| Author | Message | ||
     Biggie |
I was wondering while on a recent road rip with a few friends we stopped at the sunoco to gas up.WELL I was wondering around waiting on the others and noticed they sell high octane fuel or "fuell".I was wondering would it be bad if I put 1 gallon or so of the race fuell with my premium fuel.The reason I want to try is since the 10% ethanol CRAP my bike doesent have the ass it used to.SO thats the question whos got the answers.Also has anybody tried this or ran high test straight in their 12 or 9.I have XB12r , a race pipe , race ecm , mod airbox with K&N and reroute. | ||
| 1_mike |
Unless you have detonation problems, race gas (additives) most likely won't do much, except lighten your wallet. The ethanol really isn't doing much ...either way..good or bad as long as the fuel and timing maps are close to being properly tuned for the gas/altitude you normally run in. If you raise the ign. timing (a LITTLE) into detonation...then yea, race gas or an octane booster will help. I've found that my XB12 likes a lot of timing. Well into detonation. So I will be trying some fuel additive and more timing (than it has now!) to see what happens. Mike | ||
| Froggy |
My bike runs better with E10, but thats another thread. Anyway, I don't recommend higher octane fuel, many of them are lead based and will damage your O2 sensor. They will also damage your wallet. Same thing for those octane boosters. (Message edited by froggy on September 17, 2009) | ||
| Iamarchangel |
Sunoco Gold always, or pretty well always. Used it on my race bikes years ago, using it on my 9R since I got it a year and a half ago. Yes, I google Sunoco stations before I tour. (My car gets any old thing.) | ||
| Froggy |
You guys in Canadia don't have all the restrictions on fuels we do, no Gold or even Ultra 94 anywhere to be found outside of a race track here. | ||
| Tpoppa |
As stated above, race gas is leaded. It will damage the O2 sensor. | ||
| Froggy |
The Gold that Iamarchangel mentions is 97 octane unleaded and street legal even in California. Good luck finding it though! Hell my family owns a Sunoco and doesn't get it.  | ||
| Sloppy |
O2 sensors ARE NOT damaged by lead gas. Lead gas can damage catalytic converters, however. Unless your income is dependent upon what podium position you have, then don't worry about getting "race gas". Any quality gas will work - if you want more performance then work on your riding skills. That is what is limiting your bike's potential anyways, not the fuel type! But if you income IS dependent upon podiums, then you'd be using a custom blend anyways (like VP), so the whole question is moot, isn't it... | ||
| Diablobrian |
IIRC U4 killed an o2 sensor on our race bike (before the sensor was deleted) and cost us a race while we installed a replacement. It may have been another formula of fuel but it was certainly "lead poisoning" On 3+ wire o2 sensors (that heat themselves electrically) this is not a problem but ours are vulnerable to lead when they are cold. On octane: best advice is if your bike isn't detonating don't worry about a higher octane fuel. You actually get more caloric energy out of a lower octane fuel than you do out of higher octane. The increase in power that you see in race motors come from compression ratios, timing and cams, not magic fuel. Higher octane feeling more powerful is largely placebo effect. That said, my firebolt funs 11.43:1 and I can squeek by with 91 octane, but really need 93 to prevent it from detonating in any but the most extreme circumstances. If your street buell is detonating badly enough to need 97 octane there is a serious problem somewhere in the equation. | ||
| Fast1075 |
Thank you Brian...saved me a bunch of typing... In Florida, the 100 octane "race" fuel that is sold at all the local Amoco stations is unleaded. I use VP C16 in nitrous bikes, but there is no sensor and no catalyst  (Message edited by fast1075 on September 18, 2009) (Message edited by fast1075 on September 18, 2009) | ||
| Eldredma |
I hate to tell you, but E10 is better for your motor. Ethanol has a much higher octane rating than gasoline and it burns cleaner. After all, it's what modified race cars run on and it gave the Koenigsegg CCX an extra hundred horsepower or two. | ||
| Nik |
It also has lower energy density. If a vehicle is tuned to run ethanol specifically, than yes you can make more power, but when they're tuned for gasoline adding ethanol leans them out even further. | ||
| Sloppy |
Diablo - thank you for the clarification on the O2 sensors. Yes, the non-heated lamda styles can allow a buildup on its surface and render them non-functional. | ||
| L8_br8ker |
Octane in gasoline prevents detonation (gas igniting under high compression). When gasoline, mixed with air, is compressed in a cylinder it will ignite, octane prevents this, so the mixture will ignite only from the spark plug, at the proper time. Higher compression engines (eg. race engines) require more octane, probably the main reason for using race gas. If an engine runs well on 90 octane, it wont run better or faster on 105 octane. There may be other additives in race gas, some might be good, some might be very bad for your engine, cause race gas isnt regulated the same as conventional fuels. I would stay away from it, unless your engine requires it. |
