Petrol Types?

[jimmyV8]

My 98 Chimaera 400 has always been run on shell v power since ive owned her and runs beautifully. But since all of these fuel tanker issues my shell garage has run out. Ive since used tesco 97 octane but went to fill up yesterday and they are also out.

Will the car run well on standard 95ron fuel or will pinking occur frequently?

Does anyone run on this?

Is it possible to adjust ingition timing or similar so 95ron will be ok?

Cheers James

[Chimjunkie]

IIRC with 97+ octane you can run the engine 3 or 4 degrees further advance. If the engine is setup for 97 octane then you may need to adjust to prevent pinking.

[jimmyV8]

Well it mentions by the fuel cap use 98 octane so i should need to retard the ignition by a few degrees any idea exactly how much?

Is it really that simple?

[Red V8]

another alrernative is BP Ultimate

[jimmyV8]

I just seem to be finding that garages locally to me appear to be totally out of super unleaded? I mite give BP a go!

[rigga]

A touch of octane booster to 95 will be ok,follow the instructions on the bottle but most raise the octane level by 3 points..... always carry a bottle in the scoob should i be caught out with no available v power (happened the once on the way back from heathrow off holiday,drove like a granny all the way up the m1 )

[Ubernoober]

Just to add to the mix, I've run and mixed 95, 97 and 99 octanes, no appreciable difference except maybe Tesco's 99 makes the exhaust note bassier. Certainly never had any pinking and I've not changed/altered the timing at any time.

I have no issue with filling with whatever is available (except diesel, paint, meths etc) but will always go for the highest available octane by choice

[chim666]

Running occasionally on standard unleaded will be perfectly ok - particularly for a 4 litre and if you're not booting it too much. I understand that for a 500 it's not such a good idea.
When I bought my 4 litre, I was told that it was perfectly OK to use 95 RON, but I normally fill up with super as it's not my daily driver, but when I have used 95, I've never noticed it pinking.
If you intend running it on 95 RON all the time, you could get your garage to set up the timing accordingly to avoid any possibility of pinking.

Edited by chim666 on Saturday 21st June 18:16

[Meatball]

Mine stalls and runs like a bag of s4it on 95ron

[s5tuart]

I've always used Shell V-Power (Optimax). There have been occasion when out and about that I have had to use BP Ultimate and that has been without incident except feeling a little "sluggish" mid-range. I have heard good reports about the new Texaco fuel, whatever that's called. Personally I would avoid supermarket fuels except in emergency!

[jimmyV8]

I have experienced some ( what i assume to be) pinking with my 400. Well i have currently filled up with texaco super so all fine so far. If im honest im not sure i can nitice any difference in performance between vpower, tesco 97 and texaco?

[m4rk]

There's a thread on the same subject in the Grif section.

http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

I can't run on anything less than 98 RON in my Chim 500 due to bad pinking. Luckily for me 100 RON is easy to find where I live and the 500 loves it. I also carry a bottle or two of octane booster just in case. Used it once so far and it got me home after getting low on fuel out in the sticks,,, Italy.

Edited by m4rk on Monday 23 June 18:37

[Konrod]

I guess that every car will be different in this respect as they will all have slightly different timing setup (cam to crank and dizzy to cam) - can't see why a 500 should be any different to a 400 if everything else is the same, unless the cam profile makes the timing more sensitive. My 400 is fine on any petrol 95 octane upwards

[TVR keith]

Mine runs great on Tesco 99. Runs like a bag of bolts on anything else except of course Shell V Power

[m4rk]

Konrod said:

I guess that every car will be different in this respect as they will all have slightly different timing setup (cam to crank and dizzy to cam) - can't see why a 500 should be any different to a 400 if everything else is the same, unless the cam profile makes the timing more sensitive. My 400 is fine on any petrol 95 octane upwards

Maybe because 500's run hotter and therefore prefer the cooler burning higher octanes.

[Hoover.]

I use 4 star... yum yum lead yum yum.

ohh mines a precat engine.... so it can use the stuff unlike most of you lot...

were there any precat chims ????? just thinking out loud

[Zippee]

I use Tesco 99 in mine or V-Power. Runs OK on 95 but after a couple of tanks does start to pink a little, as has already been said use it once in a while.
BP Ultimate on the other hand my car hates. Runs like a bag of bolts on the stuff!

[v8_steve]

My 1993 4.0 Chimaera runs find on 95.

[s5tuart]

If V-Power goes up any more in price I'll try running on Jack Daniels! It'll be cheaper in a couple of months time!