What fuel do you use in your classic

[Yertis]

You'd think a TR6 with Lucas petrol injection and the original head would be picky about fuel, but it isn't. It always starts first twist, even if laid up for a couple of months, and apart from a hint of pinking if labouring it runs beautifully. The only problem I encounter which might be down to modern fuel is a tendency for fuel to vapourise in the high pressure injector lines when it's been parked in the sun on hot days, with consequent lumpy running. And the easiest cure for this is to drive flat out for a few minutes.

[Riley Blue]

My Riley 1.5 is the same. After over wintering in its garage, sometimes from October to April, it'll always start and run using the fuel in its tank which is most often Tesco Momentum.

[Poisson96]

Riley Blue said:

In your Minor? Difficult to believe a tankful of Tesco fuel could do that. I'll ask my mates who have Minors what they use when I see them next month.

I have the numbers, and it is a standard route I travel a fair bit so I can compare and contrast (Hilly back route between Sheffield and Alton Towers)

[Riley Blue]

Poisson96 said:

Riley Blue said:

In your Minor? Difficult to believe a tankful of Tesco fuel could do that. I'll ask my mates who have Minors what they use when I see them next month.

I have the numbers, and it is a standard route I travel a fair bit so I can compare and contrast (Hilly back route between Sheffield and Alton Towers)

That's about a 45-50 miles which I would have thought a bit short to come to that conclusion. I'm genuinely intrigued as I've never found a change of fuel can lead to such a colossal mpg variation. My second car was a Minor Traveller and it returned mid 30s no matter what it was fed.

[56Lotus]

I run my Coventry Climax FWA on anything I can find; however I do always use Castrol Valvemaster plus. Never had any running problems and it's always started well after a winter rest. I use Valvemaster after watching a Porsche 917 being refueled at Goodwood FOS and having a quick chat to the mechanic in charge. No idea whether it makes any difference in my engine but it makes me feel like I'm doing something! I'm a bit skeptical about the advantages of the more premium fuels but then I'm too tight to pay for them!

Jon

[TooMany2cvs]

Riley Blue said:

Poisson96 said:

Riley Blue said:

In your Minor? Difficult to believe a tankful of Tesco fuel could do that. I'll ask my mates who have Minors what they use when I see them next month.

I have the numbers, and it is a standard route I travel a fair bit so I can compare and contrast (Hilly back route between Sheffield and Alton Towers)

That's about a 45-50 miles which I would have thought a bit short to come to that conclusion. I'm genuinely intrigued as I've never found a change of fuel can lead to such a colossal mpg variation. My second car was a Minor Traveller and it returned mid 30s no matter what it was fed.

I'd have thought it physically impossible for a car to use three times the amount of fuel to do the same work, and still be actually running.

[imagineifyeswill]

I have commented many times on these sort of threads and said its total nonsence all the fuel used in this country comes out of Milford Haven, Ellsmere Port or Grangemouth no matter where its been sold and I use supermarket fuel all the time. The only exception I would make to this was that I had a L/R Freelander that would do twice the mpg on BP fuel than on Morrisons fuel.

[TooMany2cvs]

imagineifyeswill said:

I have commented many times on these sort of threads and said its total nonsence all the fuel used in this country comes out of Milford Haven, Ellsmere Port or Grangemouth no matter where its been sold and I use supermarket fuel all the time. The only exception I would make to this was that I had a L/R Freelander that would do twice the mpg on BP fuel than on Morrisons fuel.

Twice the mpg.
It used half the fuel...

bks. Big fat hairy bks.

[grumpy52]

Many older cars were designed to run on the old four star ,not the weasel pish 95 octane sold today .
It's the octane that makes the biggest difference.

[dpp]

Thanks for all the replies although the varying opinions doesnt shed any more light on this dilema, my experiance with my Vauxhall 2300s is that it runs on when the ignition is switched off if i use supermarket fuel but is fine on Shell V max.

