98 Ron Fuels Tested With Results

[GTS20X]

That was a great read.....

Was waiting for someone to do a proper test....

Didnt have my mone on caltex tho.... I assumed Optimax was a touch better....

My own tests....

Caltex 98 - Car pinged its tits off (thought i must have got regular unleaded)

BP Ultimate - Car ran great 270km per tank (air fuel ratios were good)

Shell 98 Optimax - Car ran a little rough 300km per tank (air fuel ratios were bordering un safe)

So i generally use Ultimate or Optimax. I find when using Ultimate my bumper is heaps dirtier after a tank and believe this is due to Optimax being a little cleaner.... Also i drive my car the same all the time.... Average fuel consumption is the same every time.... 300 per optimax and 270 from ultimate.... Plus i can get 4cents off at shell.... So i try to get shell as often as possible... However im empty today so im gonna fill on Caltex 98 and try again.... Maby i just got a bum batch the first time????

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Could be a bad batch, when Vortex98 first came out we had a car towed into work with half a tank of water after filling up on it.

[Col-GTSX]

I suspect it was a bad batch or maby they had regular in the vortex tank or something... But i will give it another go soon....

Just there is no Caltex servo's near me so its a bit out of the way...

[kimbod]

I guess this shows that fuel from differing companies do vary. The government says what the RON should be and there is a plus or minus fiddle factor. Also winter fuel has a higher RVP or DYPE to make your car easier to start. Of course in summer this is reduced so you don't have problems on hot days.Though govt regs are lowering these to cut back on the smog levels.

As you can see in the states of Australia the fuel will differ because of which refinery made it.

The other thing to remember that denser fuels tend to make you car run a bit richer.

The higher the RON or MON the higher it's resistance to knocking. Hi octane fuel in a car that doesn't have the sensors that our skylines have[ knock sensors, etc] will have no increase in performance .

I guess the water problem is one of those things that happens. service station tanks get condensation in them,etc.I won't use Mobil 1 oil because i bought a 5 litre container from Big w a few years ago and luckily I notice it had a lot of water in it. I rang the Mobil help line . They couldn't explain it.

[Guilt-Toy]

I allways found that vortex 98 pinged my skyline very hard but as soon as i put Ulimate in it the pinging went away and the car went harder. I also found that Synergy 8000 SOMETIMES would make my car go noticably harder.

weid that Vortex came out on front - i have tried it many times and got the same result every time.

I wonder how much free fuel or how much money Caltex paid MRT ? =)

[TurbostyleR]

In my car i have noticed that vortex actually does feel alot stronger, compared with bp ultimate...

I might make a switch and see how it goes with my built motor, as there where no ignition corrections when they were testing the pump fuels...

[saliya]

Interesting that for what seems to be a fairly thorough test (to the extent of getting some folks

with a van from Caltex to analyse the fuels) they didn't:

a) adjust mixtures so that they were exactly the same for all fuels. Given that Optimax

claims to be a denser fuel, I'd have thought this was important.

B) adjust timing to take maximum advantage of all fuels (timing _was_ adjusted, but not for

individual fuels).

If we accept that the results are a) accurate and B) relevant given the sampling procedure

(and there have been some arguments to the contrary earlier in the thread) then the

test shows that Vortex98 is the best bet for 'good power' on an untuned Ecutek in a Subaru.

I don't know that it follows that Vortex98 is necessarily 'the fuel' to use on a tuned car.

My belief is that 'the fuel' to use on a tuned car is the fuel it was tuned on, batch variations

aside.

I'd love to see a comparison where the same car was adjusted for the same

mixtures across a range of fuels, and the adjustments needed shown.

Then I'd like to see the mixture-corrected car adjusted for timing (with the adjustments

tabulated) and see power measured.

Then I'd like to see the tests repeated, monthly, for 12 months.

I'm dreaming

Regards,

Saliya

[williamsf1]

its a nice dream tho

[fLipKnot]

Anyone knows if there is any news about Vortex Gold (98RON) is going to be sold in Victoria?

[Jase]

something else you might be interested to know

from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries website

http://www.fcai.com.au/ethanol.php/2004/03/00000001.html

"Nissan vehicles manufactured from 1 January 2004 onwards are capable of operation on ethanol-blended fuels up to E10 (10% ethanol), providing that blending of the ethanol component to the petroleum component of the fuel has been properly made at the fuel refinery (ie there is no "splash-blending" of the fuel).

For Nissan vehicles manufactured prior to 1 January 2004, Nissan Australia does not recommend the use of E10 because of drivability concerns and/or material compatibility issues."

regards

Jase

[Tangles]

Thanks Jase..... thats top information mate!

[Spook's_Skyline]

im gonna stick with ultimate myself

i get better economy and the car feels quicker

if pushed i use vortex (95ron)

never optimax

[Cubes]

Ive had issues with off batches of Mobil.

BP is the ultimate for me. Always consistent.

[williamsf1]

yep ultimate for us in SA is the only way to go currently....

[hijaked]

im still not clear about whether Ethanol is good for the car.

i remember they put it in a lot of petrols and damages engines.

theres new 'cheaper' petrol with ethanol (<10%) 98 otcane..

i just want to know, is this stuff any good??? or should i stay away.

if i could afford ultimate, i woudnt ask these questions...

[Oosh]

The main concern with Ethanol is it's a solvent and can eat some types of fuel lines, but mate you drive a performance car, one that was designed to have a diet of Japanese super (100RON), tighten your belt and buy 98RON, buying lower octane fuel will only cost you a LOT more if you do engine damage because of it.

[deadsilly]

Siliya has hit the nail on the head. What happens when you lean out your mixtures? You get more power. All these fuels test to be similar RON, so advance sould be similar. The results that we are seeing is how close to the fuel that the ECU was tuned with, (which was vortex).

[browny]

Overall I think the quality of the report is pretty poor. It looks to me like it's a draft that hasn't yet been scrutinised by the academics that should have been overseeing the testing.

eg

But why were they better? After consulta

Winter mix March 16th to November 14th maximum legislated amount is 90Kpa @40 deg C ?????????????????????

PAUL CHECK HERE.

Please refer Appendices and chart XXXX before reading this part!

If I was UNSW i'd be dissapointed that something like this was released. If I was MRT and they were asked to pay for this I'd be suitably unimpressed as well.

I'd even go further than what Siliya suggests and include ADR drive cycle testing.

[chalon]

Overall I think the quality of the report is pretty poor. It looks to me like it's a draft that hasn't yet been scrutinised by the academics that should have been overseeing the testing.

eg

If I was UNSW i'd be dissapointed that something like this was released. If I was MRT and they were asked to pay for this I'd be suitably unimpressed as well.

I'd even go further than what Siliya suggests and include ADR drive cycle testing.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

If you go through the OCAU thread, u can see that this reports is actually an unfinished draft that was leaked.

I've heard some dyno operators in SA are recommending the ethanol blends for maximum power, but cars must be tuned to suit the fuel. Don't know how accurate these rumours are, so treat them with a grain of salt.

I don't think I'm game to try anything else unless I know for sure it won't affect longevity in my car. Ultimate is consistent for me, the cleanest of the lot, and I have enough power as it is at the moment

I wonder where SA gets its fuel from and which would be the most "fresh" fuel. Anybody know?

[browny]

ok, my guess was pretty close then!

[browny]

Actually reading the response from MRT, I'd say this report isn't worth a pinch of the proverbial.