1987 Grand National - My backup plan for Hot Rod Power Tour 2024

For over a month I've been thrashing on my 71 Chevy Nova getting it ready to go 2500 miles on the Hot Rod Power Tour. In case it's not going to be ready in time, I have my 87 Buick Grand National, but it also needs some maintenance and repairs for such a long drive. In this video, I show my 9 year-old son how to replace the front brake pads and rotors.

[@johnmilner7603]

I would still take the GN. Those EFI systems are pretty finicky. Why E85? That’s crazy. I would use 91 octane pump gas. I would never use 85% ethanol. Ethanol will destroy your EFI in the GN along with collecting water in the fuel. If you can still get 0% ethanol fuel in the USA then use it. Here is Canada they banned it this year, so in my 1970 Z/28 I use Shell 91 octane that’s labeled “can contains up to 10% ethanol. I also buy Ethanol Shield from Home Depot and use it on my cars and lawn equipment including the snow blower. I had a 5 gal jug of gas in the garage 2 wks ago that was maybe 3 wks old that was 1/2 full and it had water on the bottom. I poured it all in a large pan and used a turkey baster to suck the fuel from the top. I noticed this when the push lawn mower wasn’t idling right. My John Deere X300 riding lawn mover gets Ethanol Shield as well. I never had any of these problems when we had 0% ethanol fuel in the 91 octane until this yr. When I owned my 87 GN for 22 yrs I ran nothing but 91 octane with 0% ethanol gas.

[@nowherefastgarage]

E85 because its equivalent to about 105 octane gasoline, and it's about a dollar cheaper than 87 octane. I can run 30 lbs of boost with no detonation. It also makes more power than gasoline even if it was run at 15 lbs of boost. I've run it in that car for more than 10 years. I had the tank out not that long ago, and no issues at all. The downside is lower mpg, and harder to find stations that carry it in my area. 91 octane would limit me to around 13 lbs. of boost I would think?

[@johnmilner7603]

When I had miy 87 I would redline the boost at 15 on the factory gauge.