What octane?

[busaben]

My 'busa's totally stock as well. I started out running 93 and 92 octane, but read on a board somewhere that 87 worked fine. I tried it and now I only run 87. I honestly can't tell a difference. I have a '93 vfr and it definitely prefers the 93 octane, but the busa just doesn't care.

 

[MillenniumFalcon]

I never can believe the crap I read on these boards about this.

The below links have some technical data which should help you make up your own mind. Basically run the lowest octane you can without pinging (preignition) and high octane does not run cleaner unless you are buying bad 87. If anything it does not burn completely. High octane was originally made for high compression engines, running tons of advance.

http://www.factorypro.com/tech/fuel_octane_vs_power.html

http://www.factorypro.com/tech/octane_measurement.html

 

[Gaprider]

Just to complicate things a little... you can have detonation and not necessarily hear it. We used to test to see what octane could be run by decreasing the octane in the gas fed to an engine on a dyno. Then the dyno would load the engine and we would monitor the ignition timing. Once detonation occurs, you can see the timing start to jump around from the detonation long before you can hear the pinging. An increase in octane always cleared it up. The idea was to figure out what the lowest octane that could safely be run... and then run the next grade up from that to compensate for higher temperatures in an engine bay.

 

[MillenniumFalcon]

Just to complicate things a little... you can have detonation and not necessarily hear it.  .......

True, that still does not disqualify the process used to select an octane rating for an engine.

 

[Big O]

Mobil 92 octane.

 

[mikeo]

If you run a higher octane than your engine needs it just carbons up the inside of the engine. So why waste your money of dirty up your engine?

 

[Dulimon]

Straight "Shine" work great in mine

"Now where is that damn cousin of mine"



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[Furball]

I just stick to the manufacturer's recommendation on this until I get into some major modifications. Suzuki wouldn't recommend 87 octane if it wasn't adequate....If you have a stock or near stock bike it is a waste of money to put anything else in....Once you get into higher compression, forced induction, nitrous and advanced ignition timing then you should start looking towards the premium fuels....

 

[oldguy]

If Suzuki recommends 87 then 87 is fine. Suzuki recommends 90 for my 750 gix but it has higher compression. It is common knowledge running higher octane gas than needed causes more engine deposits.

 

[rotam]

When I first got the bike I ran 87 octane and collected some base data on fuel economy - then I ran 92 octane for a couple of weeks to do a comparison. I'd have to agree that I didn't notice any power increase - but fuel economy improved by about 5%. Wasn't enough to justify the additional expense so after that stuck with 87.

 

[nitrousjunkie]

I usually run 93 most of the time, if I'm anticipatng some action, I'll top off with VP C-16,I'm not sure of the octane, but I think its in the neighborhood of 112.The bike really likes this stuff! The pipes are always clean not that black smutty look....