I run Phillups 66 B33 racing fuel 120 Octane $9.50 a Gal.

 

Our Union 76 110 at the track is only 4.50/gal

 

>Thomasr -
>
>What other mods are you going to do, or have done? I
>recently put an MSD4 on my 302 in my Explorer. I also have
>an Eaton M90 supercharger, 80mm mass air, 24lb injectors,
>etc. The MSD4 is designed for distributorless ignition. I
>still run the Motorcraft platinum plugs, but raised the gap
>.01. My stock gap was .052 to .056. I raised it to .063,
>and it runs great. If all you are doing is the MSD6, then
>you should be fine at either stock gap, or raised .002. You
>will be running a stronger spark, but still the same amount
>of fuel and air mixture.
>
>Hope this helps...

Thanks Cobra...any info helps. About the only mods I'm running (if you can call them mods) are a K&N air filter in an open element system, and a two cat system minus the rear cat and a Flowmaster-40 twinned out the back. Planned mods are a super chip, free flow rear cat and no muffler. Still debating headers. I've heard so much concerning type and gap of the plugs, that I've just decided to start out with FORD OEM plugs gapped .006 over for a total gap of 0.050. I'll see how that works out an let you know.
Just a little bit at a time.....

 

Heck I can get 110 octane here for $3.00 a gal.but octane is just like Horsepower it's easy to get 110 or even 112 but when you ask for 120 or better you have to pay the big bucks to get it.And I don't think my motors would run to well on 110 or 112. But I should try a test to see just how low of octane I could run at 14.5 to 1.

Anyone have any Ideia's on how low I can go ....

 

I don't know if if anyone has tried this yet or not but I've been told that even just using a different piston (specially designed and spendy more than likely) can increase your compression ratio. Just a thought about that.

Also had two questions if you guys have a second. First question was, anyone know how much I can safely mill (think thats what its called) on a stock 2.3L ('96 Ranger) to increase the compression ratio?

And with all this talk about racing fuel, octane 120, was wondering if a person went to like NAPA or some place and got the octane 104 addative, is that all the higher the octane level will go is to 104 or if they run a higher concentration of it compared to the gas, will the octane level be higher?

Okay, last question. Hehe. My engine ('96 Ranger 2.3L) is stock right now but plan on doing a lot of things to it such as stroke crank to 2.85L, pistons (going to bore {hone, whatever its called} the cylinders about 0.030 or even 0.040 if can be done safely and effectively), reworked rods, roller cam, valves, rockers, cooling system, etc. There are some things that will probably get done before or after I change these things like a cold air intake, headers, free-flow (or some kind of high performance) catalytic converter, Flowmaster Delta muffler and things like that. But my question is at what point am I going to probably need bigger fuel injectors, or will I? And from the sounds of things going to need to step up to a higher octane compared to the 87 that Ford recommends for this stock engine.

Thank you for any information you guys. Have a great day and weekend.

James

 

Gee I don't really know how the 104 octane booster works, other then you add it to your tank before you fill up. but I don't think you'll make over 104 octane even if you use 93 pump gas.But let's say just for the heck of it one little bottle will raise the octane 5 points for a 20 gal. tank. How many little bottles will it take to make 20 gal. of 120 octane. and then what's the cost ?????

 

Yeah, beats me how it all works. Hey just out of curiousity, where in the world does one get some 120 octane fuel?

James

 

The airport. I have gone to a local airport and bought 116 octane there. I used to go by there on Friday afternoon's before going out.

 

The 104+ only raises it a couple of points anyway, HOT ROD did a shootout test to see the effect of octane in gasoline. The outcome was, pump gas made the best power at 36 degrees TOTAL (slik), and 93 only gained one or two HP out of maybe 350-400 HP engine, whatever it was. The point is, find out what timing the engine likes, and run the cheapest fuel you can that won't detonate. They tested the effect of the 104+, and it enabled the 87 grade to take 38 degrees total advance before detonation, as opposed to 36 degrees.

Before you start drafting your rebuttals, the point is, that MON (Motor Octane Number), or minimum octane requirement is not rated at all by static compression, instead it is dynamic comression, measured in psi, as performed with a simple device that plugs into a spark plug hole. find the peak pressure, then reference a chart. From memory, usually greater that 180 psi requires special fuel, even 93 can't resist preignition at that pressure.

