Topic: Preferred Gasoline

[Duke McDukiedook]

Ah, thanks for the catch TT, easy to forget when I just run regular and leave the advance timing alone!

Delta: enough to have to monkey with your timing advance, that's all I need to know.

[Deltarider]

... enough to have to monkey with your timing advance, that's all I need to know.

That's nonsense and you do need to know more, I'm afraid. But I'll be a sport...
Can you inform us how many degrees we should monkey with our timing?
My secret tip: you don't have to readjust your timing switching from regular to super or vice versa.

[Duke McDukiedook]

Ah, but Delta I did preface my previous statement of having to adjust the advance to get the most efficient burn out of the higher octane. I think just with anything else to know what works best (as far as ignition timing advance) you would have to dyno it with your setup, it would depend on your cams, valve timing, etc. etc.

I already said my stock engine is run with plain octane, so I couldn't give you or anyone else advice on what to set your timing advance to. I just know you would want to change it to get the maximum efficiency out of your gasoline, otherwise you are just wasting your money with zero benefits.

[TwoTired]

You don't NEED to readjust your timing for Premium.  But, some engines will make better power with more advanced timing.
In other words Premium gas will often show improvement with more advanced timing, or will allow more advanced timing in order to get more power.  Not necessarily due to the gas itself but the timing change that is now allowed.
Not exactly big bunches. But, it may give an improvement in ET at the drags.

Cheers,

[Brown Bomber]

     I've been hearing lately of people getting stale 92/93 octane, because with this poor economy people are buying the lower octane to save money, and the premium sits in the tanks too long.
     I'll be switching to 89 octane, and adding some sort of octane boost, as soon as I figure out which octane booster to try. So far all the products I've seen claim to do miracles, but don't tell you what's in them. Is that a real poncho, or is that a Sears poncho?
     Any suggestions?

Why do you need the higher octane rating?  Is your engine modified for higher compression? 

Just trying to go by the book;

Which book is that?
AFAIK the 77-78 CB750F had the highest Comp. ratio of all the Cb750s.  See Below

TT, that is a scan out of the owners manual from under the seat of my K2.

[cobra2411]

95 RON. That's different that what's at the pump today; that's rated using an anti-knock index. Well at least in the US.

I've always understood 95 RON to translate into about 90-91 AKI. So 93 is a little more then what's required but it's not a significant difference.

As a side note I get better mileage in my car using 93 v 87. My new Mustang has a tune for 93 but with my old Mustang all I did was advance my timing about 3* and it was the same thing.

[TwoTired]

TT, that is a scan out of the owners manual from under the seat of my K2.

The Honda Shop manual says the K2 has 9.0:1 Comp ratio.  Does your Owner's manual list the comp ratio?

The CR for the F2 is 9.2:1 and runs fine on regular fuel.  We even have the damnable gasahol mandated for the entire state (Thanks Democrats).

Mine doesn't ping on lowest grade.

Cheers,

[Lavis500]

Oh goodness...  what did I start with this silly question?  This is almost as bad as an oil thread.   

[ferroussphinx]

lucas oil vegetable oil  peanut oil    ?/

[Gordon]

Oh goodness...  what did I start with this silly question?  This is almost as bad as an oil thread.   

Had you done a search before asking you would have known this already.

[Brown Bomber]

TT, that is a scan out of the owners manual from under the seat of my K2.

The Honda Shop manual says the K2 has 9.0:1 Comp ratio.  Does your Owner's manual list the comp ratio?

The CR for the F2 is 9.2:1 and runs fine on regular fuel.  We even have the damnable gasahol mandated for the entire state (Thanks Democrats).

Mine doesn't ping on lowest grade.

Cheers,

The owners manual says 9.0:1 also, I'm below half a tank now, so I'll fill it with regular tomorrow. I wasn't crazy about the idea of octane boosters and additives anyway.
Thanks

Oh goodness...  what did I start with this silly question?  This is almost as bad as an oil thread.   

[Lavis500]

lucas oil vegetable oil  peanut oil    ?/

Well if you wanna get into oils, I go non-conventional.  
i use MIL-PRF 23699F Aviation grade engine oil.  




*Not really, this is meant exclusively for humor.  Don't try this at home, as you might suffer catastrophic results.

[ferroussphinx]

gigity goo  me i use two parts  ky jelly and one part astro glide and thats for the wiper reservoir ha hah

[phrige]

What are everyone's favorite gas stations.
In NJ everything i see always says 10% bologna, I'll have to check Sunoco.
 I do notice a distinct difference in how my car runs on Exxon vs Hess. Hess really gets eaten up quick, and the car feels in a fog. Not as responsive. 
  I wish it was more specific at the pump, someone mentioned 'Super' has no additives. If that's true, that is great! But if both gas stations i mentioned write 10% or less jambalaya, you'd think the regular 87 would react the same, no?

