IH gassers no premium gas? Another idea for quality fuel.

I was at the county airport today testing there meters for jet-a and av gas to make sure they were in tolerance and started wondering if av gas was the answer to the low octane fuel problem. Av-gas also known as 100 low lead is 100 octane with low lead level in it and no additives like ethanol etc I have been told that 100 low lead and jet-a are refined to a higher quality level than other fuels because of there use. The airport was selling it for $5.30 a gallon not cheap but less than 106 octane racing gas which runs close to $7.00 a gallon.

Avgas should work ok, but look out for lead fouling on the plugs.

Are you having a problem?

A friend of mine who restores tractors, also used to fly antique airplanes. He uses Avgas in his tractors for long term storage.he claims Avgas has better preservatives than regular gas.he claims it never goes bad even after several years. I have not tried it myself,but this is what I'm told.

The old IH recommendations for octane were based on the old "motor" method of measuring octane, the new method (R+M/2) means 89 octane now is about the equivalent of OLD 93.

AVgas is low lead and those engines and plugs were made for high lead concentrations of the time.

100LL (blue) IS better refined and WILL keep longer, but don't be fooled by the name. 100LL has way more lead than premium pump gas had even "back in the day". It's called "low lead" in comparison to the no longer available 140/145 (purple) avgas that the military used.

You will likely experience sooner plug fouling and you don not want to be breathing the exhaust fumes!
GA airplanes will get an oil change and plug cleaning every 25 hours and those plugs do need it! They will be all crudded up with lead deposits. I know from personal first hand experience working on the things!

It certainly won't hurt the engine and would definately solve any octane issues. Perhaps one could blend some with pump gas to bring the average octane where you want it.

Myself, I think propane is a better solution! Higher octane than Avgas and no lead! Cleaner burning too.

Youll never convince the experts here on that! (Even though someone here took the time to research all of that and post the information AND his sources that anyone could look up)

I have been using a mix of about 25% 100LL avgas & 75% 87 octane unleaded in our 1920's - 1930's IH tractors for about 5 years. They run great on it, and the gas mix seems to stay fresh for a year or more. I don't use that much gas, I think it is worth the extra $$. I get at a small airport near work.

The question I would have to ask is WHY?

Read your manual and know what it is telling you. If you are having problems with predetonation on a 7.5:1 compression engine with 87 octane fuel it’s not the gas - most likely it is timing or an extremely lean situation.

If it’s for storage issues – a bottle of Seafoam or Stabile is much cheaper.

That may be true , way back . But as i remember from Back in the Sixtys the gas pumps around here had the R-M-2 on them and just to REFRESH my memory here due to OLD age i took a walk up the street from me to a neighbor that has the old gas pumps from this town landmark stations that was tore down to make way for a bank . It was the last hold out from the serve yourself . It was a Sohio station and the Boron pump that was there best hightest gas still have the plaque that has the R-M-2 rating and 105 octane . But what ever . And here again Just how much gas are you putting thru your old tractors a year????? One guy said his wife would not let him buy the hightest . Lets see here one piston today at my cost was 87 and change plus the rings plus the gskts . Total cost of the repair equals out to a little over about 1200 gallon of gas over the 87 cost . It cost us about 120 bucks a year over the 87 price . This big spread between the grades of gas really did not come about that long ago . There use to be just a few cents difference not twenty cents . Most of you just play with your tractors , ya make a little hay maybe plant a food plot go to a tractor pull or a show and want them to look pretty . where as for us we use them to farm with . The newest tractor that is in the stable for all of my friends that farm for a living is a 1975 966 and the years go back from there . Even the diesel fuel we get today has caused problems with injection pumps and injectors . and nothing is getting cheaper to fix. I don't have all the answers but i do know what works . I do know my I H tractors from the H-M's up thru the 86 sires . Don't know a thing about the old F's and such as they require a hand crank to start and i learned at a vary early age that them cranks can plum eat you alive and have the scars to prove it . So if it had armstrong start don't bring it to me won't even conceder working on it.

