Regular Unleaded vs Premium Unleaded?

[Spunky99]

I'm stuck using 86 here in New Mexico West Texas because you can't get 87.

Go to the local small airport..municipal airport and sneak in the gate and go fill up at the 100LL pump. They don't care if it's a bike. Try it out ands see for yourself how fun it is.

What next, trying R/C nitro...

That's what that COX fuel was.....RC nitro..lol.......
That Express hauled ass....it was probably only a 20% mix of nitro but enough to seize it....

 

[bomberspec]

Re: 86

4300ft @ 86 octane and no issues yet.

 

[k6gad]

Just wondered if anyone has run a dyno test using different octane fuels just to see if there is an actual difference. My bet is there is no significant difference. I use 87 and have zero pinging anywhere I have ridden, I have had the bike up to 7500+ feet elevation. Just my .02

Gary

 

[Kspalla]

Dealer recomended High octane and that is what i am and will be using... Especially with the dilluted gas

 

[MiltonDorkenhoff]

Dealer recomended High octane and that is what i am and will be using... Especially with the dilluted gas

Did the dealer give any reason? The manual (pg. 4-12) just says 86 or higher.

 

[Roaddawg]

Dealer recomended High octane and that is what i am and will be using... Especially with the dilluted gas

My dealer also gave me "free tires for life" and then they went out of business about six months later....I'd trust the manual over the dealer.

 

[Marthy]

Not that I want to dig out this thread out of the grave.... but I tried a tank of Regular gas and I went down 5 MPG. According to Fuely, I've been very consistent in the 45-46. I did barely 40 MPG??? I fill up yesterday a rode 2up with my wife and got over 45MPG???

Without an O2 sensor, the ECU have no clue if I run regular, premium or if I just piss in the tank... All I can see is to go at the same speed, I need to give more throttle. This is where the fuel consumption difference might come from.

I'll keep using Premium... feel like it pull better anyway.

 

[JSP]

Not that I want to dig out this thread out of the grave.... but I tried a tank of Regular gas and I went down 5 MPG. According to Fuely, I've been very consistent in the 45-46. I did barely 40 MPG??? I fill up yesterday a rode 2up with my wife and got over 45MPG???

Without an O2 sensor, the ECU have no clue if I run regular, premium or if I just piss in the tank... All I can see is to go at the same speed, I need to give more throttle. This is where the fuel consumption difference might come from.

I'll keep using Premium... feel like it pull better anyway.

Now find a station that has premium NON ethanol! Your MPG should once again rise

 

[CrazyCawi]

Now find a station that has premium NON ethanol! Your MPG should once again rise

is that the same as non-oxygenated?

 

[Marthy]

Now find a station that has premium NON ethanol! Your MPG should once again rise

I'll try to find one. I got race fuel? At $8.00 a gal... lol

 

[JSP]

I'll try to find one. I got race fuel? At $8.00 a gal... lol

daaayyyuumm! $8.00!!! Well, we may not be far from it for normal


@ Cautious,

I think it might...

Oxygenate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seems it can mean other things besides Ethanol if it is oxygenated... You will see at the pump if it states that it has Ethanol.

Either way... Most gas stations that DO carry non-ethanol only carry it as Premium (from what I have seen). Shell here has it and it is the BLUE gas handle. There is only 1 or 2 stations around here that have it... getting rare and they DO charge a bit more for it. Think last time I got it, it was Mid or High $4 a gallon. But the bike runs so nice on it and gets much better gas mileage. My bike calls for Premium only and the ethanol crap just sucks. If I am doing a long spirited ride I always get the Non Ethanol gas if I can.


Edit: Found this link that lists stations in your area that carry non-ethanol gas!

Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada Click on your state abbreviation at the bottom and find your city.

 

[Marthy]

daaayyyuumm! $8.00!!! Well, we may not be far from it for normal


@ Cautious,

I think it might...

Oxygenate - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Seems it can mean other things besides Ethanol if it is oxygenated... You will see at the pump if it states that it has Ethanol.

Either way... Most gas stations that DO carry non-ethanol only carry it as Premium (from what I have seen). Shell here has it and it is the BLUE gas handle. There is only 1 or 2 stations around here that have it... getting rare and they DO charge a bit more for it. Think last time I got it, it was Mid or High $4 a gallon. But the bike runs so nice on it and gets much better gas mileage. My bike calls for Premium only and the ethanol crap just sucks. If I am doing a long spirited ride I always get the Non Ethanol gas if I can.


Edit: Found this link that lists stations in your area that carry non-ethanol gas!

Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada Click on your state abbreviation at the bottom and find your city.

Thanks, I found that site few minutes ago. I will look into it this week and maybe I can go get some in fuel jugs. So I can fuel from home...

I have a funny one for you. I went to South Africa last September. My wife is from there, we go married! They still have Lead gas. The only unleaded is 93. Crazy isn't it? I'm pretty much 40 and even as a kid I can't remember seeing leaded fuel. (My dad use to work at a gas station and I spend few days working with him thru the years as a kid)

 

[JSP]

Thanks, I found that site few minutes ago. I will look into it this week and maybe I can go get some in fuel jugs. So I can fuel from home...

