A while ago we discussed the topic of optimax and if it was a 95 ron fuel with additives etc, well ive got the official reply back which i shall place on here, covering the sections i asked to be covered (which i will also place on here).
As there are a few people out there who wonder about the use of this fuel in Subaru's, this should hopefully ease some of your fears/answer some of your questions

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Subject: Some questions from Subaru Drivers about Optimax


Hiya Cathryn,
On Scoobynet (www.Scoobynet.co.uk) we are at this moment having a discussion
about Optimax and its benefits for our Subaru's.
A few questions have arisen though and even though i fill up with Optimax in
my UK Turbo car some of the other cars (mainly the Jap import WRX's and
STi's) need a higher octane fuel to run with to prevent detonation (100 ron
fuel).

A few of the questions that we need to have answers to are these.

1. How quickly does Optimax degrade in the fuel tank, ie how quick will the
RON go down?

2. Is Optimax an enhanced 95 ron fuel, an enhanced 97 ron fuel or a refined
98.6 ron fuel?

3. If its either an enhanced 95/97 ron fuel do you use octane boosters?

4. Alot of the Grey imports running Optimax also use octane boosters, is this
ok?

5. Some of our members are still weary of Shell due to the fuel they released
in the 80's which caused problems with some cars, how can you reassure them
that this wont happen with Optimax?

Thankyou in advance for your replies to these questions as some of these are
not answered on your website (or i havent found them.)

Kind Regards
Tony Burns

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Mr Burns,

Firstly please accept my sincerest apologies for the delay in responding to your email. I hope you will find these answers useful:

1. Petrol is manufactured to a specification which correlates to a storage stability of 2 years when stored under correct conditions. We do not, however, recommend that it is stored for a period of more than 6 months due to the seasonal variations of the fuel. The RON of Optimax would not decrease over the period of time that the fuel remains in the tank of the vehicle, and is only likely to decrease by 0.5 RON max under very extreme conditions.

2. Optimax is a completely new formulated fuel, the increased octane comes from refinery components and not octane boosting additives.

4. Optimax is suitable for use with octane boosting additives however we have not tested the performance of any so cannot recommend one over another.

5. Formula Shell contained a spark aider additive which was the cause of exhaust valve problems in a small minority of cars running on leaded petrol only. Shell Optimax is a completely different petrol formulation since it is an unleaded petrol and it does not contain the spark aider additive contained in Formula Shell.
We have extensive engine test data showing that this unique high octane, clean burning petrol, with its market leading additive performance will enhance engine performance, improving responsiveness and giving superior acceleration. This has also been rigorously tested and benchmarked against other petrols currently available in the UK.

I hope these answers help!

Kind Regards,

Helen Scholey
Technical Manager - Automotive Fuels
Shell U.K. Oil Products Limited
Rowlandsway House, Rowlandsway, Manchester M22 5SB, United Kingdom



I hope that this answers your questions and mods, if you wish to move this then please do, i put it in General as people read more in here than anywhere else

Tony

 

Fanatastic research Tony this has put my mind to rest as to adding OB to Optimax as i was led to belive it was 95 with OB.

Mel.

 

Tony, thanks for this.

Quick question that you might want to bounce back...

First off...
...and then
So does it contain additives or not? Should be simple enough to answer, but I'm reading the response as contradictory. Perhaps it's the way I'm reading it?
Cheers,
Nick.

 

I think what they mean is that the fuel is 98RON on its own, but has additives so that it can burn cleaner etc (i.e. not for enhancing RON).

 

Chiark, it says no octane boosting additives. That doesnt mean there are no other additives in it!

 

I beleive the additive's are detergents, not octane boosting

 

Riiiight, I understand - I think . It's Friday afternoon is my only defense

So it's refined at 97+, and additives are for clean burn etc.
Ta,
Nick.

 

Lol!
I know the feeling Nick but as above, i believe that is whats meant by "additives".

Tony

[Edited by TonyBurns - 1/17/2003 7:11:55 PM]

 

Also where is answer no 3?


Mel.

 

Question 3 was dependant upon the answer to question 2

 

Thanks for the info
My Sti 7 PPP loves the stuff...rather too much of it I'm afraid, so whats new.
Seriously, adding boosters is an unknown with optimax, but a fair assumption is you will get a higher RON for your money starting with Optimax than on Super and that should be a good thing for all users.
Pre PPP my car just did not like Optimax.....I just wonder why thats all.

 

Was it always Optimax that was on sale from the start as Rice Rocket suffered deposits on his valves using Optimax(or was it Formula Shell) and OB.

Good info Tony and thanks.

 

IIRC I used to use 'formula shell' in my 2 year old Mk1 RS1600 !
To give you an idea how long ago it was !!!

 

Nice one Tony this thread is now bookmarked and will appear again when the usual folk law, old wives tales, and general uninformed rubbish from the local pub chemical engineers about Optimax is posted . I will continue to use Optimax as my RA loves the stuff (a bit too much sometimes at 18mpg ).

