What kind of gas do you use?

I wanted to take a poll of the kind of gasoline that you use, where you get it and any additives that you add. And if there is any that a viffer owner should steer clear of.

I am some what of a loyal guy. I buy gas from only places that end in and "O" but I have added Phillips 66 and Shell brand gas to that list recently. I find that premium works a little better than 85 octane also. The ones that I steer clear of is Bradly's, Diamond Shamrock and 7-11 gas because its crap and should only be used to clean cosmoline off gun parts. I use octane boosters sometimes and carbs cleaner pretty regularly. I would like for you to take a moment and let me know what it is that you use to keep your bike faster that a rocket? Please give details if you want to. Thanks.

 

Regular works fine for me on my 97, no problems with any brand so far

 

i thought the manual says to use 87 octane or higher??

with that being said, i just got my bike a couple weeks ago. the first two tanks i used 91 octane (premium here in az). now i'm going to use two tanks of 87 octane. if the bike seems to run the same, then i'll keep running the 87.

 

It also says not to use gas with ethonal. But all the pumps around here during the winter are mixed with it without asking.

 

Ah you have raised the old contentious topic, goes along with tires, and helmets. There is no point in using a higher octane than the engine is designed for. Not sure what the manual says for an 84. The octane rating is a measure of the fuels resistance to preignition not the power you get from it. Usually the higher the conpression ratio of an engine the higher the required octane rating. Having said that with older engines you can get a thing called octane creap. As carbon builds up on the cylinder head and piston crown the compression ratio increases. This only applies to very high milage engines which have never been stripped down. If this is happening you may need to go up one grade of fuel. You would only need to do this if you here or feel preignition, pinging, from the engine. In this day and age it is pretty rare as fuels are cleaner and generally more efficient.

Based on my own experience I have not noticed any difference between different brands of gas. I generally try to stick to one brand as different brands use different additives and I am not sure how well the different additives mix. It is probably not a problem but most of the time you can avoid mixing so why take the risk.

 

I think that needs to be interpreted at "minimum of 87 octane". They are not implying that more is better in this case. Higher octane fuel is more resistant to ignition. That is the purpose of higher octane. It also burns slower. You will not get more power from it (with everything else being equal) if the engine is not designed for it. Premium does not mean better quality either. It simply means premium price in this case.
My 84 VF1000F, 85 VF1000R and 99 VFR all take min of 86. And that is all they get. I do however stay away from ethanol blends as much as possible. Really begrudge paying the same price for about 10% less mileage.

 

I saw on the news (20/20 I think) they did a test on different brands of fuel and the only difference was the amount of deturgents in them. but they also said that by fedreal law they have to have a certain amount of additives no matter what the brand and that all fuel is pretty much the same except for octane ratings. where I think they differ is from gas station to gas station they will sit longer in the mom and pop stations that aren't as busy as the bigger stations that do more business. so the big stations will have fresher fuel. The longer fuel sits in the tank at the station the more chance it has to get crap and water imixxed in with it. just my $.02

 

i always use chevron (unless i cant make it to one) and 91 in my bike and my GTO. the station is personal preference, but i have to have 91 in my car. i wish we had 93 out here on the west coast. then i wouldnt have to buy race gas when im going to be using a lot of nitrous

also, my parents used to have bad luck with ARCO 87 octane. for some reason the car would ping with arco 87 octane, yet any other brand and the car wouldnt ping. this happened on a few of their cars

 

dlman:

I use 87 Octane, both when I lived in Maryland and Delaware.

No gain or boost in using 87 or higher in my experiance.

In addition, if the ethanol mix is 10% or less, your bike should be fine. In Delaware all the gas is mixed with ethanol 10% or less and I have had no problems.

I do have some warnings about ethanol. First, it cleans out everything. It is one of the meanest solvents, so if your carbs are a little dirty, they won't be for long. And that can cause a jet to get clogged, but the main point is if you rrun gas with ethanol in it, don't run carb cleaner in the gas. You are wasting your money.

Second, ethanol attracts moisture! After some time, and its weather depending and how much moisture is naturally in the air, the ethanol separates from the gas and attracts moisture and that can cause corrosion on the needles, jets, etc. The corrosion looks greenish in color. If you run your motorcycle often it seems to eliminate the issue altogether. How much is often? Good question. I would say once to twice a week for at least a half-hour.

