31/01/2023
Did you know... 🤔
Using 98 fuel can save you money long term? It contains cleaning properties that keep your fuel injectors clean which makes your car run more economically, as opposed to fuel such as 91 which doesn’t contain these properties. It also has a much higher RON (research octane number) and this is where it gets interesting…
If your injectors get blocked over time from using cheaper fuel you’ll end up burning more fuel as the nozzle on the injectors won’t disperse fuel evenly, making the them produce more concentrated/poorly atomized fuel which will burn slower and release less energy, and turning your precious fuel into efficient energy is really the aim at the end of the day. All performance fuels have additives to clean your engine’s injection systems but the industry bench mark really is BP’s ultimate 98 unleaded and has lead the way in the Australian market for years and has had some serious research and development and heavy investment to ensure it’s the best.
(skip to the next paragraph to avoid the techo babble, read on if your in a mood to learn!)
The purpose of knowing your Octane number in fuel is more so related to and managed by modern fuel injection systems and some mechanical aspects of your motor. The main mechanical aspect relating to the quality or octane rating of your fuel is compression and this is the stage the air and fuel mixture goes through prior to being ignited inside your engine. Essentially everything is squashed as the pistons in your in your engine make their way from their lowest point (bottom dead center) to their highest point (top dead center) whilst the top of the combustion chamber is sealed of by the valves, as a result the air and fuel get squashed up really tight… we call this compression and it’s defined by the compression ratio inside the cylinder. Now this compression ratio varies in all engines, older unleaded engines generally have ratios from 8-9.5 because they were designed to run on a minimum 91 RON fuel and because the fuel quality was quite poor. As engines have advanced, ratios have soared to race car like levels as high as 16:1 in Mazdas new skyactiv x motors… but how does this help you as the driver!? Well compressed fuel and air is super explosive, way more than uncompressed air and fuel… this means more energy released much more rapidly and as mentioned this is what we all really want from our engines but everything has a cost! The cost is the highly compressed air and fuel is very unstable and can literally explode on its own (known as “pinging” or “knock”) if not for our friend… OCTANE!!! The more octane the more stable, its simple really but it becomes more complex when we see how these potential pre ignition explosions are managed by modern engines. All modern engines have an electronic ear called a knock sensor that literally is listening and waiting for the dreaded knock or simply put the early detonation of fuel that literally destroys engines when not dealt with immediately. Once it detects knock the computer goes into defense mode and instantly stops the knock using two highly effective methods… 1 add more fuel than normal to quench the knock and 2 reduce ignition timing to stop the highly compressed air and fuel from exploding before it should, both of these instantly lead to reduced efficiency and all of a sudden you are now seeing how octane can really benefit you and your car! Long term the computer learns what the acceptable limits of its engine are and it creates long term fuel trims which can be reset by your local mechanic or with a quality scan tool. These trims will permanently increase fuel and reduce timing in cars where the fuel quality is poor and this goes double for ethanol based fuels like e10 which although has a 95 RON they scientifically proven to release much less energy (literally less bang for your buck) than unleaded fuels and attract water that corrodes your fuel system and are generally quite 💩 for your engine unless you’ve invested heavily into a proper ethanol fuel setup (more on this later). An efficient engine is a powerful engine and timing is directly related to torque and horsepower is calculated by revs x torque… its scientific facts ultimately.
The number 91,95 and 98 represents the amount of octane in the fuel and it is a chemical product made to prevent knock in your engine. Knock is single handed the worst thing you will experience in even a well maintained engine and will always lead to engine failures when not managed properly. High octane fuels help injection systems more efficiently manage knock by reducing the amount of knock events in engines which lead to increased fuel trims and reductions in timing… and they obviously help with increased mileage and power/efficiency!
So remember this next time you’re at the pump and give your car a little love ❤️
