Octane Booster

[mad082]

+1

Most people know that Australian 91RON unleaded is basically served as shots in Japanese bars... Our fuel sucks. Thus, imports not originally made for the Australian market should be run on 95 or better...

actually from the research i have done they still have 91 RON fuel in japan (although i have read a few things that say that their base fuel is about 89 RON). I'm yet to speak to someone in japan to verify this, but i don't think it's quite like people think, that even their base model fuel is better than ours. i'm pretty sure that the majority of japanese cars are designed to run on 91 octane and it is only their performance cars that are designed to run on higher octane fuels, but they are still only designed for 95 or 96 octane fuel.

a similar mistake is made when people talk about US fuels. they see the octane rating in the 80's and think the fuel is shit, but they don't realise that the US uses a different octane rating system, and their fuels aren't that much different to ours.

[mad082]

you will be sorry if you keep putting 91 in there which has ethanol in it.

ask any mechanic and they will tell you not to do it.

i know mechanics who run it in their cars. there are plenty of uneducated people bad mouthing ethanol which is the reason why a lot of people are scared of it. more often than not any problems caused are from lack of maintenance, rather than the fuel (such as people getting clogged injectors because they haven't ever changed the fuel filter and then the detergents in the fuel have broken down particals caught in the filter so they are small enough to get through the filter and end up in the injectors). i've run E10 fuels for years with no issues. Some countries have been running high ethanol quantity fuels for many years now.

[JonnoHR31]

are you missing that he said it was for a GTT, or are you taking the piss? the stock turbo ecu is tuned for minimum 95 octane fuel. running it on 91 octane will result in a loss of power, or if the knock sensors aren't working correctly a damaged motor. 95 or 98 octane will result it more power and safer knock levels.

sorry, thought it was a 33gtst for some reason, in which case they dont have anywhere near enough timing to be a problem.

[blk94r33]

actually from the research i have done they still have 91 RON fuel in japan (although i have read a few things that say that their base fuel is about 89 RON). I'm yet to speak to someone in japan to verify this, but i don't think it's quite like people think, that even their base model fuel is better than ours. i'm pretty sure that the majority of japanese cars are designed to run on 91 octane and it is only their performance cars that are designed to run on higher octane fuels, but they are still only designed for 95 or 96 octane fuel.

a similar mistake is made when people talk about US fuels. they see the octane rating in the 80's and think the fuel is shit, but they don't realise that the US uses a different octane rating system, and their fuels aren't that much different to ours.

Ah ok, i've heard alot about the trouble with Australian fuel, more to do with the amount of trouble people have with water in the lower grade fuels. And alot of the manufacturers recommend 95 or higher fuel in the owners' manual, but few people run it. The difference in quality of diesel has caused a world of trouble for manufacturers trying to introduce CRD into the Australian market...

[blk94r33]

i know mechanics who run it in their cars. there are plenty of uneducated people bad mouthing ethanol which is the reason why a lot of people are scared of it. more often than not any problems caused are from lack of maintenance, rather than the fuel (such as people getting clogged injectors because they haven't ever changed the fuel filter and then the detergents in the fuel have broken down particals caught in the filter so they are small enough to get through the filter and end up in the injectors). i've run E10 fuels for years with no issues. Some countries have been running high ethanol quantity fuels for many years now.

+1

Ethanol isn't a bad thing, more mis-understood. Some rubbers, plastics and metals used in fuel systems (mostly on older cars) can't handle ethanol, which leads to corrosion etc. and eventually the failures and horror stories that is giving ethanol it's bad name. Now that it's becoming more common place and manufacturers are adapting vehicles to support it, it can be used safely with minimal hassle. E85 is also starting to take off as a performance fuel... (Guilt Toy?)

EDIT: Also, the majority of news stories talking about ethanol say to check if it's compatible with your vehicle before trying it. Try these:

http://www.onlinemechanical.net/ethanol-E10.html

http://www.jamaica-allspice.com/PDF/E10%20vehicle%20compatibility.pdf

Edited December 30, 2010 by blk94r33

[Kinks]

a mate of mine was a mechanic for repco a few years ago (the local repco store had a workshop on the side of it) and one day the nulon rep came through and had an octane test kit with him. my mate grabbed some BP ultimate out of his car and they ran a few tests. first they tested the fuel by itself. it was 98 octane (as you wuold expect). next they put in the standard measure of the pro strength octane booster (i think. this was about 5 years ago now so the memory is a bit dodgy). pretty sure this put it up to about 103 octane. then they put in double the normal dosage. the octane rating actually dropped back down to around 99 octane.

how many beers did they have by then?

different octane boosters work by different amounts. i remember seeing that most of them raised octane by a few "points" - a point being 0.1! so 15 points isn't 15 RON it's 1.5 RON.. f**k all. the nulon pro strength one was the best, if you can only get 91RON then i'd put a nulon pro strength in there as well.

just run it on 91, unless you have an aftermarket ecu tuned for 98 it wont be a problem. with a stock ecu your better off with 91 than 98 anyway.

