like an old fool they say, but then again, they also reckon it is no good getting old, if you don't get lucky. Well, I might just be both. I might even have found some horses.
My 7 is going beautifully. Good power, sweet & smooth, she almost purrs down the road. The new high compression engine, 9.7:1 according to the builder, was tuned to 98 octane petrol. I thought this was a bit rich for an old Triumph, & have been running it on 95, quite happily.
Well I managed to stuff that up at an unfamiliar petrol station in another town. I don't use Caltex usually, but that was the only choice. After a bit of looking I found the 95 octane pump, & filled her up, right to the top. It was only as I was hanging up the hose that I noticed this pump claimed to have 95 in one end, & 91 octane in the other, & I had filled with the 91 end.
I didn't even know those old fashioned free standing bowsers could pump 2 different grades of fuel. They don't at the Shell stations I usually use.
The thing continued to run beautifully, no sign of pinking or such upset I expected, at being fed low rent fuel. Why? Is it too rich, retarded, or what else allows it to run on the stuff?
At home I pulled a couple of plugs. The mixture is near perfect, so the timing must be a bit retarded on ideal, for this engine, now some distance from standard.
I don't know of any dyno around here, with an owner who can drive it, & tune a car, so I guess it will be try a little advance a few times to get the best out of the old lady by trial & error, after I have got some better fuel in there of course. Bloody annoying that the been counters got rid of the old distributors, with 8 degrees of vernier adjustment built into them.
I can't wait to unleash all those extra corralled horses in there on the unsuspecting Porsches & Ford V8s in the district. [}:)] They will never know what hit them. [:D]
Hasbeen
