Buddy has a s-10 he's wanting to run Aviation fuel in. Low lead, 100 octane fuel. I keep telling him VP would be better but he thinks airplane fuel will destroy his engine. Any thoughts/opinions?

 

Lead would probably run through it. although it would destroy the O2's and the cat. Any amount... Other than that any fuel should work to a point i would think.... well minus Nitro Fuel.. that might be a little much for a standard car lol

 

all forged 327, custom cam, custom headers, brownfield heads, no emissions, 1.6 roller rockers, its pretty built

 

It does work but not as well as a proper race fuel.

You only need enough octane to eliminate detonation. If your engine doesn't ping/knock with 92 Octane, you won't make any more power with 100 octane. If the engine uses O2 sensors and requires a higher octane, VP sells a no lead 100 octane race fuel.

All gasoline has the same BTU energy. Octane is the fuels resistance to detonation which is needed in a high compression or power adder engine to keep the fuel from self igniting.

 

Aviation fuel's vapor pressure is blended to operate at low barometric pressures, as it will see at the elevations planes fly at. It will not evaporate correctly at sea level.

There is no benefit from using aviation fuel in an engine designed for unleaded fuels. I've fooled around with VP Fuels Air Race fuel, blending it with VP C16 with good results, but that's related to large doses of nitrous, not to anything driven on the street.

Energy contents of hydrocarbon mixtures varies widely, depending on the specific components used to make it. So does specific gravity. Since injectors are "volume" based devices, you have to take into consideration the "specific energy content" of the fuel, relating BTU's to volume, rather than mass.

Lead will immediately poison the cats. The O2 sensors are typically rated for 50 hours exposure to lead. But why risk contaminating the sensors and slowing them down.

 

Closing due to not F-Body, and posted on multiple forums.