Premium Petrol - Optimax etc
Discussion
Please excuse my ignorance regarding this subject but Optimax is advertised everywhere as a 98 RON premium petrol which is supposed to be better for sports cars due to the higher octane and additives which help clean / preserve your engine. All well and good and i've started using it myself, but see sod all advertised by the other biggies ie BP, Esso, Texaco etc.
Can anyone fill me in on what the other petrol stations have re premium petrol (if any) as i'm fed up having to scour my area for the nearest Shell garage?
Can anyone fill me in on what the other petrol stations have re premium petrol (if any) as i'm fed up having to scour my area for the nearest Shell garage?
Darkhorsepower said:
Please excuse my ignorance regarding this subject but Optimax is advertised everywhere as a 98 RON premium petrol which is supposed to be better for sports cars due to the higher octane and additives which help clean / preserve your engine. All well and good and i've started using it myself, but see sod all advertised by the other biggies ie BP, Esso, Texaco etc.
Can anyone fill me in on what the other petrol stations have re premium petrol (if any) as i'm fed up having to scour my area for the nearest Shell garage?
Just to make you feel better - I drive 160 mile round trip in my oil burner with jerry cans to get plain old super for the sports car - my nearest Optimax is a 10 hour round trip. :tut:
Steve
JohnL said:
And what happens if I stick LRP - currently advertised at 1p/litre less than unleaded - in my car, which normally takes unleaded and doesn't have a catalyst?
If it doesn't have a Cat (really, really make sure!) then a little won't do any harm at all. Using it a lot will lead to carbon deposits on the valves- but that's after 20,000 miles or so. Using it every other tank is probably Ok.
Darkhorsepower said:
OK so if i go onto the forecourt and see something with 'Super' infront ie Super Unleaded that's generally that company's equivalent then, and not some dodgy 4 star replacement fuel?
From my time working in a Petrol Station (mid 90's), Super Unleaded was just 4 star with a bottle of additives added to it
(Worse than that though, you only needed 1L of additive for '000's of litres of petrol!)
Maybe things are different now...
DtM
(edited to add quote)
>> Edited by duncanthemad on Wednesday 19th May 13:37
Optimax does work, it reduces knock (pinking) so modern engines will advance the timing & hence run more efficiently.
From someone in the know at the Engine dyno dept of a certain small car manufacturers, who test other peoples engines on a daily basis.
A 2L Honda V-TEC will make an additional 8hp running optimax as opposed to super.
Most modern turbo cars will be able to make an additional 5% of power.
So more power from the same fuel also = better mpg if all the power is not required.
PS Much of the optimax oftens tests out at 99RON
From someone in the know at the Engine dyno dept of a certain small car manufacturers, who test other peoples engines on a daily basis.
A 2L Honda V-TEC will make an additional 8hp running optimax as opposed to super.
Most modern turbo cars will be able to make an additional 5% of power.
So more power from the same fuel also = better mpg if all the power is not required.
PS Much of the optimax oftens tests out at 99RON
But what is RON exactly, why is it used instead of MON? I gather that if you run the calc for RON on BP Ultimate v Optimax you get ~97 v~98 but apply MON and it's reversed. Why is it we assume that RON is 'better' than MON when very few seem to understand what RON is beyond interpreting the acronym?
cptsideways said:
Optimax does work, it reduces knock (pinking) so modern engines will advance the timing & hence run more efficiently.
From someone in the know at the Engine dyno dept of a certain small car manufacturers, who test other peoples engines on a daily basis.
A 2L Honda V-TEC will make an additional 8hp running optimax as opposed to super.
Most modern turbo cars will be able to make an additional 5% of power.
So more power from the same fuel also = better mpg if all the power is not required.
PS Much of the optimax oftens tests out at 99RON
Made a huge difference to the MPG of my M3... (up to 15% more mpg) which made it much cheaper per mile than Super.
MPG in current steed is so daft and variable (according to how one drives) that all measurements are worthless... but would use Optimax every time - if only they sold it less than 100 miles away
Steve
LuS1fer said:
I put Optimax in my fuel tank for some drag racing and it sure as hell made no more power.
Read this all about octane ratings. It's very good and might answer a few questions.
www.imoc.co.uk/technical/article/octane.htm
Basically if I understand it correctly, if your engine is designed for 95 putting 98 in will not improve power. But it might make it "smoother".
The higher the rating the more you can compress the fuel before it explodes WITHOUT a spark. So if you put a low rating fuel in a high compression engine you get knocking (the fuel starts to burn on it's own as well as from the spark). If you put a high rated fuel in a low compression engine, well it go's bang when it should.
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