I have a funny one for you. I went to South Africa last September. My wife is from there, we go married! They still have Lead gas. The only unleaded is 93. Crazy isn't it? I'm pretty much 40 and even as a kid I can't remember seeing leaded fuel. (My dad use to work at a gas station and I spend few days working with him thru the years as a kid)

Yeah, thats a bit crazy... Wonder how the vehicles over there are handling that...?

 

[24KMACH]

Premium for me. I ran a tank of 87 and a tank of 91. Big difference in how fast the engine heats up.[note temp. gauge] Much faster with 87. Not good.:spank:12 to 1 is a premium compression ratio as has been said. My 2004 Mach 1 Mustang runs 10.1 to 1 and the fuel gauge says premium only.:steve:

 

[Chucker]

I recently read, either in Cycle World or Carguide (can't remember), that there are a few serious issues with ethanol.

1. It is an effective solvent, so it will free up any dirt or varnish in your fuel system and can plug fuel filters. Shouldn't be a problem on our newish FZ6Rs.

2. It is corrosive and can eventually lead to degradation of fuel lines and seals, causing them to crack and fail.

3. It absorbs water and suffer from "phase separation", so can lead to a water in fuel problem if left in the tank for too long. I would assume this means that you should never leave ethanol fuel in your tank while in storage as you could end up with a rust problem in your tank, and the water will end up in the bottom of your tank = not too good for that initial start up.

I use 87 octane non-ethanol and have no issues. My experience has been that I get better fuel mileage with premium, but it doesn't outweigh the additional cost. Having said that, I think I'd use premium if I couldn't get 87 non-ethanol.

 

[Chucker]

Yeah, thats a bit crazy... Wonder how the vehicles over there are handling that...?

Catalytic converters and leaded fuel are a very bad combination. You end up with restricted flow through the cat and back pressure issues. I remember when I was a kid, my dad would dump the catalyst out of his converter and punch out the ring in his filler to allow the leaded nozzle in. They started with the smaller nozzles when unleaded fuel was introduced and put inserts in the filler opening so you couldn't put a leaded nozzle in.

 

[jjb]

My 2004 Mach 1 Mustang runs 10.1 to 1 and the fuel gauge says premium only.

Your Mach 1 Mustang also has much bigger cylinders than a 4 cylinder 600 cc motorcycle.

Obviously, the higher the compression level of the engine, the more the fuel needs to resist predetonation. With modern small car engines and some motorcycle engines running as high as 13:1 compression ratios, these high-compression engines must generally use the highest octane fuels to avoid predetonation. The size of the cylinder and the RPMs of the engine play into the requirement heavily also. If you think about it rationally, the time for one cylinder of a 600cc 4 cylinder (149cc per cylinder) spinning at 10k RPM to be able to predetonate is pretty short (about 1/320th of a second). It also has a quite small surface area to produce heat concentrations at, with fresh fuel-air charge being crammed in (cooling down the cylinder) every 1/84th of a second at 10k RPM. By comparison, a chevy 350 V-8 running at 3k RPM has a 716.9cc cylinder, and is taking in a fresh charge every 1/25th of a second. That's a lot of difference in heat exposure times, both in terms of how long the detonation product is left in the cylinder to heat the cylinder up, and in terms of how often fresh (cool) charges are sucked in. Thus, in situations where the compression ratio would dictate a nominal 93 octane rating, a much smaller cylinder that cycles at a much higher rate may be able to get away with a few points less, such as a 91 octane rating.

from Understand Motorcycles & Fuel Octane Numbers

So, as a very general rule of thumb you can say a certain compression ratio requires a certain octane rating, but it is more a half-truth.

Basically, on a stock-engine Fz6r, use 87. Like the manual says.

Another key point from the article:
As you go up in altitude, your octane requirement goes down.

Edit:
For those of you claiming to get better fuel efficiency from different octane, the only way you can test is by making sure all other factors are exactly the same:
did you have a tail/head wind on one or other of the different octanes?
was the route you drove exactly the same?
were ambient conditions (outside pressure, air temperature) the same?

just some food for thought.

 

[diegoq26]

Shell V-Power only

 

[raybob]

87 octane, 'cause the manufacturer says so. I try to buy from high volume dealers, too, on the theory that they have higher turnover on the 87 octane than the 89/91/93 octane, meaning I may get fresher gas.

I try to not buy gas when the tanker is filling up the station's tanks; they seem to stir up all the junk in the bottom of the tanks.

If it's pumping really slow, it usually means the tank is almost empty and you're getting sludge (mixed with water). Stop pumping and go elsewhere.

Bob

 

[blkbrd]

I think anytime, anywhere that people congregate, this topic comes up. At work, school, church, you name it, people debate this all the time. I myself will NEVER give those greedy oil companies any more of my money than I must. If my manual says reg. unleaded, then reg unleaded it is.:thumbup: