Premium Fuel....Worth it?

Ok to those few of us with the petrol engine who runs what fuel and why.
I run a tank of premium from time to time and the truck pings less and pulls a bit harder however hard to justify the extra cost for round town stop n start.
Does anyone run premium unleaded full time and get better fuel economy .Also does anyone have a preferred fuel as in Shell over BP Caltex or Mobil.

Still very unsure on Ehtanol blends but if someone runs it and finds it does the job well jump right in and say so .

This is another one of those topics where it's probably quite a bit about personal preference more than it is about the actual fuel itself. We've debated and discussed the diesel fuel differences and that may also have leaked into the unleaded fuel differences as well but really having someone say their car runs so much better on one fuel over another really doesn't prove it will be the same for everyone.

Different cars do different things, I never ran premium unless I had to in any of my previous cars and the few times I did I couldn't say there was a definitive difference, others with the same cars might have said there was a difference running premium but to me there wasn't.

However the one slightly interesting test we inadvertently did a few years back crossing the Nullarbor was using Biounleaded in a Subaru Forrestor and a Crewman ute. Had we known in advance the servo we were stopping at was Bio only we may not have pushed to get that far but in the end we decided to use it and get just enough to get us a further 250ks to the next servo. In my Forrestor there was no problems, the car ran as it had for the previous 2000 odd ks, fuel consumption didn't change dramatically and the revs sat constant. But in the old mans Crewwie about 100ks into the trip the car started over revving then miss firing. The ECU reported an error which meant nothing to us and sounded the warning alarm, the car was then switched off for about 5 mins. After switching the car back on the ECU reported no further problems, the alarm bells were quiet and apart from the revs being a bit high for the rest of the trip to the next servo nothing else happened.

When we got to Perth the Holden dealer ran his diag program and the ECU told him the alarms were ringing because the car was registering a temp of -40C which is a tad low given that the outside temp gauge on my Subaru was telling me it was 41C. Whether it was the fuel causing the problem or not no one could honestly tell us and the Holden techie reckoned that the ECU problem was a glitch and not an actual fault. Either way we didn't bother stopping at the same servo on the way back to Vic.

In my previous cars I ran premium also to test it out. The Honda Prelude loved it and I got better economy. So it was worth running in that car. The Toyota 4Runner made no difference at all.
I am just curious is anyone has definitive figures for a V6 D40. Now that being said it will be only a relative figure as the 4x2 has a different final diff ratio so I get better economy anyway.On a recent trip to Sydney from Canberra I was getting down into the 10's at 110 odd kms per hour.80kmsper hour will give me into the 8's so not shabby at all but travelling on a highway at 80 is damm dangerous.
I was following a mates daughter on her L plates and on a Canberra learners permit she is only allowed to do a max of 80 outside the ACT. Can do 100 in the ACT but not out of it. Totally retarded but anyway.
I remember reading somewhere that Ethanol eats alloy unless its anodised so not overly keen on running that full stop.However I have heard rumours that they will phase out standard unleaded in a few years .

Your engine shouldnt ping anyway if its meant to use 91RON and its tuned/maintained/ driven(gear selection) correctly.
Use 95 or 98RON if you have a HP factory engine or you have souped it up yourself, more so if you have raised the compression ratio from standard.
As for mileage, 'can-o-worms'
though i have used it purely on long hwy or interstate trips with good results though not under lab conditions.
Keep in mind an engine that is tuned/designed for use with 91RON will not gain performance advantage of that same engine tuned for the higher RON fuel, eg: timing/compression alterations.

I use 98RON only with all my 2stroke engines though.

AAhhh but do you add 2 stroke oil

KraftyPg said:

AAhhh but do you add 2 stroke oil

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Yes I do, there said I said it!


















































IN MY 2STROKE ENGINES!

Wouldn't it make more sense to use 4 stroke oil in a 2 stroke or is it's better to use 2 stroke oil in diesel. or does it go the other way and you should use Oil of Ulan in 2 strokes?

or maybe this isn't the time and place to discuss 2 stroke engines

Personally (dont tell anyone), i use my wife's Nivea skin cream, works a treat keeping my scrotum bags wrinkle free and young looking......arrrghhh...
sorry back to the topic,
that reminds me should start a new argument...
oops, sorry i mean thread about those oils.

Krankin said:

Personally (dont tell anyone), i use my wife's Nivea skin cream, works a treat keeping my scrotum bags wrinkle free and young looking......arrrghhh...
sorry back to the topic,
that reminds me should start a new argument...
oops, sorry i mean thread about those oils.

