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Fuel additive

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Old Aug 7, 2024 | 09:08 AM
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Default Fuel additive

Hello,
The 63 convertible I recently bought has a 68' stock 350 engine with the original 327 intake and carb. I assume being an older engine I should be using the higher octane fuel at Sunoco. Do I also need to add a high octane additive. If so, what's everyone using?
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Aug 7, 2024, 09:27 AM
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You don't need to add anything to the fuel. Use the lowest octane motor fuel which doesn't result in engine knock. Just drive and enjoy the car without overthinking anything.
Old Aug 7, 2024 | 09:27 AM
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You don't need to add anything to the fuel. Use the lowest octane motor fuel which doesn't result in engine knock. Just drive and enjoy the car without overthinking anything.
Old Aug 7, 2024 | 10:02 AM
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Add a bottle of Lucas fuel system cleaner to a full tank and take a four or five hour highway drive at speed. That’s how fuel system additives work. After that just run quality gasoline and you should be fine. A base 350 will perform as well as it can on 91-93 octane. It might run OK on 87 octane but that’s not how I ever did it with any of my Corvettes.

People that use fuel system additives for around town driving are fooling themselves if they “feel” an improvement in power. I sold a lot of additives at the parts store to those believers. Product sales equal store profits.
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Old Aug 7, 2024 | 10:12 AM
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If you do encounter pinging, set the initial timing back 1-2 degrees, then retest. Dennis
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Old Aug 7, 2024 | 01:14 PM
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Originally Posted by jim lockwood
You don't need to add anything to the fuel. Use the lowest octane motor fuel which doesn't result in engine knock. Just drive and enjoy the car without overthinking anything.
Most of the old engines have lost some compression and won't benefit from high grade fuel. Jim is 100% correct, just burn the lowest grade that doesn't knock. Anything more is just making the oil company rich
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Old Aug 7, 2024 | 01:56 PM
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One caveat...I will say that Chevron with Techron does help to keep the fuel system cleaner, as well as, the combustion chamber. Not an additive, per se. I've run Chevron 93 octane with 10% ethanol for years and the cleanliness of the fuel system speaks for itself. JMHO.
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Old Aug 7, 2024 | 02:06 PM
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I’ll add that 93 octane today is equivalent to 98 when these cars were new based on the new average octane formula.
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Old Aug 7, 2024 | 02:12 PM
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Originally Posted by leif.anderson93
One caveat...I will say that Chevron with Techron does help to keep the fuel system cleaner, as well as, the combustion chamber. Not an additive, per se. I've run Chevron 93 octane with 10% ethanol for years and the cleanliness of the fuel system speaks for itself. JMHO.
Yep, I run a tank or two of the 93 just for the additives but you could run regular and add the cleaners yourself...
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Old Aug 8, 2024 | 08:01 PM
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Default Running ethanol-free 92 octane

From what I have read from multiple sources, ethanol can create issues with some of the materials used in older car engines. I searched around my local gas stations and found one that had ethanol-free 92 octane, which is what I run without any additives. All the other stations only had 87 octane ethanol-free, and lower octane gas did result in some knocking. So, I always go higher octane just to be on the safe side.
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