Date:         Sat, 19 Jul 1997 10:59:18 -0400
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Bill Collins <wb6otg@INTREX.NET>
Subject:      Re: Octane Question

>      At the risk of sparking a "me too" exchange, I'll ask a question:
>
>      Is everyone using the octane rating specified for their Wasserboxer?
>
>       (I am, and intend to continue, so please, no well-intended lectures.)
>
>      If not, is the potential for detonation a factor in head problems that
>      some are experiencing?
>
>      Okay, that's two questions.  Copious apologies in advance if this has
>      been beat to death already.
>
>      -Blaine
>

I use Regular (usually 87 octane on the US octane scale)  I have never
heard a single ping from the engine, even in the mountains where regular
is 85 octane or less.  This is on a 1.9, the 2.1 has higher compression
and is probably different.

I have always figured that you should advance the timing until a very
small amount of pinging is heard (DON'T Try this on an air cooled
engine), but when I tried advancing the timing on my vanagon, the idle
speed became unstable.  Any ideas?

Bill