Dynamic compression brings us an entirely different debate, I encourage you to look back into my posting (it's the last posting) on the topic of "Dynamic Compression" in this forum. There's a good chance that if you have a 14:1 race motor, you have a nasty-duration cam (greater than 300 deg. seat-to-seat) to bleed off most of your cylinder pressure, therefore your fuel specs are not as difficult to meet as you may have thought, but again, it does depend on your timing. NHRA guys give thier sleds 60 degrees of spark lead, but they are running insane piston velocity, and NitroMethane fuel ($60/gallon), which has different burn properties than does gasoline.

I'll say one last thing, and that's about race fuel. The HOT ROD magazine showdown did one last run, with special race fuel, I don't remember the octane, but I beleive it was around 112. The race fuel made the most power at only 32 degrees total. It was the only fuel that actauly liked less timing, or at least less than 36 degrees. The power stood above the rest, it was about a 5 HP increase, and actually liked less timing. This is accredited to the race fuel's superior hydrocarbon chemistry. yeah, you could maybe make 112 octane with enough bottles of 104+, but the race fuel is free of additives, it's better fuel all around, and has superior chemistry. Octane rating is nothing but resistance to burn, and has nothing to do with chemically stored energy, which is definately not a topic appropriate for this forum, but I'll just tell you that race fuel has a lot more than pump gas.

By the way, I've been absent for a while, been turning wrenches on my own project, and I'll post pics in my gallery whenever I can figure out how. The pics with those Accel wires are real old!
Happy wrenching,
John F. Daly III,
The TorqueKing

 

Thanks for the highlight...I read that Hot Rod article also and was amazed that hp went up with the octane at the same timing...I didn't think the octane rating would make that much of a difference...it was real interesting watching the dyno sheets and seeing that the higher octane race gas liked the lower timing...we mix 93 pump and 110 race fuel at the track...wish I had a dyno to check it out though...we're running 38 total...say, isn't race gas leaded also???? Seems like I was told it would eventually mess up a normal O2 sensor because of the lead content???

 

Hey just out of curiousity, where in the world does one get some 120 octane fuel?
James

Well James I go to the local Gasoline Wholesaler which happens to be the Phillups 66 Dist.He carries several types of racing fuels. And I pick up a 55 gal. drum of B33 racing fuel. they also have 5 differant blends of B fuels, Along with Cam2 and Turbo Blue. everything from 98 to 120 octane.
And yes you can go to the airport to get some avey fuel..

ShaZam

 

Race gas used to be leaded, I'm sure you may remember Sonoco 108, my dad tells me they used to sell that at gas stations for 25 cents/gallon. Why wasn't I driving then? Lead has an adverse effect on O2 sensors, and lastly, the enviroment (you can count my tears by the gallon). Modern gasoline is more powerful, they added lead as an upper engine lubricant, and for the fact that it would increase the octane rating. Modern unleaded race fuel with identical octane rating as leaded fuel will like less timing, and yeild more power. This is accredited to our knowledge of purifying petrolium, which unlike OEM engines, actually has gotten better over the years. We are now purifying gasoline with much greater stored chemical energy, which, when ignited at the right time, will break down it's energy state very violently, quickly, and will actually break down into a lower state of energy. This is why it burns cleaner. Technology is increasing the ability of hot rodders to get along with environmentalist, which is a sad reality of the future of our hobby. Ok, I'm a Civil Engineer, I'll never actually get along with them due to my reasons within my own profession, but at least they can admit that sometimes the products that we use (MSD ignitions, 93 octane fuel, 120 octne race gas, more powerful and effiecient carburetors, etc.) are least in some way helping out thier sick, twisted goals as well.

John F. Daly III
The TorqueKing

 

It's in!!! I completed my MSD 6A install. Not a tuff task at all but I did run into a few minor "things that make you go hmmm" situations. But, I'm attempting to capture the whole process in an article I'm writing as per Ken's request in the general conversation forum. I pretty much have the write-up finsished, now I just need to down-size my digital pictures some...took them all on high-resolution...each one is almost a meg...they look really good though!!
Just in order to peak your interest, the MSD 6A? I like it! I like it a lot!
Stand by for news...
REX

 

Congratulations, Thomas, I know the feeling. You'll really love the high RPM performance you;ll get, and the gas milage.
The TorqueKing