I ran 102 octane leaded race gas on my stock 93 SE. The cats had been removed and i wanted to see if the higher octane would make a difference. The car seemed to boost a bit faster. Then i spoke to a guy who said that the lead would eventually damage my motor. I always thought that it could only damage the cats which had been removed? I had no problems never the less in the month or so that i ran the leaded fuel.

 

It's bad on your 02 sensors and will wear them out after awhile.

-Chad

 

well I thougth the lead was in fact beneficial to the engines, giving prolonged lifespans. I thought it was something like what chadwick is meantioning with the O2 sensors or another new electrical sensor that wasn't around when they were using leaded fuel.

 

Where does one go about finding leaded fuel these days? I thought it was totally phased out in the mid 80's. I know you can get lead substitute at most parts stores but as far as genuine leaded fuel... Where is it obtained?

 

it is used in racing alot, go to the drag and you'll find it.

 

I thought leaded gas was discontinued for pollution control?

 

http://www.goestores.com/catalog.aspx?StoreName=highfuelsn&DeptID=169321

Its for "track use" Its absolutely terrible for humans when it gets into the water supply and in the environment. We got rid of it because catalytic converters get destroyed when running leaded fuel. The environment won that battle fortunately.

 

I get 110 octane fuel all the time. Its like 5.00 a gallon right down the street in N.H. The led is good for the motor but bad for the cat and O2 sensors. I run the 110 im my car only when im doing steet racing or going to the track and yes it does make a big difference in hp. It would be ok to run leaded fuel in ur car about every ten tank fulls of regular gas but i wouldn't fill up on it

 

Leaded race fuel kills the o2 sensors. It is especially not nice to the wideband o2 sensors. It will start affecting the dyno sensors after 10h or so. I keep 2 sets of sensors so they don't influence the normal gas / ethanol cars.

 

so whats everyones thoughts on water/meth and 110 race gas.

 

If I am not mistaking the water/meth is for cooling!

 

technically methanol is race gas, if i remember correctly the use it in f1. the main reason for methanol injection is to dramatically cool the intake/exhaust temp since it burns so cool. If you strictly ran on methanol you wouldn't even need an intercooler. due to this methanol also allows you to run more boost safely because it stabilizes pump gas so it takes more pressure/temp to ignite. but even if your not running more boost, you will get a noticable performance/response increase because of the density of the charged air. with a good injection system you should be able to get an almost 15% gain, in some cases more.

However, you must be careful when using methanol especially if this is your primary fuel. due to its extremely low specific gravity, it requires almost twice the fuel by volume than gasoline and then you will need ridiculously large injectors. So injection is perfectly safe as long as it directly injected into each cyl, but if its one of those crappy single injector into the intake charge pipe systems,you'll be safe with stock boost, but i'd make sure you do not try to turn up the boost too much since you have no way of telling how much methanol each cyl is getting.

 

Where does the water come into play? I am correct about water and methanol mixed together as a coolent. You are correct about it as a fuel.

 

water simply acts as a detonation supressor, it makes sure the charge does not self destruct before the plugs let loose.

i believe straight methanol is better overall for your engine, but it requires additional tuning.

 

interesting!

 

The evaporation of the water cools the intake charge, wile the methanol raises your octane rating. Both = knock supression which = you can run more boost, and advanced timing which = yee fuckin' haw!