Ultimate my *rse

[Edt]

Yesterday before the Surrey Run V I stopped for a fuel top-up at that BP station on the A243. The 500's tank was filled with Optimax a couple of days ago, and had around half left.

I only put around £10 in - the nozzle was a bugger & kept cutting out - and for the next 100+ miles the car pinked like hell.. could only give half throttle. Coming home I let the car run to nearly (indicated) empty & filled with Optimax again.. totally transformed the car.

Anyone else suffered this? This is the 1st time I've put Ult in the car.. not impressed !!

REgards
Ed

[kojak69]

I only use Optimax.

[evo]

Same here I always try to use Optimax where I can and have only had good results.

[mongoose]

cant say i get pinking even with 94ron u/l and my timing is std.i use optimax whenever possible though.cant see why it shouldve pinked that much unless there was water in it? especially only £10 worth,or your timings too advanced?,or you may have coked up heads? lets be fair,ultimate is 97ron so youd hardly see a difference.ill plump for the water.

>> Edited by mongoose on Monday 19th January 22:02

[Edt]

mongoose said:

cant say i get pinking even with 94ron u/l and my timing is std.i use optimax whenever possible though.cant see why it shouldve pinked that much unless there was water in it? especially only £10 worth,or your timings too advanced?,or you may have coked up heads? lets be fair,ultimate is 97ron so youd hardly see a difference.ill plump for the water. >> Edited by mongoose on Monday 19th January 22:02

I know.. I was shocked.

Perhaps it was a dodgy batch of fuel, or something. Thankfully the roads were a little slippery that morning so driving part throttle asnt a bad thing.

Ed

[bassfiend]

Edt said:

I know.. I was shocked. Perhaps it was a dodgy batch of fuel, or something. Thankfully the roads were a little slippery that morning so driving part throttle asnt a bad thing. Ed

TBH if anyone had told me there'd been such a difference I wouldn't have believed them but we are talking a night and day difference between the Ultimate and Optimax yesterday.

Post-Ultimate the Griff was sounding like my diesel (I'm sure Ed would agree) at anything aproaching a serious attempt at acceleration.

Post-Optimax on the sliproad up onto the A329M it was a completely different car - absolute night and day difference. The thing charged through the gears up to an indicated 130 (kph of course officer) with not a trace of a problem.

We were just trying to work out whether they had a duff (or contaminated) batch or whether the Ultimate is generally shite!

Phil

[ncs]

Must have been a iffy batch of fuel. I use Optimax whenever possible but if theres not a shell garage about I go for BP Ultimate with no noticeable difference.

Nick
Griff 500 just like yours Ed (but you knew that already)

[V8 Archie]

I've not had any problems with Ultimate (except finding the right fg pump ). Mind you, I've been on optimax for the last couple of weeks and I'm getting some serious music out of the back when it's prevoked .

[mrmaggit]

Wol gets Ultimate all the time (I have a problem with Shell) and takes off to head-butt the horizon any time I want. Pootles fine too.

[bassfiend]

Wierd then ... Ed? Who was the guy that filled up the Griff there at the same time as you did?

No idea what the reason could be for the misbehaviour otherwise but it definitely completely cleared immediately it got a shot of Optimax.

Phil

[Ffirg 005]

That was me - haven't noticed any difference Ed, though I still had just under a half-tank of optimax when I filled up so maybe that diluted the effect of a bad batch. Of course we were on different pumps too so don't know if they would have been drawing from the same tank.

The way you were struggling to get the nozzle into the filler I did wonder at the time if you were trying to squeeze four-star in there

Don

[glena]

Edt said:

Yesterday before the Surrey Run V I stopped for a fuel top-up at that BP station on the A243. The 500's tank was filled with Optimax a couple of days ago, and had around half left. I only put around £10 in - the nozzle was a bugger & kept cutting out - and for the next 100+ miles the car pinked like hell.. could only give half throttle. Coming home I let the car run to nearly (indicated) empty & filled with Optimax again.. totally transformed the car. Anyone else suffered this? This is the 1st time I've put Ult in the car.. not impressed !! REgards Ed

I believe Shell & BP meter the additive for Optimax/Ultima in at the pump? maybe there was a metering problem?

[Edt]

Well.. in summary... gawd knows. I expect I'll give it another go when Opt. isnt available. Hope it was just an unlucky one off, whatever the cause.

Regards
Ed

BTW who else washed their cars after the Surrey run ?! I like to tuck it away clean; sort of says thanks!

[Ffirg 005]

I bet you always did your homework too Ed! I cleaned it twice on Saturday, the first time at 7am and it was so cold the water froze as a sheet of ice across the boot before I could apply the chamois, so gave up and did it again later. I just didn't have the energy to do it again on Sunday after we got back so its still dirty (sigh).

[rev-erend]

Edt said:

mongoose said: cant say i get pinking even with 94ron u/l and my timing is std.i use optimax whenever possible though.cant see why it shouldve pinked that much unless there was water in it? especially only £10 worth,or your timings too advanced?,or you may have coked up heads? lets be fair,ultimate is 97ron so youd hardly see a difference.ill plump for the water. >> Edited by mongoose on Monday 19th January 22:02 I know.. I was shocked. Perhaps it was a dodgy batch of fuel, or something. Thankfully the roads were a little slippery that morning so driving part throttle asnt a bad thing. Ed

Ed - it could be that you car is quite close to the limit as far as fuel goes .. my old Griff 500 was too.

Only ran well on Optimax .. pinked on others.

You might need to optimise thinks by :

Install new plugs (NGK are best)
Have timing checked
New Distributor cap & Arm
Run with injector cleaner for a few tanks of fuel.

That should help the engine to be a little less fussy.

Long term pinking is not a good thing !