lets talk 'performance fuels and oils'

[brendan_h]

i just filled the tank up in my zook with some of the 6000 primium fuel they have at the mobile. the engine feels more smother. i dont know if its just me thinking it does or what.

whats your thoughs on primium fuel and the high performance oils like the castrol edge stuff

[coxy321]

Different horses for different courses. I cant see the point spending a small fortune on top of the line oil for a zuk - maybe an expensive car like a Merc/BMW etc., but not a zuk.

Some people have good results from different fuels too. Some love the 98RON stuff, some wont run on it at all, so it whatever suits you budget i guess.

I'd rather get normal good quality mineral oil and then spend the savings on mods.

U myte wnat to chek ur speeling befour postin too.

[dank]

I used to run the DD on United ethanol blend and would get about 550 max 600km out of a tank and then started using the Regular unleaded 91RON from Shell (couple cents more expensive) and started getting upwards of 650km-670km out of the tank...

Its a pretty accurate test due to driving same distance every day to work in same conditions and not much random weekend driving so I think the shell stuff is worth the extra few cents.

As for oils I've never noticed much of a difference when i had the 1.3 in my zook. i just stuck to the manufacturers viscosity guidelines and would run normally the valvoline XLD stuff which is mid priced mineral oil. The only thing I've lashed out on is Nulon additive for the diffs, gearbox and transfer as they get a work out...

[beinthemud]

i run lucas heavey duty oil stabilisers in all my oil ,great for diesels quietens them down reduces smoke ,more power, also in my diffs and transfer keeps everything mice and slippery

[Slunnie]

I'm not sure about Castrol Edge, but race oils are not suitable for DD's etc as they dont protect over that type of service interval.

High performance fuels are fine, but to get the best from them the motor needs to be setup for them, or have itself self adjust to suit. The other issue with high performance fuels is that they draw the lighter fractions which also vapourise off easier on hot days - so fresh fuel is best.

[alien]

fuel "quality" is determined by octane ratings... however, the lower the octane the more explosive the fuel, so more power - however its more prone to pinging etc... higher octane means a slower burning fuel...

Your zuk will run best on whatever its tuned to run... if you tuned it to run on 98 ron you'd most likely experience issues if you dropped to 91... and vice versa...

Oils - i like putting high quality oils and coolant in... when you're doing a lot of crawling/slow stuff the last thing you need to be thinking about is overheating!

[bogged]

lets talk 'save ya money from great marketing'....

[brendan_h]

lets talk 'save ya money from great marketing'....

yup i got sucked in

[beinthemud]

i sell castrol edge but wouldnt use it , espcially after watching the add were the car drops all that water on the ground

[macca81]

i sell castrol edge but wouldnt use it , espcially after watching the add were the car drops all that water on the ground

mmm yes its advertising that make up my mind on what to use...

[Dirty]

If you are running an EFI car, you should experience more power from the premium fuels and therefore depending on how you drive better fuel economy. This is just basic physics on higher octane fuel.

The synthetic and semi-synthetic oils are more stable than mineral oils and generally have better soot carrying capability. This is the oil you need if you think you are going to experience extreme engine temperatures or longer oil change intervals. Pure synthetic oil is a little over kill unless you are running forced induction or extreme engine speeds, the semi-synthetic are a good mid-point.

There is plenty of PR spin in the sale of these products, but there is also solid technology behind it.

- David.

[zagan]

The higher the octane in petrol the harder it is to detonate which is good as it'll only detonate when the spark is applied rather than pre or post detonate.

Best oil would be 100% synthic oil should be over $120-$130+ for 4-5 litres.

but you'd want good oil filters and maybe a pre filter too to help keep it clean would be needed too as you'll want to do 25,000klms oil change or more.

With semi xynthic oils I got told by an oil engineer to check out what the synthic % is... as you'll find some major brands are around 50% or less synthic.

[GRPABT1]

Really it depends on how much you care about your car. I run BP ultimate 98 octane and nothing else in both my wolrked V8 commodore and my zook, the commy requires it but the zook will run fine on 91 but the truth is it's alot cleaner and also amounts to a few extra km's in the feeble 30 odd litre tank.

In regards to oils I see it as insurance, I remember reading an article about a particular V8 supercar team running penrite Sin full synthetic and loosing oil the coolant from the radiator. The data logger showed they ran 3 full laps with an empty radiator and only oil doing any cooling. The oils got to 200+ degrees and when they pulled the engine down they expected to see carnage but were surpised to see what appeared to be a fine engine. They replaced everything to be safe but still it was impressive. Now this wasn't some PR spin off advertisement it was an article from a performace magazine with info from the team themselves, not the oil rep.