I put stabil in my bike evertime I fill up now. It helps keep the moisture away and it does not hurt performance. Also, you folks with fuel injection may not have to worry as much because your injectors don't normally have gas in them when the bike is not running, unlike carbs.

How do I know this about ethanol? My step-dad was the maintenance supervisor at a refinery in Warren PA for 30 years. I asked him about ethanol and he said when they started mixing it into gas in the 70's they had problems with their pumps. If the pumps had shellac in them form gas sitting and they would run the ethanol mix through them it would clean them out. He said guys started taking pure ethanol home and used it as a carb cleaner because it was so good. And the moisture problem too! If the mix gas sat foe some time it would separate and the moisture would attack components. But once things started moving it mixed it back up again. Also, my mechanic has seen these problem too!

Just some thought!

BZ

 

I use Sunoco Ultra which here in Canada has an octane rating of 94. I favour the ethanol added for a number of reasons not the least of which is it is renewable and helps reduce our dependance on oil and the middle east...I am sure at some point in the future people will look back on our dependance on oil and think we were all village idiots. I use the same fuel in my wife's 97 Harley Sportster and both bikes run most excellently! Well, the Harley runs as well as a Harley can be expected to run lol...

 

I put in the highest octane that is at the pump. I figure that this is my passion outside of my career, why would you treat it any different?

 

i buy the cheapest stuff i can find..no gain from anything else i have tried...not designed to anyway..I do tho need premium in my 83....depending on where i have the timing set...

 

I use Chevron with that techrion stuff. And yes it does make a difference. I have tried using the cheap stuff and all I got was a ruff idle and not so crisp of a sound, so yea the super duper stuff for me please. even thou Damn it's now at $3.17 pg

 

I have been using the 91 octane from whereever I buy it. I did have to put in some 89 at a pump over the weekend and haven't noticed any difference yet. I also recently put some Lucas carb/injector cleaner in the last tank just as preventative maintenance - whether it does anything I don't know. I tend to think all that stuff they sell at Checker or whatever to put in your gas is snake-oil. I do think that you may get a little better mileage on premium, but what difference does that make when it's up to 50 cents more than regular? I may experiment with the 87 and see what happens after a few tanks...couldn't hurt I guess.

 

you guys with FI might not notice, as I'm sure the knock sensors are doing their job. But I know for a fact watching dyno runs the 91-92 super stuff does give more power LOL as an added plus on one run with 108 race fuel I saw 103 HPs, so you tell me it don't work.

 

I filled up the other day and for the first time my bike gave me trouble. I started up the highway on ramp and it started to die out on me. I was acting like it was starved for gas or that it was vapor locked. It took a few minutes but with the choke on it started back up and I was able to get off the highway before it started doing it again. This happened one more time before I thought I should change the fuel filter. (I didn't change it for a while like I wanted to) It sat for 20 minutes before I got back and changed the filter and was able to drive home. It seemed like that was the problem until I started out a little later and it got a few miles before it did it again. I don't know what the deal was since it wasn't the filter. But I hooked the fuel pump back up just in case it was vapor locking. After the day got cooler it didn't have a problem like it again. I went bowling and it seemed to work fine. The ride back was good to. I guess I am lost as to why this happened. Does premium vapor lock a lot? I think it was 95-97 oct.

 

I have spoke withe people that have fuel injected bikes and they seem to feel a difference between the octanes. I know the super duper BMW K1200 or whatever that fast bike is they make LOVES the 100 octane race fuel. BMW claims the computer in the bike makes the adjustments and you gain power as a result.

So I don't disagree with you, I just don't have the modifications that I think I need the 93 Octane.

Whenever I get a fuel injected bike, I probably will experiment again to see.

BZ

 

Octane numbers are not a measurement of the "power" contained in a fuel, only it resistance to preignition. No matter how your fuel is delivered to your combustion chamber.

 

Fuel injected bikes do run better with more octane. We may not notice whats going on other than smoother idle and throttle but it definitely works. The knock sensor makes lower octane differences a little more transparent by slight adjustments to detune to eliminate any possibility of detonation. I asked the dealer about it when I picked up my '07 and he said to run the higher octane. The way I see it I bought my bike as a toy, the gas tank only holds about 5 gallons so why wouldn't I put the higher octane in? BTW I like to use Shell. I try to keep a constant if I can just in case. I would check vac lines on your bike if its dying like that and maybe see if theres some water or something in your tank mixing in and shutting the motor down. Is it still winter gas in there?