Optimum fuel

[inboundservices]

Hi all,

total newbie question for a classic porsche 911 1976. In Australia, what is the best fuel for a car of this age and do you put in additives? Or best to do some form of conversion to the engine. Dumb questions I know, but looking into classic porsche ownership and just want to understand the implications of going on a sunday drive and second guessing fuel choice. Cheers

[Gavn]

General consensus that I've struck over the past year or two is that BP is the better quality 98.  WRT lead replacements or additives...not sure.  My very limited understanding is that the lead was primarily to prevent valve wear but any engine with a valve or top end job in the last 10 to 20 years should be fine without additives (was the opinion of an air cooled specialist some 15yrs back in Sydney when I had my C3.0 rebuilt).

[LeeM]

 They're never dumb questions if you don't know mate.

 My '78 SC I'll only put BP Ultra98 in it. Have tried Shell 98 when a BP shop wasn't close by, and it ran pretty badly straight away. Whether that was just a bad batch of fuel or my car I have no idea, though it's better the devil you know I s'pose.

 Others swear by Shell, so its probably trial and error on your part

[Gavn]

I had 15 + years on BP including 5 where I ran a 2.7 litre engine (in a 67 912) & a 993 & a 77 C3.0.......all quite happily on bp 98, all without any sign of pinging or missing (no additives).

 

[Dreamr]

I too ran on BP 98 for the 6 years of ownership of my SC ... no issues.

Occasionally used other brands but always steered away from the independents. I'm sure they would have been fine and worked just as well, but in my weird head, the majors were a better bet... i.e Caltex and Shell.

I have also noticed that 7 eleven use Mobil fuel, so I don't think you could go too far wrong with them either ...

[TwoHeadsTas]

This may mainly apply to later cars, but when we got our 1st P car, a 987 about 6 years ago, the major independent Porsche specialist we bought the car from steered us away from Shell, and advised to use only BP or Caltex.  They said their workshop had experienced a run of cars with glazed bores, all who used Shell 98.  They thought it must have been a specific additive they were using.  This advice was confirmed a couple of years ago when I attended a workshop night there which co-incided with us passing through on a holiday trip with the 996C2 I had at the time

[Harsh]

Not sure about any of this discussion as I have been told all the fuel is the same now ie Brand 'X' imported and then distributed as Shell BP Caltex etc. 

[firstone]

Who'd know the truth? They are corporations after all. 😉

I know not to buy fuel from anywhere that's just had a delivery after watching the fuel doctor video. Or is he full of shit too. 😂

Pretty much if you're having a good run keep getting it there. If you have fuel problems, change the filter and buy it elsewhere. 98 all the way and BP has never given me any problems. 

[TwoHeadsTas]

15 hours ago, firstone said:

Pretty much if you're having a good run keep getting it there. If you have fuel problems, change the filter and buy it elsewhere. 98 all the way and BP has never given me any problems. 

Yep, unless I'm desperate and there is no alternative, I've pretty much used BP exclusively for the last 5 or 6 years.

Interesting comment from the Gilbarco tech that used to service the bowser at the yacht club, was that if you have a problem with fuel from one of the major company owned sites , you will generally get support from them, whereas good luck trying to get any from one of the independents.  Probably 15 years ago I got a bad batch of diesel from a Shell site when I had a Pug 406, requiring new injectors etc.  Shell covered the cost.