Just bought a 1983 GTV 2.0! now... what kind of petrol?

[pete.b]

Hi everyone,

very excited to have my first alfa, and to post on this forum!

just wanted to know what kind of fuel i should be putting in it and whether i require any additives?

Thanks very much for your help in advance,

Pete

[Fast Eddie]

unleaded, pref 98 - BP, Shell, Mobil.  No additives but let's see what the chemists say... Stu, Doug, Neil??

[greengtv8]

My little green alfetta Gtv, while slightly modified now, started life as a standard alfa 2Ltr. Always ran it on primium unleaded(no additives), and it always ran sweet as...but i did tweek the timing, to get the most out of it and make sure it didn't ping. I usually used the mobil.

[Luke]

What do you guys think of the 'generic' premium fuels? The ones just labeled 'premium', that don't give a RON rating.

I've been filling up at the same Ampol service station for weeks now, putting in tank after tank of 'Gold' fuel. Can't say I notice any difference between it and fuel from BP or the like.

[Scott Farquharson]

Use premium ULP - 95 RON plus.  If it says Premium and doesn't have a RON no. or a fancy name (Vortex, Optimax etc) then it is probably 95.  Don't need additives.

[Alfalfa]

I've tried almost every petrol there is and in my opinion, Mobil Synergy 8000 is best. If you can't get a hold of that then BP ultimate is option 2. In my experience, shell is rubbish

[shane wescott]

After recommendations from this board I have been on BP Ultimate in my GTV6 - it has been very good. Less petrol "issues" and great performance and economy.

Catch ya

Shane

[Sheldon McIntosh]

Just rev the crap out of it, that always fixes stuff... 

Especially old cam belts and dodgy donuts...

[Davidm1600]

Hey Sheldon

What cambelts on a '83 2.0L GTV.  Unless I am very much mistaken you mean camchains, don't you ??  But definitely true re dodgy doughnuts.  I had that delight (ting ting ting !!) on my Gt many years ago.

As to fuel types despite all the learned comments on this thread I am not convinced you need to use 98 Ron, let alone the value in the extra cost of this fuel.

I have been using premium 95 Ron plus flashlube in both the Berlina I used to own (RIP) and my 1750 GTV since leaded fuels disappeared from our shores.  Why the use of flashlube, simple...cheap insurance. Frankly I have never noticed any problems with any of the fuel suppliers, be it Shell, BP, Ampol, Caltex. Down here in Tassie it is all the same anyway, and simply dfferent distributors.

As to the comment re the use of ethanol, I would actually like to see some empirical test data to prove conclusively whether or not this is a problem.  As a scientist, but more importantly having owned Italian cars all my adult driving life (31 years) I fail to see where the problem may be. 

Ethanol has been used around the world for probably the past 20+ years and apart from heresay and inuendo I havn't actually seen any hard facts. I have tried the ethanol blend in my '03 JTS 156 and similarly have not noted any deterioration in the car's performance.  Lets face it the blend % as I recall is about 10% here in Aus.  In Brazil its 50% !!  Having said that I do use premium 95 RON in the 156 mostly.  From what  recall about ethanol, as similarly methanol, it is supposed to actually increase one's power output while reducing harmful emissions associated with petroleum based fuels. Happy to be advised otherwise if there is some credible data to show problems with the use of such blended fuels.

Not to harp on too much about climate issues associated with the burning of fossil fuels etc in this forum but I think in the end there is going to need to be a paradigm shift in all of our thinking towards bio-fuels.  Perhaps this is a topic for another thread though.

Enjoy the GTV Pete and welcome to the forum.  Cheers Dave

[greengtv8]

From what i understand Ethanol is only a problem in the older cars, it slowly kills the older fuel lines and seals, etc...so if you are running an older car it should only be a case of replacing all your lines, etc with new...or may even have to be with those plastic fuel lines that all the new cars use. On new cars, Ethanol or E10(i think it's also called) is no problem! Even says that in the manual. I bought i Toyota Pesara(Aurion)a few months back to strip out for a project i'm building and it says straight out, will run on 100% Ethanol. But also says that it takes a km or so to auto retune.

[Davidm1600]

Thanks for clearing that issue up GreenGTV8.  I had wondered re the difference. Cheers

[pep105]

Yeah spot on greengtv8, you will find that with the Aurion it will state in the owners manual and fuel flap that its E10 compatable most new cars will run it no issue and some manufacturers now state it. E10 has a maximum of 10% Ethanol as far as I know. And by the way are you building an Aurion drag car ?

For older Alfas stick to 95 min though 98 would be nice as mentioned by the others

[greengtv8]

Na, 3years ago i started designing a car(on road/meet ADR's)from scratch and am now building the first one. Full space frame, and a long list of features, but i decided to use the Aurion/Pesara for it's electronics and drive line as i needed a new car engine to meet emissions and noise tests. Also Pesara has blue tooth, sat nav, voice activation, keyless everything, touchscreen intruments, so on and so forth, and a long list of stuff that would be fun just to put in cause it's there...
       If your building from scratch...you build a race car...or you build a road car...and i'm building a road car, hopefully a very nice one, but time will tell and we'll see what happens.

[Aussie Muscle]

in a pinch i've filled up with regular ULP. seems fine, no pinging or anything. it gets a bit tempramental at low revs (ie below 2000rpm), but thats usually only a 'missed gear' at those revs. it bucks and kicks  like a mule

also, we haven't been getting 'pure' gasoline since WW2, when they've started diluting it with such things as Benzine.

[John Hanslow]

With my previous older cars and current v6, always got best results with BP premium.  Also advise to use a similar Caltex product.  However with Shell Optimax my car lost its get up and go.  You can really feal the difference.

BP or Caltex 98 all the way.  I recon its worth it. 

As for ethanol, I have a long term requirement for 'reasonably priced food' its better in the long run if crops are for produce and refineries are for crude.

Cheers