V-Power

[Xog]

Damn, those four gallons of v-power I put in (half a tank), is still lasting me. I've travelled 60 miles and I'm on 25%.. which is 2 gallons. that's 30mpg lol, and i'm not even driving on the highway

[Necromotic]

Depends on how you drive it. This one dude drove a regular accord rated at 25 mpg and got close to 50 out of it by accelerating slowly and using cruise control all the time.

i been readin bout that on different accord forums
im still in my breaking-in period i need to drive mo freeway dizayum

[Fit of Rage]

Depends on how you drive it. This one dude drove a regular accord rated at 25 mpg and got close to 50 out of it by accelerating slowly and using cruise control all the time.

[Necromotic]

i need to find a job man
my 08 accord coupe aint the greatest with fuel consumption lmao

[iLDuce]

But the shell v-power stuff claims to clean up the gunk inside your car... I'm not sure how valid it is, or how long it'll take for my car to gunk up, but i'm pretty sure it's a gimmick.

It's not.

http://www.toptiergas.com/

[Displaced]

im tough like that

[Cumulonimbus]

disp smokes camels

literally

[Displaced]

Since I WORK in the oil industry, I must obviously be an idiot, right Money?

I can spout all kinds of numbers and statistics on why higher octane gasoline is better for your engine, and how it does actually increase power. (And Soup Du Jour, as I stated, more so in high compression and turbo charged engines)

Comparison #1, on a dyno with a 2007 WRX STI and "regular" 95OCT gasoline (similar to your US 89) the car put down 270bhp, drained the fuel, put in some 98OCT fuel (US 91) car put down 281bhp, drained it again, put in some shell V-power 99OCT (similar to US 93) car put down 289bhp.

NOTHING other than fuel was changed between tests. thats an increase of 8BHP.

Comparison #2, on a dyno with a 2002 VW GOLF V5 (high compression ratio of 11:1) regular 98OCT fuel, the car put down 170bhp, on the shell V-power, it put down 174bhp.

NOTHING other than fuel was changed between tests. an increase of 4bhp

Other than that, the V-power (and other "high octane" fuels, such as BP optimax etc) have more additives which reduce friction inside your engine, this not only helps against wear and tear, but actually reduces fuel consumption.

Ive seen gains of up to 6% on V-power compared to regular gasoline.

This has been verified by other independant tests, such as MOTEC, which tested V-power vs two other "premium" brands of 98oct with an Mitsubishi Evo IX. http://www.motec.com.au/fueltest/newsfueltest/

A gain of 6bhp was seen with no modification, and 13bhp with modification to timing/ignition.

If you choose not to believe it, thats fine.

[Bioture]

I concur. Higher octane gas is a waste of money if your car doesn't require it. My car "recommends" premium 91+ octane gas, but requires regular 89+ octane gas. I've tried both the vpower (93) and the slightly worse regular (87) and both work the same. I've seen no changes in anything really. But the shell v-power stuff claims to clean up the gunk inside your car... I'm not sure how valid it is, or how long it'll take for my car to gunk up, but i'm pretty sure it's a gimmick. I might be wrong though.

[DankNuggets]

yeah i was under the impression that it did nothing but cost you more money.



but i have done some unofficial studies in which i pretty much drained my tank and filled up with higher octane. I drove around 60mi on cruise control, filled it back up, and crunched the numbers. I got like 24 mpg. I waited till i was almost empty again, filled 'er up with cheapo gas and did the same drive. This time 22 mpg. The results of this unscientific study were that it only gave me 34 mi extra on a tank, which was about 1.5 gallons, which was about $5.25 at the time. The difference between the two was $0.10 per gallion, which equated to an extra $1.70 per fill up. So in the end, it may have been cheaper to get the better gas, but I wasn't convinced that it was the octane rating that improved my mpg, and I never tried to recreate the experiment, so I just went back to buying cheap gas.

On a side note, I found that it was a waste of time and money to drive any farther than ~2mi for cheap gas unless it was like 20 cents cheaper and I was getting a full tank.


but yeah, my gf insists on putting higher grade gas in her car. Hasn't had an effect on the performance that I can tell. In fact, her solenid switches keep failing, and I'm 90% sure she bought a certifiable lemon anyway. but i guess it makes her feel like she's treating the car well, even if she drives like your typical asian woman

[Soup du Jour]

Third article in a google search:

http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/jk/040728.htm

Many drivers believe that using a premium grade fuel is better for their vehicle and produces more power. Not true. As long as the fuel does not pre-ignite, any grade of fuel will produce the same amount of power.

A higher octane rating doesn't mean there's more chemical energy in the fuel.
Does nobody use wikipedia anymore? It's probably the quickest and simplest around.

Displaced, for a guy who works in the oil industry, I figured you would know a bit more about this stuff.

[Money]

YES, google IS common knowledge


oh and you're an idiot

[Displaced]

christ, you are all clueless.

the RON (OCTANE) rating on gasoline refers to its Compression Coefficient, i.e. how much the gasoline/air mixture can compress before it detonates.

knocking = premature detonation of gasoline.

therfore, gasoline with a higher RON will compress more than gasoline with a lower RON, this means less chance of it detonating prematurely.

you can run your banger rated for regular (87RON) with anything above that with no ill effects for as long as you want. it will actually REDUCE knocking and add horsepower. (more so on high compression and turbo charged applications)
In some cases it even decreases fuel consumption.

THIS IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE...

[Jerome Scuggs]

Octane is basically the rating of how fast the fuel burns when ignited. Your engine is configured to run with a certain octane because of the timing required - using a different octane will cause knocking because the gasoline will combust before or after it's supposed to.

Mixing a little 91 oc into your tank wont be an issue, especially if you fill it up (and therefore dilute it) with whatever gas you normally use.

[Money]

true, but all cars unless they say "PREMIUM ONLY", like cadillacs, take regular. after a while it can do damage but not one time and only a couple gallons