Gasoline's in the Whizzer

[dmaddox]

hello again. As mentioned in another post, I have a 1999 Whizzer. I have some left over aviation fuel and race gas. The aviation fuel is 100-105 octane and the race gas is 110. The aviation fuel has a little lead in it - not much at all, but the race fuel does have lead in it. How much, I don't know.

Can I run the aviation gas in the WC-1? I am at 7000 feet altitude in cool Colorado Springs.

Just curious.

Dallas

[bill green]

Howdy If i was you I would post this queston to Quention ,He would probably giveyou the best answer. Bill Green Vancouver Whizzer

[gone_fishin]

hi dmaddox...if you're gonna hang out, head up to "introduce yourself" and say howdy to the group...it's polite & it's policy

guenther will find this & most likely have an answer for you...i'm diggin' that the whizzer crowd is growing, & i'm learning a lot about 'em, too

[HoughMade]

I don't see why not.

Lead was removed from gasoline due to emissions- both as a contaminant and because it fouled the catalytic converters- neither of those is an issue.

As for the octane, do not expect better performance. Ironically, the higher you altitude, the lower the atmospheric pressure and the less likely an engine is to detonate. This means lower octane can safely be run as higher elevations.

However, because you will not be increasing your compression ratio (I assume) the increased octane will not help- what race gas or even aviation fuel allow (because of higher octane) is a higher cylinder pressures and the ability to advance the timing without fear of detonation. You engine was designed for standard octane and will not detonate on it. Add to that the lower atmospheric pressure and detonation is probably not even possible. The only way to realize any benefit from the higher octane is to increase cyliner pressures with an increased compression ratio or forced induction.

You may even run into problems running the higher octane gas, not because of lead, but because it may not ignite as readily as lower octane, especially at higher elevations- but that is the entire purpose of higher octane.

If it were me, I'd save the fancy stuff for an engine that could use it.

[Quenton Guenther]

I agree with HoughMade. My tests have shown the WC-1 motor runs much worse on higher octane. The stock motor @ 85 pounds just lacks the needed compression ratio to ignite the "race" fuel. You must raise the compression to at least 160 pounds to take advantage of high octane fuel. I use regular gas in all my motors including the modified motors with high compression ratios. Once again I wouldn't push the WC-1 motor too far, but look into upgrading to durable NE setup.
Quenton