Drive your car often

Ethanol in gasoline now does funny things to hoses and other rubber based parts in the fuel lines and the engine components... our older cars were not designed around ethanol formulated gasoline.

There is more detailed discussion somewhere in the Technical Q&A threads about this.

 

Drive your car once every SIX months? WHY even have it?

 

I am curious to hear what the situation is in American, and the UK but here in Australia we basically have 4 types of fuel.

We have -

91 octane - Regular Unleaded No Ethanol. This will be discontinued thus unavailable by July 1 2011. A lot of petrol stations are switching over their tanks now to the E10 replacement. Only 2 of 6 petrol stations in my area have regular unleaded and it's 4c dearer than the E10.

91 octane E10 - Regular Unleaded with 10% Ethanol

95 octane - Premium Unleaded No Ethanol - 8c dearer than regular unleaded

98 octane - Premium Unleaded No Ethanol (Shell V Power, Mobil Synergy 8000, BP Ultimate) 13c dearer than regular unleaded.

I only use 98 octane fuel in my Ferrari and my E36 BMW M3.

What choices do you have in the States or Britain?

Thanks,

Bob.

 

I only use 98 octane fuel in everything I drive, worth paying the extra I feel

 

thats for sure allan!

 

You have to determine how the octane rating is specified in order to compare gas in different countries. In the US 93 is pretty common for premium, 94 sometimes, and 92 sometimes. 87 is usually regular and 89 is USUALLY the mid grade. The Octane rating SCALE used in the US is 4-5 points lower than that of the SAME fuel in other countries due to the way it's calculated. So a US 93 would be the same fuel as a 97-98 in Europe, Australia, and most other countries.

What fuel the 3x8 needs is whatever the factory said in the first place. There is no advantage at all in running higher octane fuel in an engine that does not need it. The engine will not produce more power, will not run cleaner, and is no more efficient with a higher octane rating than it needs. It's just wasted money. Ferrari says a 328 needs a minimum octane of 95 RON. In the US, 91 is that grade. IF you can change (advance) the timing, than a higher grade may be helpful (or if the computer on board will do it).

 

good point brother
i should drive mine more than approx twice a year

 

Totally agree that any mechanical device should be used regularly for best results. Unfortunately, since we live in Mexico (work-related) and the car is in MD, my 328 sits for from 6-7 months each year, usually from early Oct to the end of April. It gets driven as a daily driver for May-June, is asleep again for Jul-Aug and then daily drives again for Sep-Oct.

I don't much like that situation but it is what it is. I have to admit the car starts immediately after the 7 MO layover - the only prep I do is to add some fuel stabilizer, put 50PSI of air in the tires and disconnect the battery. I don't use a trickle charger for unattended vehicles due to several bad experiences. But the battery always has plenty of power to start the car.

But I wish the car was with me all the time - though frankly I wouldn't want it here in Mexico.

 

I drive mine quite regularly - usually have to fill it up 2-3 times per month.


PDG

 

My 308 is fully driver-insured, so I take it out as often as possible, even to the store, etc. On gas, I usually go through about a tank a month.

If I still had a job or went back to work, I'd take it at least half the time, maybe more. With the recent sale of our Grand Marquis, we only have the Ferrari, which my wife can't drive, and the 4Runner, which she can.

I saw..and paid for...the effects of longterm benign neglect with my 330 2+2. The 308's previous owner had put a decent amount of regular miles on and the car didn't have the issues associated with inactivity. I replaced anything remotely questionable with the major-plus I had done after purchase.

I truly enjoy driving my cars. Too bad living in urban Dallas doesn't allow for use as God and Enzo intended. Oh well, it looks cool in my garage and the Home Depot parking lot.

 

Yeah - I drive the heck out of my 328 WHEN I'm there (in MD) so if you actually looked at use put on the car in the roughly 4 total months that I drive it, it looks decent. I go through a tank of gas in less than a week pretty easily. But I know that I (and the car) would be a lot happier to use it more consistently, even if the overall annual mileage didn't change much (though it would, of course). But I doubt we'll ever be in a position where that can occur (us and the car being in the same location full time).

 

I'm only a month into 308 ownership, but I try and drive her 3-5 times a week (basically most of the weekend and a couple of weeknights.) I will drive her to the grocery store, to the hardware store, to the bookstore. I have taken her on the highways for hours at a time and on the back country roads that are all around here. All that road time helps me sort out in my head the endless list of things I need to work on: suspension bushings, leather redye, bumper swap, exhaust swap, A/C upgrade, birdman's electrical updrade, bulb upgrade, etc. etc. None of us have the option of rebuilding the women in our life - at least we can rebuild this "girl" all we want. I figured that's why we buy these cars, right? I enjoy working on the car. I enjoy cleaning and detailing the car. But in the end, it's a Ferrari and it wants to be let out of the barn. Damn the odometer and keep driving!

 

I work 10 days on the road straight then fly home for four days. My car is in storage when i'm away. My goal when I arrive home is to take my truck to the storage unit to swap out and then drive the car for everything for four days. I ususually go through a tank every time I'm home, approximately 180 miles before I fill up. 180X2X12=4320.

Doing the math I guess I'm incorrect, I put that many miles on the car in the last 6 months. Always has fresh gas in it, and I try to drive as fast as possible to keep the injectors clean, and I only drive fast for the health of the injectors......honest.

 

I'm so much trying to make my Mondi as close to a daily driver as possible, but it's still not sorted out. It's a big change for a 23 year old car that inconsistently averaged a little more than 1,000 miles per year during its 1st two decades of life (and most of which when it was new) to then go to a 5,000 mile per year car all those years later. But we'll get there......hopefully soon!

 

For those that have to layup the car for 6 months, store it with the tank full and then when you bring it out of hibernation use up most of the old fuel as soon as possible. Fuel stored in the car does not last as long as fuel stored in a sealed drum. Stale fuel is the result of the the aromatic "light ends" evaporating and olefins beginning to oxidize. The addition of ethanol has compounded the situation because it is hygroscopic like brake fluid.

Here is a useful read: http://www.corvetteactioncenter.com/tech/gas/

 

Hmmm.... I've averaged about 10,000 miles per year in my 3 years of ownership. At 14 mpg. At $8 per gallon. Yikes!

But at 90,000 miles she still performs. 215 rwhp, which should get me even slightly above factory new hp rating at the crankshaft. No missing horses here.

Yes, I fully agree. These cars need to be driven!!

(Used $150 worth of fuel this weekend, $ 250 last weekend. The grin on my face: priceless!)