Post by Dandy Dan on Jun 14, 2007 13:52:30 GMT -5
Countless times I hear about people switching to high octane gas or asking about it as an attempt to squeeze a bit more go out of ours engines. Please don't and here's why:
The idea that higher octane gas = more power is a complete myth that is spread by oil companies looking to sell you a more expensive product. They do it with their advertising and by giving the high octane fuels decieving names like Shell's 'V-Power'.
The reality is, high octane gas has less potential energy than 87 gas because it contains proportionally less gas (energy) and more octane (filler). The sole purpose of octane is to make it harder to ignite the gas, which is required in some high performance engines with their crazy compression ratio's etc because the gas can ignite too early and damage the engine. It is not some highly explosive additive that creates a bigger bang. You will get peak performance out of your bike by using the lowest octane rating you can get away with. If you go too low then your fuel may start to pre-ignite (aka 'ping') which is very hard on your engine because the air/fuel mix ignites while the piston is still on it's way up which can blow a hole through your piston. Honda did a lot of testing on our engines to find out which octane level is lowest we can safely use and this is what you want to run. The only performance advantage of high octane gas is that it saves weight by lightening your pockets.
Actually, the only advantage of premium fuels is that some high octane fuels also contain additional additives to keep your engine cleaner. I don't know which high octane fuels do and which don't and realistically this a very minor issue but this is the only logical reason people can give for using higher octane gas when it's not required by the manufacturer.
To sum it up: Some fast vehicles need high octane fuels but the high octane fuels aren't what makes them fast. High octane fuels are just required to keep these cars from blowing up.
The idea that higher octane gas = more power is a complete myth that is spread by oil companies looking to sell you a more expensive product. They do it with their advertising and by giving the high octane fuels decieving names like Shell's 'V-Power'.
The reality is, high octane gas has less potential energy than 87 gas because it contains proportionally less gas (energy) and more octane (filler). The sole purpose of octane is to make it harder to ignite the gas, which is required in some high performance engines with their crazy compression ratio's etc because the gas can ignite too early and damage the engine. It is not some highly explosive additive that creates a bigger bang. You will get peak performance out of your bike by using the lowest octane rating you can get away with. If you go too low then your fuel may start to pre-ignite (aka 'ping') which is very hard on your engine because the air/fuel mix ignites while the piston is still on it's way up which can blow a hole through your piston. Honda did a lot of testing on our engines to find out which octane level is lowest we can safely use and this is what you want to run. The only performance advantage of high octane gas is that it saves weight by lightening your pockets.
Actually, the only advantage of premium fuels is that some high octane fuels also contain additional additives to keep your engine cleaner. I don't know which high octane fuels do and which don't and realistically this a very minor issue but this is the only logical reason people can give for using higher octane gas when it's not required by the manufacturer.
To sum it up: Some fast vehicles need high octane fuels but the high octane fuels aren't what makes them fast. High octane fuels are just required to keep these cars from blowing up.
Nice job DD. I was suckered by that crap too. 
I'll be doing the big bore this winter so then I guess that I'll need the higher octane. But until then. Again DD, nice job which is what we've come to expect of you my friend. 
I wanted 93, but there is a lot of places where the highest is 91, so it is design for 91, some people have CDI and modded heads and report advantages to using higher octane, but i have not confirm that 