What Gas?

[Washtubman]

What gas/octane do you guys recommend for the 289 4bbl's? Do I need a lead additive?

[63 R2 Hawk]

Has the motor been rebuilt with hardened valve seats etc? Have the heads ever been resurfaced or milled? How much do you drive it? What are you using in it now? There are few, if any, legal "lead additives" available for street driven cars, there's stuff called "lead substitute" which is really just top oil. I use 100LL avgas when I can afford it or 92 octane non-ethyl gas whenever I can find it and premium ethanol-contaminated pump gas when I'm traveling, since that's usually the only stuff I can get. You may get by with regular or middle grade pump gas if you adjust your timing to where it doesn't "ping".

[Welcome]

What gas/octane do you guys recommend for the 289 4bbl's? Do I need a lead additive?

IF ...you can contact the previous owner, just ask and find out what was being used ...and keep right on using the same thing(s).

[Green 53]

I would think 87 should be ok unless some mods have been made to engine.

Denny L

[Corvanti]

any octane without ethanol would be best! it looks like you have at least one gas station in your area: http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=IN

[Welcome]

any octane without ethanol would be best! it looks like you have at least one gas station in your area: http://pure-gas.org/index.jsp?stateprov=IN

An "update" to that Anderson location states: "No longer sells" ...so now it's on to Option B

[PackardV8]

The Stude with 8.5 compression isn't really finicky about gas. I ran our E10 regular 87 and 89 octane for fifteen years with zero problems to fuel pump, lines or carburetor. There was some exhaust valve recession over that time. So yes, hardened exhaust seats are a good thing on a rebuild.

jack vines

[jnormanh]

You should run only Sunoco 260 . Leave it parked until you find some.

[studegary]

What gas/octane do you guys recommend for the 289 4bbl's? Do I need a lead additive?

I do not think that you can get a good answer without differentiating between a regular/base 289 and an R1/JT/R2/JTS 289.
[If the question is about the car in your picture, then 87-89 octane.]
I would say 87-89 octane for the former and 93 or higher for the later. No lead additive if the engine hasn't been apart for years.

[Washtubman]

Guess 87-89 is what it will be. Not sure what Sunoco 260 is.

[63 R2 Hawk]

Guess 87-89 is what it will be. Not sure what Sunoco 260 is.

Back "in the day", when gas was 34 cents/gal, Sun Oil (Sunoco) had a "dial-a-pump" where you could select the octane rating. It blended something with the gas to raise octane. IIRC, 280 was the highest number, but I don't recall what the octane rating was, probably in the high 90s and the gas was blue tinted- they called it Sunoco Blue. We would buy 2-3 gallons at a time while we were cruisin' the drag, just enough to run outside of town for a quick drag race but not enough to add any weight. Ah, the good old days! I can still smell that stuff in the exhaust, really sweeet smell!!!

[PlainBrownR2]

My parents used to run Sunoco 260 in our '67 Corvette that had the 427 w/Tripower back when gas was that cheap. At 10.25:1 compression ratio, I dunno if I'd call it a requirement, but more like a really strong recommendation to use that kind of fuel for that car. However, since most of ours run in the 7-9 compression ratio range, regular unleaded 87 should do just fine. Thank goodness too, because even though my R2 Lark has gotten by just fine on 87, short of the very distant infield of the Rt. 66 Speedway, I haven't seen a Sunoco station, or a station selling anything that high around here for years.

[avantilover]

Taken from this webpage of Sunoco's website:

http://www.gosunoco.com/quality-fuels/our-fuels/

[avantilover]

From their race fuels website here is a link:

http://w

Fuel Comparison Chart





Displaying 1-20 of 20 result(s).


Name

Leaded

Color

Octane

Research Octane

Motor Octane

Specific Gravity

Oxygen (weight%)

No Yes Under 95 95 to 105 Over 105 Under 95 95 to 105 Over 105 Under 95 95 to 105 Over 105 None 0 to 3 Over 3

260 GT No Not Dyed 100 105 95 0.767 3.3
260 GT Plus No Light Blue 104 110 98 0.762 4.5
260 GTX No Green 98 103 93 0.762 0.0
CF No Not Dyed 96 102 90 0.757 2.7
E85-R No Pale Green 99 104 94 0.790 29.0
FR No Not Dyed 96 102 90 0.767 3.7
GP2R No Not Dyed 94 99 90 0.728 2.7
GP4R No Not Dyed 94 99 90 0.729 2.7
Green E15 No Green 98 104 93 0.742 5.6
MO2X Unleaded No Not Dyed 97 101 93 0.716 2.7
Optima No Teal 95 98 92 0.723 0.0
RMR No Not Dyed 94 100 89 0.759 2.7
SS 100 No Not Dyed 100 104 96 0.715 3.5
EX02 Yes Light Orange 107 114 100 0.750 10.0
HCR Plus Yes Orange 114 118 110 0.739 0.0
Maximal Yes Red 116 118 114 0.708 0.0
MaxNOS Yes Yellow 116 119 113 0.731 0.0
MO2X Leaded Yes Dark Green 112 116 108 0.720 2.7
Standard Yes Purple 110 114 106 0.729 0.0
Supreme
ww.racegas.com/fuel/compare

[52 Ragtop]

Not sure about Anderson, but here in Noblesville on S. 10th street is the Country Co-op, real gas! NO ethanol. If you come down, stop over.

Jim