Reply To: Ethanol in Petrol, engine coolant and tyre pressures

I have always run my Traction on ‘Branded’ fuel since I got it 7 years ago e.g. Shell, BP, Total etc. with every 2nd or 3rd tank being the more expensive ‘ultimate’ variety to try and keep the carbon deposits down.

Whether any of it makes any difference is a moot point looking at what we have found when investigating low compression on cylinder 3 on my car

Now the head was supposedly rebuilt before I got it with hardened exhaust valve seats, but looking at the other valves some of the heads are ‘thin’ compared to some others so it may be that someone reused a lot of the parts, but that is speculation and there is no way of confirming that.

There is some corrosion on the water tube so it may be blocked at no 3 creating a hot spot, but at this stage we don’t know and the car has done around 12,000 miles since I bought it. On the plus side there doesn’t appear to be any damage to the pistons or cylinders so where the bits of valve went is anyone’s guess.

BTW the engine was running OK with no strange noises, it just lacked a bit of get up and go and wouldn’t go over 65 mph so it shows how robust the Perfo engine is 🙂