What do people do for gasoline for vintage muscle cars?

[Rich Engelhardt]

The other thread about ethanol free gas got me wondering about what people feed to their vintage V8's.
With regular and hi test leaded gas gone, what is there that can go in the tank & still deliver the performance?

[Dave Lehnert]

I know next to nothing about vintage cars but hang around guys who restore and race them.
They talk about using "Turbo Blue" Use to have a gas station here in town that sold it. Know it was expensive.
Like I said I know nothing about it so do some research on your own.

http://www.turboblue.com/

[Jim Becker]

If you're going to use a vintage vehicle that "really prefers" old style gas, about the best you can do is to find "pure" gasoline that doesn't have Ethanol in it. A lot of that is high octane and used "today" for marine and small engine use. There are places out there in many geographies that sell it. It's not necessarily inexpensive, but. Perhaps there's an additive to, um...add to it...that will take the place of what the lead used to do for lubrication, etc...but I haven't looked into that personally.

[George Bokros]

If you are rebuilding the heads the best thing to do is put in hardened valve seats. Bardhal used to sell a lead substitute but I have not seen that in years. Red Line, Motor Medic, Lucas Oil all make substitutes these days. They are marketed for off road use only but who knows what your add to your gas tank anyway.

[Marc Jeske]

Maybe some help here, lotta members w those kind of vehicles....

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/...rchid=36725139

Marc

[Pat Barry]

Premium unleaded.

[Scott DelPorte]

There are a few gas stations around me that sell “pure”, or ethanol free gas that I use on my old car. It is 91 octane but not leaded. You can find lead substitute in auto stores that gets used as an an additive, but my mechanic who works on vintage cars says it’s really not necessary if valves are kept properly adjusted. One thing worth noting, the tune up and adjustment intervals on old engines is typically much shorter than what we’re used to on new ones

[Bruce Wrenn]

For ethanol free gas, go to "puregas.com." You will find thousands of places that sell ethanol free gasoline. In our town we have two places that I know of that sell it. Most likely the stores out by the lake also sell it.

[Ruperto Mendiones]

What about 100ll aviation gasoline? There is at least some lead in it.

[John Ziebron]

Most automakers started using hardened valve seats in the early 70s to accommodate unleaded gas. You can still buy lead substitutes for your vintage vehicle but it is really unnecessary unless you use it a lot, like several thousand miles a year.

A lot of folks don't realize, and some probably don't remember, that the lead in gas also increased octane and that regular and premium octane numbers at the pump actually showed lower numbers than today. The biggest issue with low octane is pre-detonation. With the advent of fuel injection and computerized control of engines pre-detonation issues were solved with sensors that told the computer to back off on the advance timing of the engine. That's why even in a modern high performance car today if you use a low octane gas you will not get any pre-detonation, just not the power as with a higher octane gas.

Friends I know today that have older high performance vehicles that only occasionally drive them don't worry about lead, just octane. It's rare to find a gas station that has a higher than average octane pump so a lot of guys go to small airports and buy their gas (airplane engines need much higher octane than cars). And some of those octane levels are high enough that they will do a 50/50 mix to save money.

[Rich Engelhardt]

After following up on some of the information above, I found out that Sunoco makes a racing fuel - some of it leaded.

Thanks for the tips & steering me in the right direction!

[Gary Muto]

What about 100ll aviation gasoline? There is at least some lead in it.

I used to use 100 Octane Low Lead Aviation fuel. I was told it had more lead than what used to be put in road fuel. I'm not sure about that. I do know taht it would evaporate quickly if spilled so it may have some other "stuff" in it too. deiceers??

[Harry Hagan]

What about 100ll aviation gasoline? There is at least some lead in it.

That's what I used in my cars when leaded gas was discontinued.

[Curt Harms]

What about 100ll aviation gasoline? There is at least some lead in it.

There's quite a bit of lead in it, low is a relative term. The industry is working on a lead free aviation gasoline but it hasn't been easy finding something that won't damage gaskets and other fuel system parts from the 1940s, 50s etc.

[Mike Hollingsworth]

I've found no issues with unleaded fuel in old low compression (pre 50s) engines.
But when it's time for a valve job, in go the hardened seats.
my $.02