Fuel - What do you use?

[Wardski]

Yeah I have heard stories of that happening, with the one near my area it's all fine, my missus commented that she's filled up with some V-power from near her work and it ran fairly good, then filled up with Ultimate at the servo near our house and felt even better, so IMO that BP churns out good batches.

What can often happen is that either the batch is off or the under ground storage tanks are near their "use by date", working in a petrochemical engineering firm as a piping and mechanical designer in my previous work, the storage vessels will sometimes have to be decommissioned and either replaced or treated (cleaned up)...

I worked in such particular project on an onshore site where that was the case, and you will also notice a few servos being teared down for this same reason, and of course for renovations...

IMO, its very rare that a batch of fuel will go off at any one particular servo, due to the shear frequency that its used and re-filled. Water ingress and condensation occur, but this is regularily drained from the bottom of the tanks prior to refilling. The general concensus in industry is that it generally takes between 6-8 weeks for fuel to loose 2-3 octane points, and then it drops off pretty rapidly >8 weeks. Typically a tank of 98 RON will hit 91 RON in about 8-10 weeks.

BP servos can be a bit hit n miss, but when you find a good one - stick with it. Its also worth noting that some servos "look" like BP owned and supplied, but are actually independent franchises. The independent BP servos tend to use a blend of BP and overseas supplies (generally what ever they can get their hands on cheap), which can account for lower density ultimate fuel and hence cause issues. Caltex also have independents (eg woolworths branded)

In ground tanks usually last between 20-25 years, and are very rarely removed. In the case where a servo might change brands, the new owner will usually (but not always) install new tanks. In accordance with the Petroleum act, every service station has to have their tanks drained, wall thickness and rate of corrosion checked, vessel re-certification carried out, and steam cleaned once every 12 months regardless to maintain quality storage.

[acko13]

My late 2005 6MPS has had tankfuls of most of the major 98 octane fuels avaialable, and I am fairly certain that there is bugger all difference between them. I say that from careful checking of fuel usage. I find Ultimate no better than Caltex for example, but of course BP has put a lot of money into advertising their product, so I guess if you think it works for you then use it.
Could not get the Shell 100 in Adelaide, so can't comment on that.

[240MPS]

I don't have a problem with Caltex, Shell I will use them and them only if I can't get BP. I have done so many tests and I always WITHOUT FAIL get 50k's plus out of the tank of BP.......

[WispRush]

I get always use BP ultimate. I figure I bought a performance car so i should treat it nice.

I only get 430-440k's per tank. 2/3's of my driving is less than 10 minute trips so that may be affecting my fuel economy.

[240MPS]

I get always use BP ultimate. I figure I bought a performance car so i should treat it nice.

I only get 430-440k's per tank. 2/3's of my driving is less than 10 minute trips so that may be affecting my fuel economy.

Not bad I feeled up on Friday morning and did some suburb driving and had 83k's on the clock before I drove down to Kingscliff for the Club BBQ at the salts and I'm sitting above 1/2 a tank with 382k's so hopefully i should achieve 600k's from this tank with 300k's of hwy driving and 45min's sitting on the hwy crawling from a truck breakdown to one lane on the way back to brissy....

[Yeldarb]

Fuel experts out there? why don't we have this in Oz yet? Comes in octane ratings of 108, 111, and 114. OMFG!!!

Bit of a blurb from a local US paper...

Green racing fuel 'Ignite' gains proven - Tampa Bay sports car | Examiner.com

[Wardski]

I'd love to see an MPS ECU workout timings for this stuff

[240MPS]

I'd love to see an MPS ECU workout timings for this stuff

Well the guys from Grand Prix mazda were saying they did a dyno on the race car with Elf 104 fuel and produced 240HP at the wheels for a production car. (Stock Std) Rino thinks at $5 a ltr I'm happy with Premium BP I would like to try it for a dyno day should get around 270 to 280HP in mine they think going by the figures on Jakes car....

[Wardski]

Its not worth the risk IMO. Stress testing ya pride n joy on some high end race fuel and without a proper tune..... Theres a high chance of detonation which could mean the end...

Thats another reason why even Chip Torque ask you what brand of fuel you use, so they can tune it to suit

---------- Post added at 11:37 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:34 AM ----------

Well the guys from Grand Prix mazda were saying they did a dyno on the race car with Elf 104 fuel and produced 240HP at the wheels for a production car.......

Really?? Show me a Dynograph. I wouldn't believe a word that GP Mazda said unless they gave me some visual proof....

[240MPS]

Really?? Show me a Dynograph. I wouldn't believe a word that GP Mazda said unless they gave me some visual proof....[/QUOTE]


Really the look of Joseph face when he walked back into the dealership the day we were picking up my sister n laws Mazda 2... I will see if there is a print out otherwise Richard will have a copy in the computer, but then again talking to Graeme from Motorsport he was amazed to. Why wouldn't you believe them, well I spend most of my time at Allstar Tuning, mainly talk to Jake from GP otherwise the racing crew mechanics... Yeh it's one of the reasons I haven't thrown the stuff into my car Wardski, but have asked and richard was ok if I put some in my car ( He didn't say no ) he's tuned mine to have some safe mode I just say make sure it doesn't go BOOM ... * Makes note to remember to ask in the new year*.....