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Gawd I thought I was having one of those mornings but you must be having a doozy compared to me

<Mod Voice>This is wrong lets get back on topic</End Mod Voice>

Lets.........

Engines as stock as a rock only using a K&N filter and thats it
It only pings for a few seconds when you first take off as the ECU does its thing. Has always done it and it checks out ok.

Aussie Frontier said:

Engines as stock as a rock only using a K&N filter and thats it
It only pings for a few seconds when you first take off as the ECU does its thing. Has always done it and it checks out ok.

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Engine must have a knock sensor fitted then.

It up to you though what fuel you use.

I'd be happy with the 92RON if thats what Nissan specify.

Aussie Frontier said:

K&N filter

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Nnnngh.


My other car (2.4L V6) requires 95RON minimum, which sucks ($$$). I often put the United 5% ethanol crap in it because I'm poor and it's a 95 which is as cheap as 91. The economy is about 10L/100km mixed cycle. Running 100% dinosaur 98 yields about 9L/100km mixed cycle. It probably works out cheaper to use the 98, I've never checked. Performance difference negligible.

I think the NRMA or some mob like that did a study and determined that although the higher octane fuel does give you slightly more horsepower - which can be traded off as slightly better economy - over a tank of fuel, the increase in cost of the fuel is higher than the savings made by the better economy.

The same thing is true of the ethanol blends, the report said. The savings in cost for using the ethanol blend was not offset by a similar drop in performance/economy. They used far more fuel than they saved money.

In other words, in both cases, you're just lining the pockets of the fat oil company execs even faster.

Using it will really come down to preferences, in the long run. Do you buy Dairy Farmers' Milk or the No-Name Milk? Someone still had to haul that juice out of a cow, regardless of which label is riding on the back.

If you're happy paying the extra, do it.

As for ethanol, I have heard horrid things about it too, yes it can slowly eat the aluminium, but they won't anodize the heads! I think many of the cylinder walls are nickel-plated at least, the valve seats are hardened inserts and everything from the exhaust port out doesn't matter. If it's fuel injected, the intake manifold doesn't matter either. The only thing to worry about is the head and I doubt the fuel sits there long enough to worry it, so again this one becomes a preference thing as well.

Pretty much what I thought . The newer engines dont do that much better on Premium fuels apart from lining someone elses pockets .

I started using premium after a mechanic mate told me premium fuels were better for your engine because of less engine knock and less deposits because it burns more compleatly. As I am driving the wifes Hyuandia Accent till it dies, I think a few cents per litre is worth it if I get few extra years out of the motor.

cheers

I heard similar Peter
Some Premium fuels are better than others apparently
I was told the best on the market at the moment is BP and thats cos its got better cleaning products n blah blah blah. Bottem of the pile at the moment is Shell as apparently they store their fuel for longer periods and have to use octane boosters to get close to the right numbers.
Now this is all info from one of the boys at work but that being said he usually does all the research in depth so am thinking he might be right.

Old.Tony said:

The same thing is true of the ethanol blends, the report said. The savings in cost for using the ethanol blend was not offset by a similar drop in performance/economy. They used far more fuel than they saved money.

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I saw a similar, or the same report, in the RACV waste of trees that I get every week it seems, but what it failed to take into account were the cost savings of using 95RON E85 versus dinosaur 95RON. The test only compared 95RON E85 against dinosaur 91RON and found that the savings were not sufficient to justify the use of E85. When 95 is anywhere up to 10cpl more expensive, the game changes. That's the only reason I use it. I don't enjoy using it particularly.

Can I please dust of this 4 year old thread and see what the current thinking toward premium fuels are with you guys? I just got off the tuned V8 bandwagon and would like to know if I can stop paying for 98 high octane petrol and put 91 into my Navara.

When it comes to brands, I usually stick with BP or Shell and avoid Caltex like the plague.

I am still running 95 in mine from Caltex ( woolies fuel card blah blah ) and honestly have no issues.In summer I regularly see the average for the tank around the 12L/100.If I really try I can get down to 11.7L/100.I tried 98 and saw no real difference.I have noticed the motor runs better on 95 , less pinging etc, than on 91.
In winter it runs a bit heavier on the fuel and gets around the 13.4L/100.
I travel the GDE every day from Gunners to Struggletown so around 70km round trip every day and when possible straight on the cruise control .It all depends on traffic but usually 90km/h is 5th gear and above I go into 6th .