Hi all,
Does anybody know how you can test the fuel in your tank to see what the ron is.Its ok buying octane booster etc but how do we know it\'s what it says on the tin. People don\'t want to turn the boost up because they think they are using a higher ron fuel to find out its not and end up doing any damage.
Regards
Mark
you can but its not simple.
The research octane rating is determined by running the fuel in a test engine with a variable compression ratio and comparing its "knock resistance" with a known fuel.
Quotefigure of merit representing the resistance of gasoline to premature detonation when exposed to heat and pressure in the combustion chamber of an internal-combustion engine. Such detonation is wasteful of the energy in the fuel and potentially damaging to the engine; premature detonation is indicated by knocking or pinging noises that occur as the engine operates. If an engine running on a particular gasoline makes such noises, they can be lessened or eliminated by using a gasoline with a higher octane number. The octane number of a sample of fuel is determined by burning the gasoline in an engine under controlled conditions, e.g., of spark timing, compression, engine speed, and load, until a standard level of knock occurs. The engine is next operated on a fuel blended from a form of isooctane that is very resistant to knocking and a form of heptane that knocks very easily. When a blend is found that duplicates the knocking intensity of the sample under test, the percentage of isooctane by volume in the blended sample is taken as the octane number of the fuel. Octane numbers higher than 100 are found by measuring the amount of tetraethyl lead that must be added to pure isooctane to duplicate the knocking of a sample fuel. At present three systems of octane rating are used in the United States. Two of these, the research octane and motor octane numbers, are determined by burning the gasoline in an engine under different, but specified, conditions. Usually the motor octane number is lower than the research octane. The third octane rating, which federal regulations require on commercial gasoline pumps, is an average of research octane and motor octane. Under this system a regular grade gasoline has an octane number of about 87 and a premium grade of about 93. Most American-made cars that were built in the 1971 model year or later can use regular gasoline. To prevent knocking, premium grade gasoline must be used in many cars built before 1971 and in some new cars that have high-performance engines
The UK uses Research Octane number btw .... so next time the yanks moan about the low octane fuel they have you can tell them otherwise as they use the Road Octane number which is generally lower for the same grade of fuel.
Unless i am wrong (which is quite often) i think the octane boosters are yet to be proven to boost octane rating??? Tried one a while ago and made no difference at all???:(
CRIKEY!!!!!!!
I new there must be a technical approach, and there i was thinking maybe you could add something to the fuel to get you a reading. So really we could be putting the finest grade (optimax) of fuel in our tanks and for all we know we could be putting 95 unleaded in and we\'d never know until it was to late.
cheers MikeLMR
Regards
Mark
QuoteOriginally posted by gsb876
Unless i am wrong (which is quite often) i think the octane boosters are yet to be proven to boost octane rating??? Tried one a while ago and made no difference at all???:(
unless your engine is detonating (which I hope it isn\'t as it wouldn\'t last very long) you won\'t feel a difference with octane boosters. All they will do is raise the knock resitance of the fuel.
The only way you would feel a difference is if your engine management is running a knock sensor and your current ignition map is being retarded by the knock sensor and the addition of the octane booster will allow the timing to be advanced witout the knock.
Ahhhh, did not know that, thanks Mike :)
millers or nf will work but they are not really for performance any gain will be marginal but they will help prevent knock so should be viewed not for a bhp increase but more a preventative measure..my impreza p1 was mapped for optimax and had a knock sensor led readout with optimax only ever showed slight knock on 1.4bar boost..had to put in super unleaded once and it lit up like a christmas tree on light boost