Sith

I have done a search but nothing turned up.

As we have a shortage of the above, I am wondering if I should put in 95RON.

Has anyone done a rolling road of two standard cars, one with Super and one with Normal to see if there were any power/acceleration differences?

If there are then I will wait until Super is freely available. I know of a couple of posts where people changed from Normal to Super and they reckoned there was a big change. But there are other people who say there is no discernable (sp) difference.

Anyone know of any tests or any views on this?

Cheers,

P.

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

I think it depends on the age and type of car. If its a recent std UK turbo then 95 is ok, you may loose a bit of smoothness (so I've been told) but once 97 goes back in the engine should return to how it was.
However I own a 95WRX and have been running on 97 + Millers octane booster since I've had it. Problem is I had to use 95 Ron petrol last week. Personally I believe that running full boost in my car on 95 fuel may well harm my engine, so until my tank runs dry I'm driving with restraint! Then its a fill with super + booster, an ECU reset and back to full boost with big grins.
If your car is a UK type then 95 will not harm your engine but if you're worried about performance then I suggest you stay off 95 if you can. But if you have no choice don't worry, if you do detect a difference you can always get the old performance back once you've refilled with super.

The last time I looked at the SIDC faq there was a good article on this.

Hope I've helped

Justin

Sith

Cheers Justin,

You have backed what I have read and believe. I have a UK car and will wait untill Super is more available as it is mainly a weekend car. I commute by train. Was interested if anyone had done a dyno session to backup what people say.

Cheers,

P.

barge

I stuffed 2 X 500Ml of Wins octane boost in with a 95 Ron fill up on Saturday, I dont know what Octane I have at the moment but 500 Ml is said to up the octane rate but between 2 & 5 points on 40 litres, I put in 45 litres and 1000 Ml and the WRX was going like a rocket on Saturday evening, better than normal but then I guess she was playing with 99 to 105 octane, expensive but will worth it in my book.

Hoppy

Here are some 'facts' on octane ratings that I have measured with a stop watch. I would love to know what it all boils down to on a dyno so I'm hoping Stef's dyno session next month may provide some more convincing evidence. My guess is that in my PPP car, changing from 95 RON to 97 RON SUL plus Millers Octane Plus (99 RON?)is worth at least 10 bhp, perhaps 15. We'll see.

Right, my car is a UK MY00 with ProDrive PP. According to the book it will run (slowly, but without damage) on almost any old fuel and I've never had any trouble with standard 95 RON. However, the ProDrive pack says 98 RON is best so I did some timed tests.

My early checks were with 95 RON against 97 RON SUL. I havn't kept the relevant data but the gains were similar to upgrading from 97 RON SUL to SUL with Millers Octane Plus, as detailed below.

Here's what I did. First find a quiet stretch of flat road. Run the tank low on SUL. Install son in rear seat, looking over your shoulder with stop watch. Hold the car at a steady 1,500 rpm in third and then floor it. When the counter passes 2,500 start the watch and stop it as it sweeps past 6,500 rpm, taking it right through the full torque curve. After about ten timed runs, a consistent picture emerged - 8.4 secs.

Now nip to local petrol station and fill tank with 97 RON SUL and a bottle of Millers. Find another bit of clear, quiet and safe road, put it in third and run it right through the rev range flat out for at least 20 seconds. This is not as easy as it sounds and you'll need lots of left-foot brake. TAKE EXTREME CARE AND DON'T TRY IT IN THE WET! Then give it some real hammer flat out through the gears. This should reset your ECU (more info on the SIDC site) to get the best out of the new fuel.

Then repeat the runs above. For me, the new average was 7.9 secs, in addition to similar gains when moving from 95 to 97 RON. The car also runs smoother and, I think, slightly more economically, too.

Hoppy

Sith

Top one Hoppy.

You have put some time and effort into your findings.

With your timeings don't forget the weight of fuel. So your time of 8.4 with low tank would be about a sec or so slower if it was full. Therefore your 7.9 figure is even better as this was done with a full tank and had it been empty you would have clocked a quicker time.

I shall be staying with SUL but still may have to resort to UL with Octane booster until the fuel crisis is over. As SUL is still scarce around here.

As I have a UK car without PPP would you recommend SUL with Octane booster, or would it be a waste of money? Keeping in mind it will get V expensive and Scoobs aren't cheap to run.

Cheers,

P.

Hoppy

Sith, thanks for your comments. You're right about the extra weight of the full tank of fuel but I wouldn't give it more than a tenth or two at most, but I think I've proved that there are real, measurable and worthwhile gains to be had from upping the fuel octane, at least if your car's ECU is able to exploit it.

I'm afraid I can't comment on the benefits of running a standard non-PPP equipped car on SUL or with Millers Octane plus. I didn't do any comparitive runs until I had the PPP installed, but theory would suggest there must be gains to be had.

Give it a go your self. The keys to getting consistent and comparable measurements are calm and stable weather conditions, flat, straight road with no traffic, a good stop-watch operated by someone who can look squarely at the dials, and a nearby petrol station so you can back-to-back your tests within a few minutes of eachother.

Anyone else want to have a go? I'd love to read your results.

Hoppy

robski

Hmmm,

interesting test, average of 10 runs should sort out the inconsistencys (spelling?)

what about the other way round, going from 97 say to 95. In theory the ECU should quickly retard back to the best for 95 ron.

I may try to give this a go. Even better would be one of them road dyno meters as this should remove the human error part of the equation.

Anyone got one of them darn fangled road dyno thingys?

robski

Wassap

Sorry gonna have to be dumb again as I'm new to all this.....

I'm currently running SUL in MY95 WRX and it seems to be running okay but it seems that I should be using Octane Booster etc. First of all whcih Octane Booster should I be using in my car and also what is an ECU reset?

Regards

Andy

P.S. Sorry for being a bit slow on the uptake!

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Wassap

Theres loads of info on this site about octane boosters and ECU resets, do a search and all will be revealed!
I use Millers plus, about £30 from Scoobymania for 10 bottles. 1 bottle treats 50 litres of fuel and ups the Ron by around 2 points.
The ECU can reduce the performance of your car if it detects poor fuel, in some cases (depending on year and make) the ECU wont optimise performance when it detects better fuel - it either sticks to the old settings or takes an average, which may take a while to happen. Resetting the ECU means it won't have any data to compare, so it starts from scratch and optimises settings for the particular fuel thats in your tank.
Thats how I understand it anyway

Justin