[rd415]

Fuel experts out there? why don't we have this in Oz yet? Comes in octane ratings of 108, 111, and 114. OMFG!!!

Bit of a blurb from a local US paper...

Green racing fuel 'Ignite' gains proven - Tampa Bay sports car | Examiner.com

Ah!!!!! the truth finally comes out - guess what raises the Octane in premium and ultimate fuels - please tell me what expert says ethanol is a bad thing.

[projectrracing]

we do have that stuff is oz - it's called E85 - V8 supercars use it.

[Yeldarb]

we do have that stuff is oz - it's called E85 - V8 supercars use it.

...and you can buy it at a pump near you.

http://www.unitedpetroleum.com.au/media.asp?pgID=203

Wiki also states that turbocharged cars that have been converted to run on E85 can expect 10-15% power gains from the cooler intake charge and high stability from it's higher octane level.

So wouldn't it make sense for those who have had there car tuned, ensure its tuned for E85?

Just putting it out there!

[240MPS]

...and you can buy it at a pump near you.

e85 launch in Sydney and Melbourne

Wiki also states that turbocharged cars that have been converted to run on E85 can expect 10-15% power gains from the cooler intake charge and high stability from it's higher octane level.

So wouldn't it make sense for those who have had there car tuned, ensure its tuned for E85?

Just putting it out there!

There's more than just a tune Brad there will be components that need to be changed like hoses and seals...and I'm sure there is others that members will mention

[rd415]

For all those who carried on about the use of ethanol - please read Yeldarb link to united fuel - it's been kept secret for a while that it is actually ethanol that is being used to raise octane ratings for many years. We have all been using ethanol fuel without knowing.

...and you can buy it at a pump near you.

e85 launch in Sydney and Melbourne

Wiki also states that turbocharged cars that have been converted to run on E85 can expect 10-15% power gains from the cooler intake charge and high stability from it's higher octane level.

So wouldn't it make sense for those who have had there car tuned, ensure its tuned for E85?

Just putting it out there!

---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 AM ----------

There's more than just a tune Brad there will be components that need to be changed like hoses and seals...and I'm sure there is others that members will mention

NOT TRUE - hoses & seals made of rubber YES, but rubber has not been used in automotive components for years - just another well told fib to "dumb down" the general public.

[240MPS]

For all those who carried on about the use of ethanol - please read Yeldarb link to united fuel - it's been kept secret for a while that it is actually ethanol that is being used to raise octane ratings for many years. We have all been using ethanol fuel without knowing.

---------- Post added at 10:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:57 AM ----------



NOT TRUE - hoses & seals made of rubber YES, but rubber has not been used in automotive components for years - just another well told fib to "dumb down" the general public.

Is that right dirty dogs.. I will do some research into this because isn't E85 cheaper to buy Cheaper and more power

[rd415]

Be careful of what you read and double check if not triple check your sources. There is some really good information recently released by the NSW state government on ethanol fuel trials in NSW that date back to the 50's and 60's. Ethanol had been used without the publics knowledge.

Most of the info I have found on octane has been from U.S. sources about fuels from other countries. Much of the research from these sites includes Australian fuels and their superior qualities and octane to U.S. Fuels. There is very little info from Australian sources.

[TD]

On the topic of MPS's running higher octane fuels and the dyno results, I turned around 12kw more at the wheels than other stock MPS's on the day using Shell V Power Racing when it was available...no other differences. Lends weight and backs up what the Grand Prix guys experienced when trying the Elf fuel.

[Wardski]

On the topic of MPS's running higher octane fuels and the dyno results, I turned around 12kw more at the wheels than other stock MPS's on the day using Shell V Power Racing when it was available...no other differences. Lends weight and backs up what the Grand Prix guys experienced when trying the Elf fuel.

There's no doubt higher octane gives a cleaner more efficient burn, and somewhat a small amount of more power - Putting on my devil's advocate hat, the safest option is always to have your car tuned to what ever you're using. Stock ECU timing is set to certain limits, that goes for both high, and low octane levels. Anything over 98 RON for stock tuned cars is usually a plaecebo more than anything else.

With regards to your extra 12kW danski, no offence dude, but your car has a habit of pulling good and bad runs... Could have been the temp, humidity, air density, pre-dyno warm-up, lower oil levels - literally anything to give you the extra kW on the day......

[240MPS]

With regards to your extra 12kW danski, no offence dude, but your car has a habit of pulling good and bad runs... Could have been the temp, humidity, air density, pre-dyno warm-up, lower oil levels - literally anything to give you the extra kW on the day...... [/QUOTE]

This is true Wardski we all saw Brackaus ( Simon) car dyno'd in the morning and then later in the arvo and ended up with 20 odd kw's more....