Hi Guys,
This gasahol thing has caused a lot of confusion, I run standard low grade fuel with an octane booster ("Blendzall", a top end lubricant of castor oil) in my Indian and my Daimler, and they both run fine. I also add stabil to the mix over winter.
There are some very intelligent articles on-line and some very misleading ones, the latter will have you buying stainless valve seats and etc.
The truth is the older engines that we run are - low-compression - so do not generate the pressures and heat that would cause valve problems in a high-compression engine. It wasn't that many years before our ww2-engined vehicles that cars were running on an alcohol and castor oil mix.
During the war both unleaded and leaded fuels were used by the military, the lead being added in very high doses to boost the octane of lower grade fuels to eliminate engine knock, this saved a lot of money and time over actually making high quality fuel for everything to run on.
OK, so you need to understand that while lead does boost the octane level it does so at a cost, that being deterioration of the valve stems from the lead salts, and other issues. Let's not even go into the health issues.
By boosting the octane level of low grade fuel you are actually - slowing - the burn rate. Low octane fuel actually burns a lot faster and tend to produce
engine knock. To put this in layman's terms, low octane produces a fast explosion, whereas high octane produces a slower explosion, the latter being
much better for your engine. Think of the piston being hammered downward with low octane rather than progressively shoved downward as with high
octane. Not everyone has access to avgas so if you use the low octane and add a booster (unleaded) and tune your engine well, she will run fine
Also, methanol has been added to petrol tanks for years to absorb condensation, it readily mixed with the petrol, and while the engine may have
coughed a bit, that nasty rusty water was eventually removed from your tank. Having to clean or replace filters was cheaper than replacing the petrol tank.
Cheers,
Dave
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