What fuel

[photomike666]

The tank range of a zx2r topic got me thinking of fuel, and I was wondering what everybody uses/swears by. I use BP Premium when I'm commuting and Ultimate for ride outs. The 6 feels horrid on standard unleaded and everything from safeway. Shell seems Ok but BP is best - not tried Mobil yet.

Has anyone tried octane boosters - are they any good and do they harm your engine?

[zxrarron]

well im from tassie and we dont get ur fang dangle mainland fuel. the best we get is premium. my mechanic told me to put an octane boost in once so i did seamed a little smoother but i dunno more of a mind thing. not sure what it actually does to engine though

[Smitty]

I use anything 'cept Opticrap....
after it killed a set of plugs, and stopped the engine

I never used to but now do use Safeway petrol from Caltex now and then
its now aussie fuel at their servos (at least in Vic)

I usually use Mobil..closest servo is the reason why

hth

cheers

[Nanna10r]

Primarily BP Ultimate, but as yoda said any high ( @98 ) octane besides Shell.
Cheers Brett

[zbeast]

I use Caltex Vortex 98 as one of the local BP's doesn't have Ultimate and the other one fixes their price at $1.20/litre. I haven't used Opticrap since my bike started running funny and my mechanic told me it was the fuel. I have used Mobil but again my local doesn't have it so its usually only if I need to fill up while on a ride.

[Felix]

I used BP Ultimate last week to try it out. No good with my little bike. Ran horribly. Normally throw in premium, but at the moment I've just got standard thinning down the remains of the Ultimate.

Never again with Ultimate.

[Silver12R]

Many will disagree but here goes,
I use Optimax in my 12r and find it quite good. Throttle is very crisp and responsive and the end of my muffler goes a light tan colour as oposed to black with the use of other fuels.
Nearly all cases of plug fouling I know of have been to bikes with carbies not fuel injection. Carb's need to be tuned to run properly on Optimax or plug fouling will occur.
Optimax is ok in bikes with F.I.
The other brand I like to use is BP Ultimate.
Has anyone had or know anyone else that has had problems with a Fuel Injected bike on Optimax?

[Aussie Ninja]

I have been talking to Marc from Factory Pro about timing advancers and weather I need to run high octane fuel. Apparently in California the best they get is 93. He said that the best fuel over there comes from BP and to just experiment with the different brands and use which ever fuel feels best in your bike. Apparently they tested all the local fuels in a bike on the dyno that were the highest octane rating and got 2hp difference from worst to best. Personally I use BP premium but I'm going to give Ultimate a go when the advancer goes in.

[diesel]

hey guys, i was told by the dealer mechanic not to put high octane fuel in my ZXR250.

is this total crap?

or will it destroy my plugs as others have suggested.

I use reg unleaded from mobile at the moment cos its round the corner from home and can pay at the pump.

no fukkin around takin my helmet and gloves off to pay.

cheers, vince

[Smitty]

hey guys, i was told by the dealer mechanic not to put high octane fuel in my ZXR250.

is this total crap?

or will it destroy my plugs as others have suggested.

I use reg unleaded from mobile at the moment cos its round the corner from home and can pay at the pump.

no fukkin around takin my helmet and gloves off to pay.

cheers, vince

Vince
if it works and the bike is OK (no playing up)
keep using it

[Plaz]

Yankee told me to only ever use LRP so I'm listening to him.........NOT!!

[dave#3]

Generally Caltex or Mobil - anything that's rated at 98 RON and doesn't come from a Shell or independant servo. I was doing BP but the local BP is a bit out of the way.

I haven't used a Shell fuel since they introduced half lead and one tank nearly killed my old Torrie.

[zbeast]

hey guys, i was told by the dealer mechanic not to put high octane fuel in my ZXR250.

is this total crap?

or will it destroy my plugs as others have suggested.

I use reg unleaded from mobile at the moment cos its round the corner from home and can pay at the pump.

no fukkin around takin my helmet and gloves off to pay.

cheers, vince

My mechanic told me the opposite. The ZXR has a compression ratio of something like 12.5:1 and I notice the difference when I have had to run the lower octane stuff. I ran some ELF (120 or something) in it on a ride day one time and it seemed to make it smoother but didn't affect my top speed so probably doesn't make more power.

[Felix]

Probably stick to using a quality premium (95RON) rather than the specialty fuels like Optimax, Ultimate etc.

A lot of the 98RON fuels are high density fuels - therein lies the problem for bikes and cars that run off carbies. They actually would need rejetting, and or retuning to work properly, and probably all you'd get out of it is slightly higher fuel economy. You'd need to balance the hundreds of $$$ you'd spend getting it dyoned and set up against what you'd save - basically it is uneconomical unless you do taxi type mileage.

I have put the 98's to the test in my Golf, with handy trip computer. No difference between the 98's and good old PULP 95. So I save the money. There is, however, a noticeable difference in PULP and Regular. The Clio is the same, so it isn't just the car.

I did run 98RON in my old BMW, but it was designed for 98RON, even said so in the handbook. It actually stopped pinging, and ran really sweetly on that 98 stuff.

Well that's been my experience for what it's worth, or not...

[Rusty]

8< -- snippage -- >8
Apparently in California the best they get is 93.
8< -- more snippage -- >8

Different method of measuring octane. For the same fuel, the Research Octane Number (RON) will be higher than the Motor Octane Number (RON). In the US, an average of the two is used (so I'm informed, anyway).

To the topic:

I use whatever I feel like at the time. Since cleaning out the carbs, my ZZR no longer pings on unleaded, but is an absolute cow to start in the mornings. If I use premium, it starts easily but tends to chew through the juice a little quicker (heavier on the throttle?). On standard unleaded there is a noticable dip in power at around 3000 rpm and an accompanying power spike at around 4500. On premium power delivery is smoother.

Basically, if I'm going to be droning I'll usually use standard. If I'm playing I'll use premium. It's interesting to note that in SE Qld Ultimate and Optimax are often the same fuel due to a distribution agreement between BP and Shell. Or so I'm told.