Has anybody tried VP C-12 gas

[garrettccovington]

All the talk about CA. Pump gas has me worried about my Fiberglass tank.  SOooo, I e-mailed VP Fuels Tech Dept and this was their reply

Yes, we recommend our C-12, it is leaded and non-oxygenated so you will have no problems keeping you fiberglass tank in one piece.  The C-12 will give you better cylinder cooling and a little extra power over pump gas as well.

Has anybody tried this?

G



72 six-day

[brian kirby]

I use either VP C-12 or Sunoco 110 "Standard", they are essentially the same. Mike Murphy uses nothing but C-12 in his Rokon. For an air cooled engine these KTMs have very high compression ratios and I think they require race fuel. While standing next to the track watching the grass track motos at both the Tennessee Qualifier and at the Reunion Ride I heard a LOT of KTM engines pinging. As expensive as these engines are to rebuild I think the cost of race fuel is cheap in the long run. This is all on top of the fact that it wont harm the fiberglass tanks like ethanol enhanced pump fuel.

Brian

'72 Berkshire

[KJDonovan]

Ok at the risk of sounding dumb, where can I get this fuel in the Northeast?

Thanks,

KD

Kevin J. Donovan
Foster, Rhode Island
72 Jack Piner (My Ride)
72 Six Day (Wifes Ride)

[Larry Perkins]

KD

Go to vpracingfuel.com and click on the Find A Dealer spot at the top of the page.  It will help you find who sells it in your area.

Larry P

[Gordon Brennan]

Kevin, Tractors and Trimmers in Woodstock sells VP. 860-974-1452

[garrettccovington]

Good deal.  I called the local shop and the tech person stated that the shelf life was 2 years, Well, I don't plan on keeping a tank of gas for 2 years, but another thing, I they said was "don't store the gas can on concrete"  The gas will go bad real fast if left on concrete.  I think I'll e-mail the tech guys on this.

g

72 six-day

[Gordon Brennan]

Two things: Never store racing fuel in a plastic container (the good stuff leaches out).  And never store on a concrete floor. Not even sure why. Same goes with methanol. Been racing karts for years. Have always been told to never put the container on cement. Funny thing is, my methanol is in a plastic race jug and always has been. Never gone bad. I guess methanol can stay in plastic. Race fuel shouldn't.

[tvrc18]

Darn, my VP fuel is in a plastic can sitting on the concrete floor of the garage. I did not know this about race fuel. I need a metal can now. Wonder how long it takes to go bad in plastic cans?
Terry

[tofriedel]

I have been storing pump and race gas in both metal and plastic containers and on concrete floors for years, with no apparent fuel problems.

The racing crew I travel with do the same thing and all of them are using race fuel, C 12 in plastic containers, which gets stored on concrete floors when not in the trailer.

Maybe we have been lucky and maybe there are some old wife's tales out there.  

Logic doesn't seem to indicate that gas is affected by concrete or that a qualified plastic container affects the properties of gas unless it contains ethanol.  Who knows?

Tony

Tony

[Larry Perkins]

When stored improperly I don't think it goes bad it just bleeds off some octane count and lead so it is not as potent as when first mixed.  All two stroke gas will change over time because a bit of the gas evaporates but the oil does not so it gets richer.

Larry P

[garrettccovington]

I was in luck, my local Motorcycle shop had a can C-12 in stock.  I bought a bottle of Maxima Super M to mix with it.  Back in the day  I use NPG.  of course that is long gone.  I was thinking of going with Golden Spectro, since that was the only bottle I reconized.  Any suggestions.

72 six-day

[400gs6]

Hey guys, long time lurker, thought I'd jump in on this topic.

I've got a very low milage '76 400GS6 That I've had for years.  I had wanted to wake up this old bike but after seeing the havoc that ethanol has caused in the marine industry, (especially with fiberglass tanks) I have been hesitant to put pump gas in it's beatiful original 'glass tank.

After a bit of discussion with some fellow gear heads, I was assured that if I ran race fuel, it would not harm the fiberglass tank as it's ethanol free... The results were not good.

 I had mixed 5 gals of VP "Streetblaze" 100 octane race fuel with some Klotz Benol.  I put a gallon or so in the Penton's tank and ran it around the neighborhood several times.  I did not drain the tank as I thought it would be fine being ethanol free. About 6-8 weeks later, I fired up the bike and it ran extremely lean.  I then checked the inside of the tank only to find my perfect original tank had a sticky jelly like consistancy all inside.  The ethanol free race gas had been eating up the inside of the tank to the point that the exterior now has hundreds of tiny dimples from the fuel line down...

 What's the fix for fuel issues if your running the stock 'glass tanks?  Do you drain them after every use?  Does Kreem work on glass tanks or should I find an aftermarket plastic tank.

Thanks,

KL FLASH

[brian kirby]

VP Street Blaze has ethanol in it. It is a DOT legal street fuel and has ethanol in it to increase octane. Get LEADED non-street legal fuel like C-12 and it will not have ethanol in it.

Brian

'72 Berkshire

[400gs6]

...Oh, man I wish I knew that!

Thanks,

Kurt

[brian kirby]

No problem. It can be very confusing because "race" fuel can mean a lot of different things. If you go to the VP fuels website, you will see they have 20+ different blends of fuels for different uses.

I used to race Personal Watercraft nationally and in '00 they specified unleaded fuel. They did not have lead but they were so high in some other metals like manganese they could not be DOT street legal. Some of the "unleaded" fuels were so exotic you could not leave them in plastic tanks and you had to run the engine on regular fuel to purge the "trick" stuff from the entire fuel system before you put it up.  I'd hate to see what that "unleaded" non-street legal PWC fuels would do too a fiberglass tank.

Some of those fuels that are street legal (unleaded) have ethanol and other compounds in them to get the highest octane possible without using lead that might damage fiberglass tanks. The best choice for our bikes is something like VP C-12 or Sunoco 110 "standard" , they are just plain old fashioned leaded race fuel.

Brian

'72 Berkshire