General Shell V Max fuel - Hmm?... Yay or Nay?

[mr500]

Decided to brim my tank with shell v-max at 90p litre.

It does feel quicker. Or am I imagining it?

I mean my cinq has no knock sensor to optimise timing. Has a lambda though.

At the end of the day does it make any difference? On a turbo you can turn up boost 'til it dets. and back off say 1psi. So it's worth it on a blown motor.

Anyway the Cinq. yay or nay people?! :idea:

 

[arc]

i use it, but thats down to the increased compression.

on a 'normal' cinq i dont think theres much point, and before mine was tuned i used normal fuel.

 

[cc1]

Higher octane fuel burns better and increases response and you should see better fuel consumption, But the extra cost per litre does not make up for the difference in the price.
In Germany I tried V Power 100 and it did make a little difference in performance but nothing to shout about.
Higher octane is primarily for high performance cars to stop the pinking.

 

[ycming]

Hmm , go to tesco and get their super unleaded as their octane level is 99 and only at 88.9 pence .

Shell V-max only 97 or something?

 

[cc1]

Hmm , go to tesco and get their super unleaded as their octane level is 99 and only at 88.9 pence .

Shell V-max only 97 or something?

The highest octane rating you get in UK that I have seen , Is 98.

It's a common misconception amongst car enthusiasts that higher octane = more power. This is simply not true. The myth arose because of sportier vehicles requiring higher octane fuels. Without understanding why, a certain section of the car subculture decided that this was because higher octane petrol meant higher power.
The reality of the situation is a little different. Power is limited by the maximum amount of fuel-air mixture that can be jammed into the combustion chamber. Because high performance engines operate with high compression ratios they are more likely to suffer from detonation and so to compensate, they need a higher octane fuel to control the burn. So yes, sports cars do need high octane fuel, but it's not because the octane rating is somehow giving more power. It's because it's required because the engine develops more power because of its design.
There is a direct correlation between the compression ratio of an engine and its fuel octane requirements. The following table is a rough guide to octane values per engine compression ratio for a carburettor engine without engine management. For modern fuel-injected cars with advanced engine management systems, these values are lowered by about 5 to 7 points.

Compression ratio Octane
5:1 72
6:1 81
7:1 87
8:1 92
9:1 96
10:1 100
11:1 104
12:1 108

 

[mr500]

In short.Dont bother!

 

[J333EVO]

The highest octane rating you get in UK that I have seen , Is 98.

Nope the person was right, Tesco sell a 99 Octane fuel which has a percentage of bi-ethonol in it, and Shell V Power is rated at 99 as well even says so on the Shell site.

And right here in Milton Keynes there are two petrol stations that offer BP Ultimate 102 Octane fuel, but this is very expensive at about £10 a gallon and is meant for track days etc and is only sold in a few stations near tracks (Milton Keynes near Silverstone)

Heres what i copied from a press release on it;

BP have released their Ultimate 102 Unleaded high-performance petrol onto several testing forecourts in the UK.

The revolutionary high-octane fuel is designed specifically for motor sport enthusiasts and is a dream come true for a tuned engine. It meets the same high spec of fuels used in F1 racing and the World Rally Championships.

It gets its name from its octane number of 102 and was designed to allow highly tuned engines to perform at their best. It also fully complies with BS:EN228 which is the UK specification for unleaded petrol - meaning it can be used legally on the road.

The exclusive fuel is ´hand made´ in small batches at BP´s speciality fuels technology centre in the UK.

BP Ultimate 102 unleaded is currently under trial at 6 sites across the UK, adding another 3 in June. If demand for the fuel is strong, BP will consider making it more widely available. A specialist fuel, the cost is £2.42 a litre but BP are confident that the motor sport enthusiasts this fuel is aimed at will welcome the chance to buy fuel of this type.

 

[allanhelen]

My Cavalier loves the Tesco stuff she will only run of full fat Super Unleaded but I have to travel miles to fill her her up

I use the Shell stuff in the Cinq and she runs much smoother on it although I find the economy is actually worse than if i use stock unleaded

 

[SkinzCinqSporting]

I use the Shell stuff in the Cinq and she runs much smoother on it although I find the economy is actually worse than if i use stock unleaded

I have found this true on my cinq also, although your's quite blatantly is a lot less standard

 

[StoneNewt]

Bah tesco's fuel sucks in my experience, but then every car is different. I found that Total normal delivered the best compromise of economy and smooth running on my old Punto 60.

Anyway, I'd only go for a 'premium' petrol with a tuned unit if you're talking about centos

 

[jamie86]

Ran mine on tesco super stuff before and felt exactly the same as using floptimax or any other branded one even used sainsbury's stuff which is normally 2p or more cheaper

 

[levemircento]

nay

waste of money. I used to race on an oval, I have used normal unleaded whcih was fine, then in search of a 'bit more power' I used shell optimax, no differnce, also super unleaded, no difference, the latter two also tried with octane booster, no difference, I went back to normal unleaded and I wasnt imagining it - the car ran better and used less fuel - it was being burnt properly by an engine designed to run on it.

the fuel above I was using in a standard spec ford cvh engine, and racing on a 380m oval track means its thrashed insanely in 2nd gear, in a combination of flat out acceleration to power out the corners, followed by high revs at the fastest part of the straight.

High octane fuels may do the job in a high compression racing engine, but for day to day use I would rather spend the extra on something else and buy standard unleaded, happy in the knowledge my car doesnt use much fuel and its even cheaper to run.

thats what i think anyway!!

 

[cc1]

Some interesting reading.

E10: you're using it right now
It's not widely known but a lot of petrol companies now blend up to 10% ethanol into their petrol products without really admitting to it, much less advertising the fact. If you've noticed your car runs somewhat less than the advertised gas mileage, that's part of the reason. Most of the gasoline in California is currently 5.7% ethanol (2% oxygen). Ethanol is blended into petrol for a variety of reasons including

as an oxygenate to reduce CO and HC emissions
an octane booster
to provide volume in place of MTBE
There's nothing wrong or underhanded about this, it's just a cost effective means to legitimate ends. So if the EPA tells you you should be getting 20mpg city and you're only getting 18mpg, even driving with a feather right foot, it's not you, it's the petrol companies. 10% ethanol blend will rob you of about 5% gas mileage, and EPA figures assume a pure non-ethanol petrol. Apart from the emissions regulations, money is a factor in ethanol blending - more product that is cheaper to produce but sold for the same price. You can bet your bottom dollar (or euro) that the European refineries are doing exactly the same thing.