Forgive my newbieness, but what exactly do you mean by advancing the engine
to get extra power?

My van could sure use it.

-eric
'85 Vanagon

On 5/2/02 12:29 PM, "gary hradek" <hradek@YAHOO.COM> wrote:

> Bill,
>   Now I do not recall boston bob say anything about
> the world being flat, yet.   Most engine rebuilders
> see the worst of what we do to our engines.   I agree
> that 87 octane will work well with our vanagon,
> however if you advance the engine to get that extra
> power you should take boston bob's advise and use the
> higher octane.   It may prevent boston bob from seeing
> your engine quite so soon.   gary
> Date:    Thu, 2 May 2002 12:44:09 -0400
> From:    wb6otg <wb6otg@INTREX.NET>
> Subject: Re: What Octane Fuel
>
> A stock Vanagon will run fine on regular gas.  Some of
> the information
> on Boston Bob's web site is just plain wrong.
>
> I think its time to pull this out of the archives and
> dust it off:
>
>
> Here's the story on octane:  At one time (up til the
> early '70s?),
> there
> were two ways to measure octane, research octane
> (based on lab work
> with
> the fuel) and another system (I forget the name)
> based on tests in an
> actual engine.  The two systems usually give somewhat
> different
> numbers.  Most car makers (including VW) specified
> research octane,
> often
> listed as R.O.N. (Research Octane Number?).  The US
> government, in its
> usual wisdom, decided that since people couldn't
> agree on a method,
> they
> should invent a third one!  So, when the government
> started requiring
> that octane be marked on the gas pump, it was
> required that the two
> existing methods be averaged to come up with a number
> (the fine print
> on
> the sticker even reads (R+M)/2.
>
> So, when VW calls out 91 R.O.N., as the gas flap
> sticker on my Jetta
> and
> the owner's manual for my Vanagon both do, that is
> the same (more or
> less) as the US gas pump number of 87, which is the
> usual number for
> regular in most areas.
>
> Bill
>
>
>
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