Timing is dead on as per spec. carb is correct for the engine and as far as comp. ratio ???? who knows as they have all been changed from head work . It still comes back to the fuel . don't care how you cut it Fuel and piston material

I am stating what i was told by the lab that did the fuel testing on the sample of gas that we hand delivered from the tank at the farm at the time of the first meltdown. Did others in my area have problems with there gas tractors YES and each and everyone was fuel related . Did going up on grade of fuel help yes . Do you check timing each time you install a set of points?? Don't know about you but i do . Do you have to reset ??? sometimes sometimes not . Do you know how to check a distrubitor on a strobe and check the advance and what to do about it if it does not fall into the curve ?? . This is something that i have been doing since i was 17 and have owned a dist. strobe since then , so timing is not and issue here Carbs are not the problem as i prefer them to be a little on the FAT side . Also tell me why they have done there job the way they were designed to work for years as long as we feed them correctly with the fuel that is called for. and the only time we have had a problem is when (1) the fuel supplier delivered brought the wrong grade of fuel or this last time 93 with 10% ETHANOL . Because it is now MANDATED for us now and we can no longer get straight 93 . I do not have a scanner and i am not real computer savvy so that i could scan the report from the lab for you to read and see the graph of the burn . all i can tell ya is that the 93 we were getting did work for all of us around here that work then TILL now . But you do as you see fit for yours . Like i said it only cost us about 120 bucks a year extra for the amount of gas that we burn over buying the 87 and as i see it it has saved us more then that with the 3200 plus hours this tractor has run since the total rebuild with the loss of two pistons . Our 706 is the tractor of choice as to the first tractor started each and everyday. and it is the same with Eugene's brother the 706 over there is the one , now over at a other friends place it is the 460 then the 400 . They all ran better on the better gas .

Not a bad idea!

As far as the whole premium vs. regular, I always run premium. If you take a 560, or 706, gasser, hook a 3 - 5 bottom plow to it, and plow a furrow in clay, on the cheap stuff, and then switch over to what now passes for un-blended premium, you will hear and feel the difference. Try it! You can totally tell.

I have noticed that in colder (less than 20 degrees F), the ethatnol blend pops off quicker, since it is more volatile. Sucks for everything after that, though!

Just my opinion, based on some experience.

Running every tractor and small engine for last 5 or 6 years, no problems with running the Av gas they all love it, and if you buy regular pump gas and add stabilizer the cost just about equals out. I just got tired of wondering everytime I went to a piece of equipment wonder if it was going to start, and if it did how bad it was going to run. Av Gas the world over is suppose to have a shelve life of 7 to 8 years.

Agreed.

Some people hate being wrong-even when it been proven time and time again.

While I appreciate your opinion, and respect your ages of work, I believe what I see!!

I run AV gas in my 1937 JD A. Due to higher compression, I need a little extra octane. Also, it only gets a little run-time throughout the year (parades, hayrides, plow days and tractor rides), and the AV gas is very nice for those long storage problems. Tractor will start right up with only one or two pulls on the flywheel, each and every time.

On the other hand, I saw something in Green Magazine about a fellow using marine fuel in his tractors and liking those results. I am not familiar with it, but I would assume it to be close in quality to AV with perhaps a slightly lower octane rating? It is supposed to have better storage qualities and no ethanol. I may try marine fuel this summer. AV gas is easy to come by at our county airport, so long as you can catch someone out there... Last fall, it was around $5.50/gal, but it may have gone up since then.

Lastly, don't flame me for being a JD guy. I also own a Farmall M.

plowed for 11 hours straight yesterday with the 460 running 87, guess i must be lucky that my engine didn't melt? never used anything but 87, even in my 756 gasser i had. not looking for a fight just giving my 2 cents and keepin mind what works for some will never work for others.

You may be lucky.

It also depends on where you are and what you get for gas. If you can get straight 87 octane D100 (100% dinosaur) gasoline it MAY be 92 octane by the research method, which is close enough.

What was the octane of "Tractor Fuel?" Our F-20s ran well on it. That is why they had an auxillary tank of gaasoline for starting.