[Gordon]

What are everyone's favorite gas stations.
In NJ everything i see always says 10% bologna, I'll have to check Sunoco.
 I do notice a distinct difference in how my car runs on Exxon vs Hess. Hess really gets eaten up quick, and the car feels in a fog. Not as responsive. 
  I wish it was more specific at the pump, someone mentioned 'Super' has no additives. If that's true, that is great! But if both gas stations i mentioned write 10% or less jambalaya, you'd think the regular 87 would react the same, no?

Finding non-ethanol gas depends entirely on your location.  According to this website:  http://www.pure-gas.org/  the closest place to you with non-ethanol gas is in Montague Township.  I'm not sure how up-to-date or accurate that information is, though. 

I'm in the same boat.  There are several places in North Texas that sell pure gas, but they're all about 1.5 hours away from me, so not worth the drive/ride.   

[Lavis500]

What part of North TX, Gordon?  I frequent the Dallas area visiting family and whatnot, and I can't recall the last time I saw a non-ethanol pump up there.

I know that on post on Ft. Hood all of our AAFES (Army & Air Force Exchanges Services) gas stations have new-ish stickers on the pumps apologizing for any problems that may occur in the near future as they are "in the process of switching to 10% or less ethanol fuel."  I guess I missed out on the non-eth fuels on post.   

As far as gas station preferences, there's only one time I ever noticed any difference between brands:  driving my ex-girlfriend's Jeep Grand Cherokee.  I couldn't tell you anymore about that car, as I don't remember, but I know that it ran best on fuel from QT (quiktrip).  Anything else made it lose some power and had a severe drop in MPG.

[Duke McDukiedook]

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/driveon/post/2010/10/epa-to-allow-15-ethanol-in-gasoline-up-from-10-now-/1

Oh boy. 

[Gordon]

What part of North TX, Gordon?  I frequent the Dallas area visiting family and whatnot, and I can't recall the last time I saw a non-ethanol pump up there.

Plano.  Just moved back here from Denver.  All the non-ethanol gas stations I could find in this part of the state are either up near Oklahoma or out east closer to Tyler and Sulfur Springs.  None in the immediate vicinity of Dallas, unfortunately. 

[Lavis500]

Plano!  I say Dallas just so anybody not familiar with the area can see it in their minds.  I used to live by US75 and Spring Creek, and I graduated PESH!  East SIDE!!!

Yeah, I didn't think there were any non-eth pumps in that immediate vicinity.

I don't even want to think about E-15...  that just sounds like a horrible idea.

[Brown Bomber]

     Here's a little update on my experience in switching to a lower octane gas.

     OK both my 500T, and my 750K2 where below a half a tank, so I topped off the 750 with regular 87 octane on Oct. 13, and the 500 on the 14th at Shell. I had ridden all summer on the same set of plugs in both bikes, and they still looked good.
     
     I didn't get any Pinging or knocking on the regular gas, but before I made it through half a tank , the spark plugs had fouled up beyond all recognition, (FUBAR) in both bikes!

     The plugs in the 500 didn't look too bad, but had a good bit of black soot like deposits and the bike had trouble idling before it abruptly decided to go no further. I was able to pull off the road and put in a set of new plugs, and head to a nearby BP and top it off with their middle grade. The bike seems happy now.

     The 750 isn't so sensitive and was forgiving enough to let me know it doesn't like regular gas by simply not starting before leaving the house. Those plugs were FUGLY. Lots of black soot like build up.
      Who knows what they put in the regular gas now, but it sure as hell won't find it's way into my Honda's anymore.

[cookindaddy]

Hmmm.
I've put on over 1200 miles this summer, mostly long distances (4 trips) and I've used regular gas all summer, always some big name brand (Esso, Sunoco, PetroCanada).
Here in Ontario, Canada, I am pretty sure we have up to 10% ethanol.
I expect that I'd have more power if 100% dino gas was available, but she (750 K8) has more than enough power for me as it is??! The acceleration is truly amazing at almost any speed. I can pass anyone/anytime.
The plugs were light gray the last time that I looked a couple weeks ago.

[BobbyR]

I did score some non ethanol fuel on a trip to Pa. It was more expensive. I know I got better milage in cars with pure gas, but to be honest I felt no difference on the Interstate or in the Mountains. I filled it up with E85 on one trip which did really suck. I drained it into the lawn tractor can and got some regular when I got home.

[Simpson]

I use 93 simply because the bike seems to run better. No real data to share...
My 2 cents

[Duke McDukiedook]

KO's and K1's if I remember right should be run with a higher octane than modern 87.

[dna_level_c7]

I have recently switched over to Sunoco's "premium" grade I think it is 93 octane.

Recently it doesn't like to idle cold. Even with the choke wide open it will cut out after a couple minutes. Now once she warms up it will idle nicely @ 1200 RPMs. It just started doing this within the last two weeks. I didn't even think about it until I now when i was reading this thread! 

I will run the remaining out and try it with the regular and see if it improves...