if you use octane boost make sure you have plenty of cash for spark plugs, you'll be changing them every 2nd tank. not to mention o2 sensors and other shit like that

facepalm. better off on 91 RON? (yeah I know you were thinking about 33gtst but even so). My car runs like an absolute dog on 95RON, even on 98RON it pings on 10psi boost. on 100RON it's fantastic, absolute screamer. Anyone filling up with 91RON and hitting boost doesn't deserve a skyline.

you will be sorry if you keep putting 91 in there which has ethanol in it.

ask any mechanic and they will tell you not to do it.

the ethanol thing is bullshit, mechanics will just say no to avoid being blamed for anything that happens. ethanol is BAD for marine environments because of the rate it soaks up water and then separates into two layers. In a car it's not a big issue. Plenty of SAUers been running E85 for years and all the rubber etc in the fuel system is still perfect.

sorry, thought it was a 33gtst for some reason, in which case they dont have anywhere near enough timing to be a problem.

completely disagree, as above. I have checked and re-checked my base timing and the ECU wants to run more timing than the fuel is capable of.

[JonnoHR31]

facepalm. better off on 91 RON? (yeah I know you were thinking about 33gtst but even so). My car runs like an absolute dog on 95RON, even on 98RON it pings on 10psi boost. on 100RON it's fantastic, absolute screamer. Anyone filling up with 91RON and hitting boost doesn't deserve a skyline.

completely disagree, as above. I have checked and re-checked my base timing and the ECU wants to run more timing than the fuel is capable of.

something else is giving you troubles then, or maybe we have special 91 over here. i ran it for years with no troubles whatsoever on 3 different skylines. on 90% of stock cars 98 is a waste of money. sure its better fuel but at ~15c/L more its just not worth it.

even when i first got a power fc, i got it tuned on 95 because i didnt wanna pay for 98 all the time as it was daily aswell. still made good power and had a lot more timing in it than standard ecu's

[mad082]

Ah ok, i've heard alot about the trouble with Australian fuel, more to do with the amount of trouble people have with water in the lower grade fuels. And alot of the manufacturers recommend 95 or higher fuel in the owners' manual, but few people run it. The difference in quality of diesel has caused a world of trouble for manufacturers trying to introduce CRD into the Australian market...

i have heard plenty of horror stories from people getting bad batches of bio-diesel. mate of mine got a bad batch. had a buttload of water in it.

something else is giving you troubles then, or maybe we have special 91 over here. i ran it for years with no troubles whatsoever on 3 different skylines. on 90% of stock cars 98 is a waste of money. sure its better fuel but at ~15c/L more its just not worth it.

even when i first got a power fc, i got it tuned on 95 because i didnt wanna pay for 98 all the time as it was daily aswell. still made good power and had a lot more timing in it than standard ecu's

while i don't agree with running 91 octane in a turbo vehicle, i do agree with you saying there must be something wrong with his car if he couldn't even run 95 in it. i'm guessing either the fuel pump was dying, injectors were blocked or something along those lines, or it had a remapped ecu. the stock ecu runs a pretty rich tune with not much timing. i know people who have gained 20kw just from a tune. i was able to safely add 3 degrees of timing into my 33 on 98RON fuel (via CAS) on the stock ecu. most stock ECU's run AFR's in the mid 10's up top. tuners are able to both lean them out and increase the timing a bit over stock, when running 98 fuels, so if yours is on the limit when stock then there is something going on.

[Cowboy1600]

facepalm. better off on 91 RON? (yeah I know you were thinking about 33gtst but even so). My car runs like an absolute dog on 95RON, even on 98RON it pings on 10psi boost. on 100RON it's fantastic, absolute screamer. Anyone filling up with 91RON and hitting boost doesn't deserve a skyline.

If this is accurate then your car is rooted. Unless you have rebuilt your engine and are now running 12:1 static comp ratio, your car should not ping when running 98 on 10psi.

[mad082]

If this is accurate then your car is rooted. Unless you have rebuilt your engine and are now running 12:1 static comp ratio, your car should not ping when running 98 on 10psi.

unless the CAS has been given a good twist to bump up the timing.

[Cowboy1600]

unless the CAS has been given a good twist to bump up the timing.

Could you twist it far enough to ping on 98 when only running 10PSI?

And if that is the case, then that was a fairly significant omission from the post decreeing all fuel with a RON lower than 100 as rubbish.

Altho I try to avoid it, I run my 33 on 95 at times and it's running ~11PSI. I have no issues what-so-ever.

BTW, my 2c on 95 RON. People generally fall into 2 groups; people who are happy to pay more for higher RON fuel and therefore use 98 and people who don't and use 91. I'd say only a very small number of motorists fall between the two. What this means is the fuel in the 95 tanks may tend to be much, much older than that in the 91 or 98 tanks. Old fuel sucks.

That's my 2c on 95.

[mad082]

full advanced would make it ping on 98, especially if the ecu has been remapped and the owner doesn't know it. or the spark plugs might be too hot (such as a 5 heat range), or even there is a fuel issue.