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I've had some issues lately trying to get my car up and running for this season and wondering if I'm using the wrong gasoline. When I bought the car last year the first question I asked was "What kind of gas should I run in this"? I was told regular unleaded fuel would work just fine, but others of late tell me I shouldn't be using ethanol gasoline at all because it can clog up fuel lines and carburetors from gunk build up in the gas tank, etc. So, would you'all (or anyone) recommend using an ethanol-free gasoline with some sort of additive in it?

My old Packard was running fine on the unleaded stuff I put in it last November with about a half tank left in the car when I put in storage for the winter. Then when the weather turned nice a few weeks ago, I put the battery back in it and tried to start it, and after a few rumbles like it wanted to, it just wouldn't kick over. After looking at the in-line filter at the carburetor I noticed it wasn't getting any gas into it, so figured I have some sort of clog in the gas line or something. One guy said I might have to drop the gas tank and have it cleaned out professionally. YIKES!

Now I'm at a loss and looking for any good advice from all you Packard experts out there.

I've run the cheapest 87 octane which has whatever ethanol the
Put in it. But I do put a fuel stabilizer in it at the end of season.

Start with basics and make sure your pump is working.

Ethanol will eat old rubber components if your pump hasn't been rebuilt with modern materials in the last 20 years.

There should be nothing in the tank that should be affected by it.

Steve, relax. Unleaded is all you need. In fact, for a long, drawn out tech reason, premium in a car in which regular best is a step backward, as explained by Ray and the much missed Tom, NPR's Click and Clack, the Magliozzi brothers, both MIT grads as well as running a garage in Cambridge (Boston). Belay the ethanol concern, as long as you don't have any 80-year-old bits in your fuel system. This gasoline solicitude is getting out of hand, the province of characters wanting to blame the gas, the oil, the brake fluid, something, anything but their own sloth and lax maintenance.

BTW, from the 1930s into the '70s, Amoco sold nothing but unleaded throughout the East and the Midwest. Tens of millions of cars driving hundreds of millions of miles. In the unlikely event your little six racing through the mountains pulling a loaded trailer with a couple Sumo wrestlers in the back seat, pick up some Red Line Lead Substitute for peace of mind, use as directed. It contains sodium as the benign element instead of toxic, brain damaging tetraethyl lead, to cushion valves and seats from the momentary micro weld of contact. Potassium was tried in Europe but leaves deposits.

Assume your carb's been rebuilt since 1937, using now common rubber immune to ethanol. Tip: If replacing any fuel hose, pay a few cents extra a foot and get fuel injection hose. It will last centuries. A post on these forums the other day shows what glass bowl fuel filter element to pick up at any NAPA store for $5.37.

What else? Because most here gathered are interested in preservation as much as occasional enjoyment, some swear by tossing four ounces of Marvel Mystery Oil per 10 gallons gas in the tank. I'll leave its efficacy for others to parse, because they will, leaving us wondering when do they ever work on their cars?

Just saw the founder, creator, dean of this terrific site, Kev, tendered a comment while i was typing this. Absolutely, use Stabil should you expect your gas to sit over a year. A Chevron engineer with an old hobby horse told us any gasoline will be fine for at least a year, just as it's sold, no extra additives or stabilizers required, so long as not much exposed to temperatures above 80 degrees. Again, to save words, use only automotive Stabil, not marine version.

If your tank's never been out, it's not a big job to drop it, but if you can loosen the steel plug at its bottom, you might drain the last couple gallons, see if it's clean. Use it in your lawn mower. Do what penny pinching Packard should've done and replace it with a brass plug.

Double-check your choke, make sure it's still set right, and that your manifold heat control valve free. Try to introduce some graphite powder mixed with kerosene into both ends of its shaft. ("No, Norton, address the ball, like this," said Gleason's Ralph Kramden, trying to teach Art Carney's Norton golf. Norton replies, "Hello, ball!")

Once underway, as you'll soon be, Steve, overheating, lugging, and high manifold pressure are your only enemies, as they are of all i.c. engines.

A pin hole in a metal line, or a split rubber hose, or a rodent that decided the rubber looked like dinner will all cause a vacuum lose the on suction side of the pump and prevent it from drawing any fuel from the tank.

Also if that rubber hose between the pump and the hardline is old and soft, and it could collapse under suction.