fuel octane

[Cobia]

I actually went to my local marina and bought/ran a couple of tankfulls of non-ethanol mid-grade fuel (89 octane) to see if there was a differnce in mpg and/or performance. I didn't notice any difference at all, so I returned to regular unleaded ethanol. I even tried the old wives tale of dropping in an ounce or two of ether per tankfull and..... NADA. So, I'm back to regular unleaded at the cheapest price I can get it which gives me the same performance w/out pinging and such.
For what it's worth.......

[trbig]

I am a little more suprised that it says leaded gasoline, as the U.S. was switching over to unleaded by the early 80's, so you think that the placard would say unleaded (or both).

I got out of high school in '86 and worked at a service station (You know.. those places that would actually service your car, wash the windshield, change the oil, etc..) and they were phasing it out then. Regular was getting hard to find to fill the tanks by May of '87 when I went in the military. This was also at the time when I got to see gas go up to $1 a gallon for the first time. There were lots and lots of pumps that couldn't go to a buck, only 99.9 cents. A lot of places would change the meter so you would be charged 50 cents for a half gallon. Same difference.

So.. still plenty of regular gas in the late 70's early 80's.


I remember always using gasoline as a solvent for cleaning things.. cleaning paint brushes, etc. Afterwards, you could wash your hands well and it would be gone. Now, you get "gas" on your hands, and you get to smell it for a couple days.

[jetmechmarty]

I actually went to my local marina and bought/ran a couple of tankfulls of non-ethanol mid-grade fuel (89 octane) to see if there was a differnce in mpg and/or performance. I didn't notice any difference at all, so I returned to regular unleaded ethanol. I even tried the old wives tale of dropping in an ounce or two of ether per tankfull and..... NADA. So, I'm back to regular unleaded at the cheapest price I can get it which gives me the same performance w/out pinging and such.
For what it's worth.......

Yep! 87 is all it needs.

[cywelchjr]

As for the super, I've actually found that while Brutus gets along fine with mid grade gas, he really doesn't like premium, and runs like crap. And even if it doesn't run bad, these engines will tend to carbon up running premium unless you modify the timing so that you MUST use premium because they won't be completely burning the fuel before the exhaust valves open. And if you change the timing, because of the longer time the flame front will be contacting the piston and head, the engine will run slightly hotter, not a good thing for an air cooled engine.

PS, many think that when this is said about an engine running hotting with premium fuel its because the fuel burns hotter, this is NOT true, it's purely because since it burns slower, the flame burning slower is in contact with the metal surfaces longer and transferring heat longer.

[James England]

Japanese bikes and cars have, for decades, been designed to run on unleaded fuel.

I lived in Japan in 1988 and all the vehicles there ran on unleaderd. Leaded fuel was not even available. They were running on unleaded years before many other countries.

My XS1100 had an OEM sticker advising the use of unleaded fuel. I've never run any Japanese motorbike on anything else.

[Lonerider62]

I just made the trip back to Michigan from Lake Havasu City, AZ and I was interested in the number of stations across the country that listed "regular" as 86 octane vs the "normal" 87 that I'm used to here in Michigan. The XS ran just fine. Since 1965 I've run nothing but regular in anything I've had to put gasoline in except a couple Harleys that I had (84 FLH, 87 Sportster, 2002 Sportster, 2004 Superglide, and 2006 VRSCD) and even with those, when I had to or just wanted to try regular or mid-grade, I never experienced a detonation problem although Harley insisted you use "high octane". The only vehicle I have owned that did have detonation problems was a 1976 Ford Pinto and then that was when it got really hot from running in the mountains of Tennessee and Kentucky. That sucker would detonate like it was going to explode, but never did. It had the 2.3L engine and I also had a 72 with the 2.0L which was a German design if I remember correctly and it was a great little runner, no detonation at all.

[Shockman54]

non oxy fuel?

my brother in law ( by no means a bike expert, but he does know more than me) told me to use non oxy fuel. anyone know anything about that?

[jetmechmarty]

I believe he's trying to tell you to avoid E10, or ethanol blended fuel. That is becoming difficult to do. He is right.

[trbig]

When I lived in Denver, they had "Oxygenated fuel" They talked of it being better for the smog, but worse on motors. No idea what was in it (Or not in it). Was it just an early form of what's now called ethanol blend?