ItBites,
I have a question about the avgas. Can you still get leaded avgas there? Here everything is NO lead period. I used to buy from a local airport and they went away from the lead quite a while ago. Also had several problems with their plane engines until they got them sorted out. One crash was traced directly to the NEW clean no lead avgas and it was still rated at 110 octane. That is why I started buying NASCAR 110 leaded to mix when I was going to be running hard. It costs $4.55 a gallon here.
I hear people by the dozens who have gone to other states on vacation talk about how much better their cars runb on gas in those states and they get much better gas mileage also. Then as soon as they get back to Calif. they say it seems as if they lose around 50 horsepower and the mileage dips accordingly. I have made several unscientific tests using my little 1965 Comet with the stock 289. Add 5 gallons of my racing gas to a tank and performance and mileage does go up noticeably. Then go back to the straight pump gas which I use and it drops right back down.No adjustments of timing or carb will help this as we just have shi$$$ gas. I heard of a place here that is supposed to sell 110LL gas, but so far when I have called, they told me it had no lead.
Ron