken

 

[Royce Peterson]

Actually race gas contains less toluene than super unleaded. Race gas uses tetraethyl lead for octane improvement. Perhaps you purchased street legal 100 octane super unleaded which does indeed contain lots of toluene and other high zoot ingredients to up the octane but satisfy the EPA.

Modern gasolene also often contains a lot of alchohol which can dissolve old tech rubber hose and floats. I like to use brass floats when rebuilding my Holley carbs, they are the same price. Modern fuel hose is not affected by alchohol or toluene so if you have not replaced all the old hose on your Cougar now might be a great time to do it.

Ernie Spragg, an XR7-G owner in Fresno, CA related the story of how he started using 100 octane unleaded in his car. One day he smelled gas in the house, went out to the garage to find the short connecting piece of rubber fuel hose below the driver seat had dissolved and dumped a full tank of gas on the garage floor. Luckily there was no fire.

 

[Cougrrcj]

Royce,

All of the racing gas we can get around here (even the stuff they sell at the track) is unleaded.

I really didn't want to go with the usual canned octane boosts (most are junk), and I'm a little reluctant to play around with real tetraethyl lead, so I thought that a couple gallons of unleaded racing fuel would help. Well, her car is OK now, but this incident really ruined the wife's confidence level of her Mach.

 

[Royce Peterson]

Holley claims that new parts currently sold by them are not affected by alcohol and toluene based additives. I prefer the leaded stuff anyway, especially considering it is higher octane so less has a greater effect on pump gas.

 

[428elim]

Royce,
I too run Sunoco 94 in my 428CJ and with timing set at stock specs it still pings a little. My local Sunoco station also sells the 110 octane racing gas out of a 55 gallon drum, as there is a dirt track a few miles away. How many gallons of 110 octane mixed with 94 octane in a 20 gallon tank would it take to give around 100 octane total ? I'm assuming there 110 octane is leaded. Thanks.

Barry