High octane...always???

[buelltool]

hey m....orange...what's the octane of your regular?
And.....what are the symptoms of a "bad tank of gas"?

I run sunoco 94 maybe 90% of the time......depending on my location when runnin low. And just this week...couldn't get the damn thing to idle right...you'd set it after a long run only to find next morning either revin higher or not enough....weird.....maybe i'll try a lower pump gas that i know moves faster at the station. Stayed tuned.

btw...anyone check out "pulley swap"?
give a tid bit on changing the final drives. Would love to hear from someone with a Baker 6 spd. I'm done.

 

[MrOrange]

Around Oklahoma City regular is 87ish. I do notice a off idle knock every once and a while on a hot day. Other than that my other choice is 91 for premium but with the cooler weather coming I will still try the cheep stuff.

I have an old Mustang with a 302 that is a touch over 10:1 compression. It had a tank of gas that was Euro 95 (RON) which I think that converts to 91 US octane. Anyway it sat for about a year and when I started it it would drive but Idle was crap, acceleration was not very good either. There was other factors as well with the car but the #1 was probably the stinky old gas.

I wish I could find 94 around here. My Mustang sure could use it.

 

[mrdozer2you]

Sunoco usually has 94....Try BP they have 93.

 

[HOVERJOCKI]

I have rebel gas stations here in Vegas and one or two of them have race 100 fuel....i'm gonna guess thats 100 octane...(not gone in to ask yet) but i'm also guessing that would be ok to run as well....????

 

[Sawyer]

MrOrange - That was a great article, have you taken its advice and switched to regular and if so have you noticed any difference? I never really thought about the fact that high octane gas is rarely ever used (especially in the UK) and sits in the underground tanks in the gas station decreasing it performance.

 

[MrOrange]

I have been especially now that gas is now over 3.25 a gal of 92 octane. It much cooler here in Oklahoma city area now and my XB9 has had no issues running the regular. I don't think I could of gotten away with it when I was in Phoenix a couple of weeks ago. Temps there were still in the high 90 so I ran 92+ octane. I lived in the UK for 8 year and remember paying 90 to 99 pence per liter which is a far cry of what I'm paying now in Oklahoma.

 

[BuellPartsGuy]

I'm not trying to seem like an ass here guys, but the $0.15 difference between regular and premium shouldn't be this big of a deal. I would rather have the octane for my engine rather than the extra dollar in my pocket after a fill up. Come on guys, you are only buying at most 4.4 gallons. So you are only shelling out about $0.60 more just to put premium in. Does $0.60 really break your bank?

 

[Sawyer]

I see what you're saying BPG and I agree, but from reading that article it sounds like by using higher octane fuel I could be doing more harm than good. That's my concern not the price.

 

[BuellPartsGuy]

How would higher octane do harm to an engine that is designed for it?

 

[Sawyer]

Read the article

 

[BuellPartsGuy]

I read the article and too much of it is "what if" material. I didnt see a single thing about DDFI. Only carb bikes. Night a day differences when it comes to fuels.

Octane = resistance to burn. Higher combustion temps and compression require higher octane period.

The factory did the R&D on the engine, designed the engine for it and reccomends it. Using premium, to me, is piece of mind at a very small cost. Not to mention, I have seen the penny pinchers that use regular and ride Buells. One is in back right now getting some extensive engine work done. Others I have seen, the tops of the pistons look like they were sand blasted. You guys do what you want, I'm buying premium.

 

[mister P]

Hi BuellPartsGuy, we get 94 octane here in the uk and my bike runs fine the only problem is it costs £14.50 -$29.00 to fill the tank. I try to enjoy every single mile, ride safe Mister P

 

[badbandit12]

if you can get to a honda shop buy the VP racing fuel by the 5gallon containers ru4 I think I will have to go down the the shope tomorrow in the day light and read the can it's $60 ish but it's 97 octane with oxegin additives works very well and burns clean .

 

[eicas]

Octane or Performance Number rating has nothing to do with the power of gasoline, only with the anti-detonation properties of the fuel.

Using a higher octane than called for will not get you more power.

If an engine gets more power with a higher octane rating it is because it was detonating, and that means you have a timing, lean fuel mixture, or a mechanical issue like the wrong spark plugs installed.

Amount of power produced is based on how much fuel is used and the BTU of the fuel, and all gasoline has the same BTU rating. Oil companies start off with the same basic crude oil product, then refine it into gasoline and add their "secret mix" of additives, these additives make the fuel more stable, burn cleaner, etc, but does not add power.

If you want more power you need to run at a higher compression ratio, higher rpm, increase displacement, etc. inorder to get more fuel into the engine, not go to a higher octane.

However, too low an octane rating can hurt or even destroy the engine in an extreme case.

Save you money and use the recommended octane.

 

[maybebuell]

vmax fourms say run 87...motor is 10.5 compression....there saying running higher octain leaves more deposit on valves and pistions..?.....if it dont ping or knock with 87all should be fine.....vmax recomends 91 or higher...the word on all the sites is 87 is better for your motor.......but them again when i ran a harley i always used 92 93 oct

 

[hodakaharold]

I have run 87 octane every so often, I don't notice any difference in hot weather, anyone else running 87 octane on a regular basis without problems?

 

[jmill25]

@mr orange! Another OKC bueller, I'm actually southwest of OKC in Mustang, it's cool to know someone from around the area is on here too. Btw there's a certain gas station in Nichols Hills that sells 101+ gas, bought some a while back to run through the bikes to help clean em out, something around the lines of $7.50 a gallon for whatever octane I got, quite pricey haha

 

[rockerphotographer]

I noticed this is a super old thread but I have something to say anyway....

Hot for some people is different than Hot for others. Hot for me is the friggin 120 degree heat we've had for a straight month in the mid-south. Hot for someone in the Northwest is 90 degrees. Not trying to say it doesn't suck for anyone. People are acclimated to where they live, bikes don't acclimate. Sooo, high octane for me in the summer, possibly lower octane in the winter. I'll be trying this out like the article said. I am SO looking forward to winter [mad] Riding is not so fun in this heat!

 

[vanson1200r]

High octane fuels are for high compression motors. High compression=high horsepower=high heat. Low octane fuels will combust BEFORE the spark hits it usually while the piston is still traveling upward to TDC and that is when you hear “knock” or detonation or pre ignition. High octane fuels prevent this and they don’t provide any more power and are not cleaner than low octane fuels. Buells being air-cooled and somewhat high compression for a air-cooled motor they need a higher octane fuel even more so at high altitude or under a heavy load like going up a long hill. I don’t really know, I just make this stuff up because it sounds cool.

 

[crxtasy169]

All octane does is change the lag time ( time from the spark till the time the mixture is burned). Too low of octane makes it burn up too fast and you don't get all the power due to the fact that you are not running a lag time or burn time that the manufacture has produced for that machine. 90 to 93 is the best for our bikes. Any higher and yes I believe IMO that you will start getting a build up of deposits.