Thanks for the insight!
We're in a bit of a secluded area and I haven't seen any E 85 pumps locally. :/
I put maybe 100+/- street miles on this motor in the Nova when I rebuilt it. I did plenty of hard first and second gear pulls and one really hard full 1/4 mile pull on 91 octane at 16 deg initial timing, no pinging at all. That was at 4500 ft altitude, so I'm assuming the high altitude's thin air and clean pistons helped. I'm more worried about what happens when carbon starts to build up on the pistons that could contribute to detonation issues.
Although I will be driving it to work and back most every day, I will only be hard on it on occasion, and that will only maybe for first and second gear and then slow down. Whenever I race it I will use race gas, so it's not a huge concern, I'm just trying to play it safe. I'd hate to waste a brand new motor because of pinging.
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