 

LOL! that feeling i know (low mpg occasionally ) but my scoob also loves this stuff, if anything she cant get enough of it

Tony

 

She didn't state what Ron optimax is though Did she. Answered in a true Politician Fashion

Dean
[Edited by DeanF - 1/18/2003 5:44:17 PM]

[Edited by DeanF - 1/18/2003 5:46:16 PM]

 

You guy's must be very lucky,
Over here in Belgium, I recently contacted SHELL with the question about Optimax that isn't sold here.
The answer was very straight :
As a consequence of the policy followed by the governement, we are not allowed to sell Optimax here in Belgium, the reason is that 100 Octane fuel will bring drivers to bad ideas. The main reason of Optimax is to upgrade the performance of an engine, clean the combustion chambers etc. (see also the article in EVO magazine about Optimax). As a result, if your car perform better, you will drive faster, thats the tought here in governement.
So Optimax will not be tolereated, the main reason is the contra vision of some of the green boy's, now they have it done by placing everywhere gatso's and flashers, the newt thing is to forbidden 98 and 100 Octane fuel, maybe after that they can put some speedramps every 2miles on the highway's, just to make us aware of the speedlimits ????

 

Andy do they not sell Optimax in Europe under the old 'Formula Shell' name??

That's where my question comes from.

 

Oh by the way, that mentioned article in EVO magazine is something very inetresting : they use it in a M3 coupe, Itegra R, Jaguar and some other cars, there were photo's inside the engine before and after, and times of performance from 0 - 60,60 - 90 and so on,
In most cases, the engine internals where much cleaner, the average mpg raised and the performance times were much better, you must read it to believ it, and that just with some tanks of fuel...

 

Maybe it's possible, but the guy with Shell that helped me out says that Optimax is never sold in Belgium... So anyway, I use SUL 98, only when going to the 'ring' I use German Fuel, and they have Optimax.
I have made a compairason test for myself : When using Shell 98 or Q8 98 fuel, my car makes about 22 mpg, when using some other brand like BP or several little fuel staions, it goes the way of 18 to 17 mpg, and not running as smooth as with the previous !!!!

 

try and find a shell garage in Ireland (North or South) that sells optimax. a big nada. yep u read it right. none. and shell uk dont have plans anytime soon to distribute it in ireland. second class citizens again due to corporate penny pinching.

cheers

big sinky

 

Good work Tony.

I've used Optimax in my modded UK since it came out. I averaged 210 mile per tank on the type of driving I did. I recently tried a tank of SUL and NF, and the mileage dropped to 190 from the tank and the car didn't seem so happy.
I'll defo keep using Optimax

 

for me optimax and NF is far and away the best combo in my car, also confirmed by my knocklink.

 

My average cons of a tank SUL is 220 miles, when using some dark brand like petrol stations with no well known name the cons drops to 180 or less !!!!!!!!!!!!! everything depends on the fuel !!!!!
Last there was a car in our garage who has over 3 litres of water in his fuel tank, and completely correded exhaust (on the inside) and fuel lines !!!
He bought his fuel by such a station, now he changed to Shell and has no problems anymore !!!

 

My car runs a little smoother on Optimax but is faster on SUL. See my findings in this thread:

http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...hreadID=162399

 

With so many other variables esp air temp I am settling for non detting and smoother. Interesting you found yours quick on SUL as mine felt considerably quicker on Optimax + booster than SUL+booster. Must be the JDM chip and VF29 . Should be funny now as now Optimax is a true super unleaded should it not be referred to here after as SSUL.

BTW mine is runnign 1.2 bar in 4th and 5th. Still confused how your car can be quicker if you have had to turn the boost down

[Edited by chrisp - 1/18/2003 9:22:08 PM]

 

2. Optimax is a completely new formulated fuel, the increased octane comes from refinery components and not octane boosting additives.


still doesnt say what ron it is!!

 

nope, that answer says nothing about what this fuel is.

Wally, i drive through Belgium a fair amount, everywhere sells 98RON. Our Super Unleaded is 97RON with optimax suposedly at least 98RON, so you arent exactly the poor relation in this debate.

 

Guys,
I must say the letter has been written VERY well by Shell! What i dont see is a clear cut answer to the $1m question. 'Is Optimax 98.something RON' like they claim it to be. I did not see an answer of that sort. Shell will not say YES sir this is 98 ron petrol. I dont think they ever will.
I still say that it is a big farse! Another money making scheme for shell.

Gez

[Edited by Gez - 1/19/2003 1:48:21 AM]

 

BigSinky
Just moved to belfast with my Legacy GTB could have sworn i bought optimax at the shell on the ring road between newtonards road and forestside near the MG dealer - there's 2 shells on opposite sides - hope this helps

[Edited by Pigster - 1/19/2003 1:52:53 AM]