<VV> RE: Running on regular

[Steven R. Marti]

<snip>
There was a thread last week about how to make a 110 run on regular.  As
some of you know I just bout a 63 Greenbrier with a 65 110 engine.  The
previous owner is a Chevy collector and has a lot of significant Chevy's his
collection including the 63 GB I bought, a 65 CORSA convert and a rampside.
Since most of the time other than the rampside which he uses regularly, they
sit in his hanger or barn, he has de-tuned all of his "show" cars to run on
regular.  

I've been driving the GB off and on for 3 weeks and today I decided to try
to tune it up good enough to pass emissions so I can get it transferred to
my name.  Long term I'm going to go with a Pertronics.  The GB was
completely full of regular when I got it.  Today I put 7 gallons of premium.
I found the timing at 4 deg BTDC.  When I moved it up to 14 deg the engine
smoothed out and and sped up.  After adjusting the idle and everything.  I
took it for a test drive.  A hill that takes me over the Palmer divide which
I couldn't hold 55 before in 4th, I'm now not of the floor and can
accelerate. When going around a 90 deg corner, I now only have to down shift
to third rather than second before.  It is worth it to me to have the GB
properly tuned and not be able to use regular than to drive the slug I was
before today.  Living at 7400' and commuting down to 6300', I can probably
run mid grade.  Towing the pop-up trailer to Buffalo, I'll probably have to
run premium most of the w
 ay.
<snip>

To me this says the "band-aid" or simple back off the timing approach to
running on regular isn't too good.   But if you're building a new street
engine, seems like effective mods should be possible to make an engine that
runs on regular and performs as well or better than OEM.

Steve Marti




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