Octane Rating

[chall120]

I have an '88 2001 nautique with the PCM 351 Ford. Been using good quality 87 Octane with no noticable "pinging". Recently read the PCM Manual and it said 89 or higher. Does anyone else use 89 or higher for an older Nautique?

[tryan]

i give my baby premium 93, but i don't buy marina fuel.

[Hollywood]

We feed our 88 premium, 91-93. She runs like SH!T on anything lower.

[882001]

i have the same boat as you and hollywood. i use the cheap stuff and havent had any problems.i have heard that gas stations dont sell enough high octane so it gets old and they have to add all kinds of preservitives,ethenols, methanols?. that arent good for anything.
just what ive heard. good question thou. would be interested to know more about this.

[skinautique]

I have always run 87 but you must stay away from gasses with alcohol in them (speedway is one of them). I got cheap when the prices went up and now I am paying the price with a new fuel pump. Not too cool. I guess I should have paid more attention to the warning stickers!!

[882001]

oh yeah and alcohols
how do you know if it has alcohol in it?? i dont recall a label on the pump here in texas. then again im usually trying to get the **** out of there as fast as i can.

[882001]

now I am paying the price with a new fuel pump. Not too cool. I guess I should have paid more attention to the warning stickers!!

what does alcohol do to a fuel pump?eat up seals? it seems gasoline would be more harsh on seals than alcohol. to me. that sucks cause a new fuel pumps start at 80$ for a 351

[Onthewater]

People in our neck of the woods buy plenty of premium so it doesn't get old. I'd say we are okay with 91 but we just stick with what we have been using. Another thing, it is **** near impossible to find gasoline these days without any alcohol.

[882001]

doesnt most of the gas come from here? -----------houston

[tryan]

most drivers run their boats wfo all the time and would never hear detonation over their stereos?

8 and 8.5 compression ratios should be fine on lower octane go juice, but gas drops about 1 octane per month.

i have to put all kinds of snake oil in '60. lead substitue, octane booster and stabilizer and PREMIUM.

some newer stations use a twin tanks. high octane and low octane are mixed to produce midgrade fuel.

we are blessed with pure gas in tn.

[wakerwes]

i have a 88 nautique with a gm 350
here in belgium we can choose 95 or 98,
i do 95 with lead substitute in my gm

don't know if its good i have my boat a month?

[R-mallis]

i have a 1990 with a 351 and i run nothing but 87 octane and have never heard the slightest bit of ping. I've only had it a couple of months now so i dont know if the timing was retarded to prevent this, I'll probably check that next time i have it running.

[SGY]

In response to the question about the corrosive effects of alcohol, in another lifetime I raced things with four wheels and rubber touching the ground. The fuel of choice was methanol or "alcohol". You had to be very careful with this stuff because it would eat all rubber parts of your fuel system. The answer was to purge the methanol from the fuel system by running gas through the motor for about 3 minutes. All I know is that if I got lazy and didn't purge the fuel system after a hard day of racing, I would pay for it big time the next race day with a carb, fuel pump, etc rebuild.

It would be nice if we could all use methanol in our boats, cars etc. It doesn't deplete natural resources and doesn't pollute near as bad. It also makes more horsepower--all things being equal. I wonder if the petroleum companies have anything to do with us not getting to use this wonder fuel.

Just my two cents.