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Comments Posted by Ari [Email] ![]() ![]() In Reply to: Re: Fuel rating recommendations (long), MS, Thu, 9 Aug 2001 15:29:51 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Octane rating is ONLY a measure of a fuel's resistance to knock. It has no effect on internal heating or fouling. There is a level of octane rating at which your car won't knock at full boost. Any higher octane rating IS a waste of money.
So why the comment about lower octane fuels? Partly because SOME refiners are a little more careful about 'premium' gas. Premium usually is more than just higher octane; quite often it has more cleaners and other nice additives. So you get a 'better' gas along with the higher octane, one that might burn a little cleaner, and reduce varnish buildup, etc. But that's because the fuel is 'premium', not because of the octane rating.
'Build your own' fuel would worry me. Fuel is pretty tricky stuff, and reducing knock at the same time retaining the proper volatility isn't easy. You want high octane fuel? Use diesel - it has a whopping high octane rating. Of course, your car won't run on it. I would worry about a bunch of things - that the additives would foul the engine, that the changes would adversely affect other useful properties, and last but not least, that the additives would kill your catalytic converter. A cat is a pretty delicate beast - the active element is only a few molecules thick. The wrong stuff can 'poison' the cat, and it'll cease to work. Not a happy thing in a state where they do emissions testing.
posted by 140.157....
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