<VV> Milled head tech tip (per CORSA Tech Guide)

[airvair]

All,

This spring I finished installing a freshly rebuilt 110 manual trans
engine in one of my cars. The engine was expertly rebuilt by master
mechanic Mike McKeel, using heads and pistons that were modified by
Warren LeVeque. The mods were limited to milling the gasket "step" out
of the heads (while Mike deflashed them), and octane cutting the pistons
opposite the open area to compensate for the milled heads. Otherwise, it
was a stock rebuild (including stock bore.) Part of the purpose of this
was to see if a 110 could be run on regular, as indicated in the CORSA
Tech Guide.

I have now put about 1000 miles on the engine, and here's what I've
concluded so far. I started running it on regular, and while it seemed
to run ok, there was slight detonation on heavy throttle, etc. Really
not too much that I probably couldn't have backed off the timing a
little and been fine. BUT it began to diesel terribly upon shutdown.
>From talking about, it seems that ALL gasoline has been changed as of
June of this year, by adding some alcohol. The result is that upon
shutdown, unlike fuel injected cars that also shut off the fuel, the
alcohol makes a carburatored engine sit there and keep cranking, sucking
gas into itself as it keeps dieseling on and on.

While it's still too early to tell if the head mods will improve
effeciency (and gas milage), I'd have to say that the Tech Guide needs
to be amended so as to discount the switch to regular gas. Maybe it
worked before, but not now.

BTW, the first tankfulls seemed to only get around 22 mpg, but the last
one got 24.3 mpg. So maybe after a few thousand more miles, I should see
even better milage. For sake of comparison, I have been able to pull
26.5 mpg out of my 110 automatic convertable while running the a/c and
cruising at 70mph. I'll have to see what this 110 manual gets up to.

-Mark