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Thread: octane ?

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    Member barryTA's Avatar
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    octane ?

    i just moved to AZ from NY 5 months ago and the highest octane at the pumps is 91 my car has bin running on 94 for its whole life and now with the alt. 3,000 ft. and 115 degrees out side my car is giving my the i was wondering if i could mix some race fuel with the 91 to get the octane up to around 95-96. if so what kind of race fuel should i use and what mix 50-50 ex, THANKS GUYS!!

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    old timer blue02Z's Avatar
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    are you sure it is the octane? it should not make that much of a difference. is your car detonating? it is prolly the altitude, you lose 3% for every 1000 feet you go up, so you are down an extra 15% from sea level. i am up here for school and i went from 800 feet to 7300 feet. my car runs like shit now

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    Member barryTA's Avatar
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    yea its detonating when its realy hot and i all ready got it tuned here and its still pinging a little but its all 3 combind
    91 octane, 3,000alt and 115 deg. dosent help ether.

    ANYBODY ?

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    old timer blue02Z's Avatar
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    maybe mixing will help ya, i dont have much experience in it, you gotta make sure its done right. stock up on some good octane booster-maybe that i'll help

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    Veteran Firebirdjones's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by barryTA View Post
    yea its detonating when its realy hot and i all ready got it tuned here and its still pinging a little but its all 3 combind
    91 octane, 3,000alt and 115 deg. dosent help ether.

    ANYBODY ?
    You are correct. I am getting ready to experience the same thing,,,as we are currently in Ohio and I have bought 94 octane for the last 30 years. We are getting ready to move to Prescott Arizona at 5,100 feet up,,,,and only 91 octane,,,,,I will have to tune all the cars all over again for sure.

    Arizona uses the same reformulated gas that California uses unfortunately.

    The high ambient temps are not helping you either as you pointed out. Keeping the engine as cool as possible is one way to battle that,,,cooler thermostats, lower fan settings, maybe coolant additive may help like water wetter????

    But tuning is going to be your best friend now.

    Higher altitude means the car will want less fuel,,,,and probably have to lower the timing a pinch as well since octane is now suffering.

    You can mix higher octane race gas if thats what you prefer,,,but if it's leaded it may play havic with the 02 sensors. If you can find high octane unleaded that would work,,,,but at close to $5.00 a gallon or maybe more,,,,it's hardly worth the trouble to me unless you are going to fill the tank with it.

    Best bet would be to keep playing with the tune until the car is happy on that octane level, temperature, and altitude. It may take a while.

    You will notice at these higher altitudes and temps your car won't run the times it used to run at or near sea level.
    Although the only quarter mile tracks I am aware of are just outside Phoenix,,,,which isn't that high in elevation really.

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    Member barryTA's Avatar
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    yea i put a new 180 thermostat my water pump started leaking so im ordering a new one and im going to drain the cooling system and fill it with 3 bottles of weter water
    a splash of antifreeze and the rest with water. i just sent VP race fuel a E-mail to find out what fuel i can use to mix and how much to get 95-96 octane,what a pain in the @ss

  7. #7
    Veteran Firebirdjones's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by barryTA View Post
    yea i put a new 180 thermostat my water pump started leaking so im ordering a new one and im going to drain the cooling system and fill it with 3 bottles of weter water
    a splash of antifreeze and the rest with water. i just sent VP race fuel a E-mail to find out what fuel i can use to mix and how much to get 95-96 octane,what a pain in the @ss
    Ya mixing fuel would be a pain for a daily driven car,,,something I wouldn't be willing to do considering I fill up twice a week sometimes,,,that would be a total pain.

    Considering Arizona, I've driven around there alot the last 2 years and I cannot recall any station selling racing/high octane fuel anywhere...
    Finding it would be another challenge I think.

    Or buying a 55 gallon drum of it to keep at the house,,,still a pain though.

    I still think your best option would be to play with the tune some more. It's capable of running at high altitudes on 91 octane if the tune is right.

    There are guys on here racing in Colorado at 7,000 feet (yikes) only difference is the times are a little slower for obvious reasons,,,(less air for one)

    I'm curious though,,,you say your car is pinging,,,,,are you talking about audible ping or do you have a scanner on the car and seeing timing pulled????

    If it's audible I would say you have some serious timing issues or fuel issues going on,,,because these cars can pull some serious timing out with the knock sensors before you can even hear it,,,know what I mean.

    Then again since you have had some tuning, your sensors could have been desensitized, or knock retard tables may have been altered to pull only a little timing,,,,it's hard to say....

    Can you scan it while driving and see whats going on???

  8. #8
    Member barryTA's Avatar
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    no i cant scan while driving i dont have the software. and i dont mind mixing the gas the car only gets used a few times a week so no big deal, besides im not happy with my rwhp since i moved here i dynoed in the summer 108
    degrees i lost almost 30 rwhp i need to get some back and i dont wont to retard the timing anymore.

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