Warning! Bad Fuel....

[Frink]

Warning....

Do not buy V-Power Racing from the Shell servo at the Wanniassa shops. i recently decided to switch fuels and try the new V-Power Racing blend which is meant to be atleast 100 octane and contains 5% ethanol. worked fine for the first 2 tanks, but on the 3rd, all of a sudden my car feels like its dropped a cylinder!!! fearing the worst, i pulled the ignition apart and replaced the spark plugs to find that this did the trick and the car worked fine. shortly after, it started to miss again, so i swapped my coilpacks thinking they were getting to hot and shorting out. not this.... so i decided to clean the plugs and see if that worked. and it did. just now after a test drive, its started to miss again, which almost certainly means that it has to be the fuel.

now im not sure if its just a bad batch or if the extra octane and ethanol are the cause of it, but its seems that the fuel is burning too hot and is fouling the plugs, causing the problem. im putting it down to a bad batch of fuel, as it didn't foul the plugs in the either of the first 2 tanks. however, im not 100% certain of this fact, so im switching back to the good old trustworthy 98 octance stuff....

hope this post saves you from grief....

Cheers

[Viper_r32]

High Performance Imports Magazine did an article on this fule, aparently yor ecu has to be retuned to run it propely or it creates engine probs, including pinging, and fouling. they also said you cannot ran it on stock ecu's

[kabala]

Cheers for all the information, guys!

This side of performance is new to me, so this information and everything else that's available throughout the forums gives me everything I need to know about my skyline - in dialog I can understand!!

Once again, THANK YOU to all those who raise and provide information and opinions.

[mjfawke]

When they first released Optimax, it killed both my 240Z (worked L28) and my 260Z (worked L26). Both engines dropped cylinders due to the plugs fouling. Optimax is the only fuel I have used which has caused this problem. Never been an issue with the RB20DET in the 240Z however - but I avoid it because of the reported octane loss issues.

[R3sp3ct]

Thats really shit luke, hopefully it'll work out when you switch back

[sigsputnik]

i couldn't find any vpower in sydney last week, nor here in canberra. i am gingerly running on unleaded95. GINGERLY. there are pamphlets at the shell servo's saying that they're completely out of the premium stuff.

i might have to switch to vortex or similar?

[Frink]

well, after removing nearly a whole tank of fuel, cleaning the plugs up again and switching back to synergy 8000, the car seems to be running fine. thank god!

its a shame actually, cause when the car was working well on the V-Power Racing blend, holy crap it went fast! there was a noticable difference to how my car performed.

meh, i've learn't my lesson now.....

[leech_]

I ran optimax extreme which to my knowledge is the new V-Power racing... I had no problems what so ever with it and fouind i got slightly better fuel econemy as it ran a little leaner.

The only reason i switched back to BP Ultimate is availability it's everywhere i had to go out of my way to get Optimax extreme.

[nsanity]

so i decided to clean the plugs and see if that worked. and it did.

Best solution to fouled plugs in my experience has always been

Find a dirty dirty big hill, and fly up it in 3rd and 4th gear. Really Really Heavy Load and prolonged shot of it.

Cleans plugs up marvelously

*assuming you have decent fuel in there to burn.

Optimax has ALWAYS been known (in my experience anyway) to run a bit rich and leave a bit of black stuff on the plugs (a lot of this comes from driving a Worked Holden 308 L34 Torana, some from a 202 GTR-XU1 - haven't really checked plugs in the Skyline, as i now pay someone to do that ).

BP Ultimate has been the fuel of choice for me, mostly because its so widely available, and arguably the benchmark in fuel for performance vehicles.

However there has been a few threads on the subject of Optimax Extreme (and V-Power)

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...&hl=optimax

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...&hl=optimax

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...&hl=optimax

http://www.skylinesaustralia.com/forums/in...&hl=optimax

From what i can gather, it reather doesn't matter all that much what you use (98 RON and above wise), most of the benefit is from having your ECU tuned for it.

[low200]

yeh i always try use the BP ultimate, it seems to run the best and its eaasily available. I am running a tank of Mobil 8000 though atm so ill see how that goes...

[Mr Italy!]

Yeah BP Ultimate is my fav, its good shit. Car feels so smooth on it!!

[Baconer]

Mobil 8000 is my choice, always runs well and goes hard, seem to get more kms from a tank of it aswell compared to BP and caltex. Used shell once on my way back from Melbourne while picking car up, never again.

[Terminal]

I don't think it's just the station you went to. My girl's Corolla is having the same problem, i'm going to replace the fuel filter tonight. We filled up with V-power about a week ago, but haven't driven it until yesterday which is when it started playing up. A guy at work said he's been told there's a dirty batch of fuel in canberra at the moment and has been told to change his fuel filter about once a week until you get the tank empty, then use another fuel.

[Buddy]

i have been using v-power 4 about 4 tanks now (thinking it was the shit) and i have noticed it feels like a huge loss of power now to when i used 8000 i dont no if it was just me or the car but i hate the way it feels atm and wont be using v-power 4 along time

[oscar32]

When I was working with the Dyno shop I did a back to back run in the final tune of my car (Shell 98 vs BP 98).

The BP 98 outperformed the shell stuff - by a few rwkws and with less knock registered. That said, its hard to judge batches etc. I would just chose a feul, get your car tuned for it and stick to it

[THENIG]

Searching for a thread to help solve issues im having with my 32, it sounds like an identical problem. Been using V-power since early december. A bit of hot weather before christmas and car starts losing power, cutting out, stalling at lights, idling weird. Checked for error codes from computer, checked leads, checked coils (swapped with a mates), checked cleaned plugs, swapped firing control unit thingy on cam cover, cleaned afm. DONUTS!!! Was starting to get a bit worried, car was playing up everytime i drove, on saturday put a double dose of injector cleaner in with the V-power and car hasn't skipped a beat in 4-5 days which is the longest consecutive no. of days in over a month. Mayb its cos i push the fuel light a bit, mayb its to do with the last few tanks of V-power smelling sweet like sugar. I know for a fact that high octane fuels like the old 98ron optimax is just an additive pack added as the tankers are filling up, mayb its to do with the station i only fill up at being completly out of all petrol cept reg. unleaded for 3-4days over xmas, I DONT KNOW! I wont be using V-power again if my car keeps on its winning streak.

[Terminal]

Found out it's not the fuel, it's my ignition coil shorting out. oh well, fuel is bad, yeah. that's right...