So really it depends alot on how you treat your vehicle, I know I like to give my cars hell (hence the blown up commodore V8 outside my window) so I like to know I don't have to worry about oils and fuels when doing so. It just takes another variable out of the occasion. I also change my oils and filters every 3000kms.

But that said, if you cannot jusitfy $100 for a bottle of redline oil to suit your daily driver zook that never gets hot or revs over 4500 rpm and gets regular servicing then so be it.

[MightyMouse]

Without getting too heavily into fuels, once you get to the point where detonation is not a issue with the fuel your running, any octane increase is pointless.

The situation with late model EFI vehicles ( those with knock sensors ) is a little different as the ECU can adjust its operation to take advantage of higher octane ( particularly ignition timing ), but with earlier carb and EFI systems this is not the case.

This doesn't mean that you cant tune an earlier carb/efi system to utilise the extra octane points.... but it doesn't happen automatically.

Also, I'm a little wary of high octane reliance on 4wd's that suffer "variable" fuel quality as is often found in remote or rural servo's.

Petrol has a shelf life and its surprisingly short....... especially for the higher octane fuels so you could well be paying for octane rating your not getting if the fuel is stale.

As a matter of personal preference, i'd tune to get the most out of the worst fuel I'd strike rather than the best fuel.....

[GRPABT1]

As a matter of personal preference, i'd tune to get the most out of the worst fuel I'd strike rather than the best fuel.....

You make a rather resoundingly good point there

In your opinion though, early model efi vehicles of mine have shown slight (not earth shattering but an extra 50km in a zook is a godsend) increases in fuel economy when switching to BP ultimate after a few tanks of it. Do you put this down to just a cleaner better burn?

[TheOtherLeft]

As a matter of personal preference, i'd tune to get the most out of the worst fuel I'd strike rather than the best fuel.....

You make a rather resoundingly good point there

In your opinion though, early model efi vehicles of mine have shown slight (not earth shattering but an extra 50km in a zook is a godsend) increases in fuel economy when switching to BP ultimate after a few tanks of it. Do you put this down to just a cleaner better burn?

Remember the better quality fuels have detergents etc that clean out your injectors etc, so your fuel system is now cleaner after a few tanks of the good stuff.

I would attribute the extra range to that, not necesarily the higher octane.

[KiwiBacon]

Without getting too heavily into fuels, once you get to the point where detonation is not a issue with the fuel your running, any octane increase is pointless.

Exactly.
My shopping trolley is a fine example of a car that experiences absolutely no difference (aside from wallet burn) when higher octane fuel is used.
It dosen't ping on 91, so the engine doesn't require and can't take advantage of any higher octane.

In fact you'll only get an advantage with high octane if your engine is pinging and retarding the spark on 91.

[GRPABT1]

As a matter of personal preference, i'd tune to get the most out of the worst fuel I'd strike rather than the best fuel.....

You make a rather resoundingly good point there

In your opinion though, early model efi vehicles of mine have shown slight (not earth shattering but an extra 50km in a zook is a godsend) increases in fuel economy when switching to BP ultimate after a few tanks of it. Do you put this down to just a cleaner better burn?

Remember the better quality fuels have detergents etc that clean out your injectors etc, so your fuel system is now cleaner after a few tanks of the good stuff.

I would attribute the extra range to that, not necesarily the higher octane.

This could be something, but it's noticable that economy slightly drops when returning to 91 octane. And I regularly use injecter cleaner, always have. Unless a 1988 GTi swift motor is self adjusting to fuel quality?

[Moph]

As a matter of personal preference, i'd tune to get the most out of the worst fuel I'd strike rather than the best fuel.....

Depends whether you need the last little bit of power you can get out of the best fuel. I've tuned the Zook for 98RON because that lets me run timing at 10 degrees BTDC (8BTDC stock) without pinging. In the country, that's the difference between whether I can sit on 110km/h in 5th or have to stay in 4th. 95RON is okay, pings slightly up hills but fine on the flat.

I'm not just imagining the extra power either. I do regular longish trips for work (over 600k's today) and there is a definite difference in top end speed / power between being tuned for 91RON and 98RON.

The extra coin for the higher octane fuel pays itself back (IMO) in slightly better economy and less trouble with the carb. Last time I ran 91RON from my local independent the carb gunked up within 200kms and wouldn't idle smoothly. Put Ultimate back in it and it was fine by the end of the next tank.

I do have a couple of scratch marks on the dizzy though so I can 'roughly' set timing for 91 while on the road, in case 95/98 isn't available.

[Sammyboy]

I find with my 1.3L zook that the best fuel to use is the 'mid range' premium unleaded with a 95 or 96 octane rating. Although I love using the BP Ultimate or Mobil Synergy 8000 (extra responsive engine) my best fuel economy was recorded on 95-96 octane unleaded (8.1 L/100km), but I could only manage 8.8 L/100km on 98 octane fuel.