Best Fuel for 1750 GTV

Erik said:

In the USA I remember some gas filling nozzles which had a black sleeve and had to be pressured into in to the neck, I thing there were some locking mechanism within the nozzles. I remember having probs with those. Maybe some of our US friends can cast some light on this.
Erik

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That kind would be the vapor recovery type system found more and more frequently on pump nozzles over here. (part of our bit to save the enviornment dontcha know)

The principle behind it is that you press the nozzle into the fill neck deep enough to compress the hose which sort of seals it against the filler neck a bit which in turn triggers a switch to allow fuel to flow. While that's going on, the fuel vapors are being sucked into the compressed hose and returned to the storage tanks where they revert back to fluid fuel instead of being released into the atmosphere.

They work decently on newer car with the protruding fill cap neck and appropriately curved/shaped hose from the fill neck to the gas tank proper, but they are a real SOB for older cars and most all motorcycles.

The trick is to find a gas station that isn't equipped with them, or a self-serve station.

At the self-serve, it's just a matter of pulling back the collapsable bit of hose by hand so that it activates the switch and allows fueling.

Your current station attendant could do it, but realistically it's more likely a case of not knowing how, or being too lazy to actually work that hard to get gas in your vehicle when it's so much easier to tell you 'we can't do it, go away'.

lowmileage said:

That's what I do when I (infrequently) travel with the car but for local situations I use a 6 gallon can (and do the filling at home) that I fill up when I gas up my DD.

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We had no trouble filling our 1750 GTV or any of our other Alfas using regular vapor recovery equipped gasoline pumps; however, I will admit that some are easier to use than others and sometimes you would have to manually hold back the black rubber hosing to allow the flow, similar, to filling a gas can. Find a selection of stations that are easy to use. I found that Beacon and Cardlock stations, where a lot of the truckers fill up, have equipment that works well most of the time without having to mess or hassle with it.

On type of gas, Pat used the lowest grade unleaded gasoline possible in the following way. He alternated tanks of gas to boost the octane, which meant that we always filled up half down. If you put in the lowest grade of unleaded gasoline the last tank, you move up one grade for this 1/2 fill, the next time you move up to the next grade for a 1/2 fill, and then on the fourth 1/2 fill you're back to the 1/2 fill at the lowest level unleaded gasoline. We did not use gas boosters or additives.

As for the nozzle not fitting the tank inlet properly or filling to the full level, this tip is from Brian Shorey, posted on another thread possibly regarding Milano's: insert the nozzle upside down to fill. That might work.

Worst case scenario, buy a 5-gallon gas can, and make several trips to the gas station and fill it at home as LM suggested.

According to the German owners manual for Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT ("Betriebsanleitung und Wartung") DIASS Pubblic. 974-6-66 - (2000) R1 the following is written:

"Wir empfehlen die Verwendung von Superkraftstoff nicht unter 92 (Oktan)"

(We recommend to use super gasoline not below 92 (octane))

In Denmark you can get 92 unleaded, 95 unleaded and sometimes 98 unleaded.

I run my own 1300 on 95 unleaded which is available everywhere. The engine has been rebuild which implies that the compression must be higher than 8.8 due to the grinding of the cylinder head. The JF4 distributor is set to 8 deg BTDC. With this setting you can floor the pedal from 1500 rpm in 5. (approx 44 km/h) and reach top speed approx 177 km/h without pinking. If I use 92 unleaded the same can be done, but with slight pinking below 2000 rpm. So I guess that 92 unleaded can be used with the factory ignition timing setting of approx 3 deg BTDC.

We have a lot of horrible gas around me. It's very hard to find good high octane gas. Back in the 60's, Sunoco "blue" was the best at a decent 103 octane... all the others were 101 octane. I know that, as I worked at a number of gas stations, during the time when "muscle cars" were daily drivers. Now, we have gas that's mixed with ethanol, (not a bad thing), but the mix isn't always the same. I HAVE run into a couple of situations where, after I left the gas station, it became clear that the "high octane" I purchased was actually "regular", and my Alfa tells me very quickly. It's not often, but makes me sick of people trying to rip us off. I have used, and will continue to carry an octane boost additive with me, just in case. I'm trying to find out how I can obtain some local aviation fuel, which runs at 105 octane. Basically, it's a crap shoot out there. If you find a decent gas station with regular quality, you need to stick with them. The convenience stores are the worst offenders. I can say that as I commute 100 miles per day, (in a Saab 9000) and simply switching between one station to the next (same brand) can make a big difference in my mileage. Lastly, it's great to find a gas station that doesn't have MBTE added to it's gas... huge difference in mileage/performance. I would love to have a diesel commuter unit... you folks across the pond are very lucky.