General Which Type Of Unleaded To Use?

[electrolux]

Hi I recently bought a 1996 Red Cinquecento Sporting and would like to get the best performance out of the car, I was wondering whether I should use 95 or 97 unleaded and has anyone noticed any difference between the two?

Also should I be using a particular oil like 10/40 and/or fancy spark plugs?

any advice would be greatly appreciated

 

[custard]

on a standard engine i would say 'normal' unleaded is fine.
best bet is to try a tankfull of optimax or whatever and see how your car likes it.
even better reset the ECU as well to let it optimise for the octane rating

 

[electrolux]

thanks Custard

Is it right that I can reset the ECU by disconnecting the battery for half an hour or did I dream that ?

 

[custard]

yeah thats right

 

[Aust]

some texacos here ( brummy land) stock high octane fuel. to "optimise performance" before the cinq went in the garage for me to start the project on him my hand would always twitch towards it.. but the extra so many pence warned me off

top gear of fifth gear ? (not sure which one) did a test with numerous cars and various fuels and whacked them all on a dyno.. cant remember the out come.. but as far as i know.. if youve got a standard tune.. stick to your unleaded.. if youve had a good old tinker with it.. try all these other fuels on the market..

p.s ill have a look on youtube for that video mate.. watch this space

regards

 

[h2ypr]

You have to have an ecu that can actually adapt to the extra fuel.

Thats why on 5th gear they showed that the subaru got more power because it could adapt to the fuel. Also the golf got some extra i believe aswell.

Ross

 

[balidey]

Higher octane fuel does not give more power. Same as expensive spark plugs don't.

 

[h2ypr]

Higher octane fuel does not give more power. Same as expensive spark plugs don't.

Well, i would agree with the spark plugs, to a point. Using colder spark plugs does help generate more power, but yes on there own neither will produce more power. If your car can change the amount of ignition advance used due to increasing it till it knocks then putting it back a few degrees, then yes the fuelling will produce more power.

Ross

 

[electrolux]

Thanks for your replies,

So, if I have a box standard un-modded Cinq I should stick to standard unleaded fuel, as I will basically see little or no benefit on spending more money on the high octane fuel unless I have the kit to adjust to this fuel.

I was under the impression that it helped to clean the engine and give better MPG/Performance.

I have only just traded in my gas-guzzling Renault Laguna which was costing me nearly £200 a month in fuel and have now halved the tank size by driving the Cinq - £60 down to £30 to fill up is a dream !

 

[herpsuk]

well i put it in my panda once when i had it, it choked the poor thing and it kept stalling when slowing down and such, topped up with normal unleaded, drank it all to resrve and went normal again.

Optimax is produced for performance cars and high powered carsand modified cars. so leave it out of your car for now

 

[h2ypr]

Well actually, its produced for cleaning the engine and performance. Technically you *should* be able to use the high octane stuff without any probs.

Ross

 

[blu73]

I ran bp ultimate in my old sei for quite a while. It didn't seem to like it at first but on a 2nd tank car felt like it was more happy.. Can't say i ever really noticed any difference in performance when changing to it, nothing noticeable anyway. After running it for a few months BP ran out of ultimate so went back on normal BP unleaded and the car felt horribly unresponsive for 100miles or so. But then went back to normal..

Its not necessary at all to use them on a standard tune car i don't think after my trials with it but its not gonna do it no harm either, its upto you really mate.