I also do my best to use Shell V max in my Interceptor as i do feel it runs better.

As for the Castrol Valvemaster i use this in any car which has not had hardend valve seats fitted, i have no evidence whether this actually does anything but for the few extra quid it could save engine damage.

[TooMany2cvs]

dpp said:

Thanks for all the replies although the varying opinions doesnt shed any more light on this dilema, my experiance with my Vauxhall 2300s is that it runs on when the ignition is switched off if i use supermarket fuel but is fine on Shell V max.

Octane, rather than brand. You're just not hearing it pinking - probably because it's not being used very hard.

[RodUK]

I read somewhere that BP Optimax is the only fuel that does not contain ethanol, so I always use that. I leave it with a full tank to minimise corrosion. Seems to drive the same whatever the fuel (only 43k miles since1958)!

[TooMany2cvs]

RodUK said:

I read somewhere that BP Optimax is the only fuel that does not contain ethanol

Nope - any and every pump fuel is very likely to be 5%. There's been rumours about various brands at various times, but you really can't say anything for sure about any - other than "Up to 5%".

[droopsnoot]

dpp said:

Thanks for all the replies although the varying opinions doesnt shed any more light on this dilema, my experiance with my Vauxhall 2300s is that it runs on when the ignition is switched off if i use supermarket fuel but is fine on Shell V max.

I haven't had that - the only issue I have is that it can need a bit of accelerator to get it to start when hot. Although my engine is basically the same as yours, it does have Dellorto carbs on (which were on it when I bought it) so maybe that's the difference.

I haven't been using Valvemaster or anything similar. I figure that I'll keep an eye on whether I need to adjust the tappets to take up valve seat wear, and if they start to wear, I'll have them done at that point. I did have a bottle of one product that I was using when doing a longer run, but I haven't done any of those this year.

[anonymous-user]

I actually use anything except shell v max, I find that when the car stands petrol evaporates and with v max I get a red plastic residue that blocks carbs, injection is ok as there is enough pressure in the fuel system, but on my Lotus with webbers it is a huge problem, OK I live in the tropics and fuel evaporation in the float chambers is an issue.

[//j17]

Usually run my Spitfire on BP Ultimate or 97...but can't say I've noticed much impact recently when I've been in France and the only options were running out or using 95.

Usually run my sheddy 2.5S on 95 and refuses to die.

grumpy52 said:

Many older cars were designed to run on the old four star ,not the weasel pish 95 octane sold today .
It's the octane that makes the biggest difference.

A number of the sportier classics like Yertis' TR6 would actually have been designed to run on five star, not weasle pish four star!

[TooMany2cvs]

//j17 said:

Usually run my Spitfire on BP Ultimate or 97...but can't say I've noticed much impact recently when I've been in France and the only options were running out or using 95.

I've consistently noticed that cars that are just fine on 95 in the UK pink and run-on on 95 in France - but it's not a great issue, because the availability of 97/98 is greater, and the price difference is smaller...

[Lowtimer]

Esso 97 octane for choice, V-Power if I can't get it, on my tuned Porsche 944 Turbo and early-model R129 Mercedes 500SL.

The Esso super unleaded from my local garage tests as being ethanol-free, which is why I like it.

[grumpy52]

TooMany2cvs said:

//j17 said:

Usually run my Spitfire on BP Ultimate or 97...but can't say I've noticed much impact recently when I've been in France and the only options were running out or using 95.

I've consistently noticed that cars that are just fine on 95 in the UK pink and run-on on 95 in France - but it's not a great issue, because the availability of 97/98 is greater, and the price difference is smaller...

Most of the race circuits had 105 octane available at the pumps ,is this still so ?

[lowdrag]

Living in France I only use supermarket petrol in all the cars, but then I did the same when living in the UK. The E-type runs on 95, the XKSS on 98 but since it is a modified engine I've never tried it on 95. It might work just as well, I don't know.