Big block V8’s and premium gasoline

dbbls wrote:
The 460 benefited greatly with the "Banks Power Pac".

I'd love to purchase the Banks system, however I'm currently in the process of financially recovering from unemployment and my late wife's seven year battle with cancer. I'd hoped to purchase the Banks system this fall but a consulting project I'm working on got cut back. That's why I'm scrambling to find inexpensive ways to improve what I have.
Steve

The 460 benefited greatly with the "Banks Power Pac".

mpfireman wrote:
With todays engines designed to burn reg gas, and you now switching to a premium fuel is a waste of your money. The marginal difference you will see in performance is not worth the additional expense spent on these premium fuels.
Engines designed to run on premium fuel will run on reg gas, BUT performance will suffer. Engines designed to run on reg fuels will have little effect on performance when switching to premium fuels.

That wasn't my question.

I'm well aware of why some engines require high octane gas and others don't. I'm also aware that sometimes an engine that would otherwise require high octane gas will run without knocking if the spark is retarded, or it has an anti-knock sensor to automatically retard the spark. I'm also aware that the larger diameter the piston (like the pistons in a 460 V8) the more knock-prone the engine will be.

Again, my question is, can the timing be advanced for better performance and gas mileage, even though doing so may necessitate the need for high octane gasoline?
Secondly, if anyone has done this, did it improve both performance and mileage?

It made an incredible difference in my sons Jeep Cherokee (not having the anti-knock spark retard kick in) that I'm thinking that if the engine in my RV is retimed for performance, rather than just to allow it to run on regular, it would greatly help the performance and gas mileage. Of course without an anti-knock sensor, I'd probably be forced to burn premium, but it might be worth it.

Steve

RLS7201 wrote:
Several of us in the Ford EFI 460 community have been able to run our initial timing @ 12 degrees, with no pinging issues. Another option is to lengthen the rod on the EGR feed back potentiometer, until you get 0.85 volts, at idle, on the out put lead. This will boost the timing a little more when the EGR valve opens.

Richard

And what exactly will that result in?

Several of us in the Ford EFI 460 community have been able to run our initial timing @ 12 degrees, with no pinging issues. Another option is to lengthen the rod on the EGR feed back potentiometer, until you get 0.85 volts, at idle, on the out put lead. This will boost the timing a little more when the EGR valve opens.

Richard

The Ford v-10 works well on regular and provides adaquate output with out tinkering

With todays engines designed to burn reg gas, and you now switching to a premium fuel is a waste of your money. The marginal difference you will see in performance is not worth the additional expense spent on these premium fuels.
Engines designed to run on premium fuel will run on reg gas, BUT performance will suffer. Engines designed to run on reg fuels will have little effect on performance when switching to premium fuels.

Most if not all of the 460's used a timing gear that had the keyway retarded. It's been a few years, but as I recall one of the first things that they did to the 460 was replace either the gear or the key. I can't recall exactly but I'm sure that a quick online search will provide the answer.

Wow!