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Sorry "hard tuned" (before I edited it) meant cars with programmable ECUs that tuned to make more power than the stockie ECU. Ie leaner AFRs, more ign advance. Thus they are more succeptable to detonation from a shitty fuel. (being 'harder tuned' than factory if you get what i mean).

They were certainly more succeeptable to detonation after Mik touched them.

Liberty and SAFF now both offer 98RON ethanol enhanced fuel. There is a website that i got from one of Liberty's pamphlets on their 'boost 98' which lists which manufacturers recomend ethanol based fuels. Sadly Nissan say only compatiable with post 2004 model cars, stating fuel componet incompatibilty, or something along those lines. I don't really want to compromise the integrity of the fuel system for a 6-8c a litre saving. Having said that, before i found this out, i ran a full tank of the 'boost98' and found that when going for a cruise through the hills, the ol girl seemed to die a little up the odd hill, actually having to change down a gear to accelerate, not normal. Car in question is R32 gts-t, usual fmic, turbo back exhaust, 14psi and 040.

Liberty and SAFF now both offer 98RON ethanol enhanced fuel. There is a website that i got from one of Liberty's pamphlets on their 'boost 98' which lists which manufacturers recomend ethanol based fuels. Sadly Nissan say only compatiable with post 2004 model cars, stating fuel componet incompatibilty, or something along those lines. I don't really want to compromise the integrity of the fuel system for a 6-8c a litre saving.  Having said that, before i found this out, i ran a full tank of the 'boost98' and found that when going for a cruise through the hills, the ol girl seemed to die a little up the odd hill, actually having to change down a gear to accelerate, not normal. Car in question is R32 gts-t, usual fmic, turbo back exhaust, 14psi and 040.

it was normal, 91 octane lol....don't worry that fuel didn't last very long at all.

it's like running the car on cordial!

Ah, there you go then!!!

Ethanol is crap as a fuel.

Forget the hype, it may not hurt your engine, but it will hurt your pocket!

Ethanol has a calorific value of 1/2 - 2/3 that of petrol. That means, the same volume of ethanol will produce less energy than petrol. SO, it might be cheaper, but your fuel economy will suffer.

Ok, I have done a little bit more research on this fuel.

Speaking to Martin Donnon today, it turns out this fuel CAN be a good thing. If tuned for this "boost 98" every car he's seen has picked up power in comparison to regular 98 octane fuel.

There is a catch however. He showed me some dyno graphs, and just by changing to this from another 98RON fuel, the car LEANED OUT BY A FULL AFR POINT (ie 12.5-13.5).

This would explain the increase in performance experienced by owners of cars with factory style rich tunes, but if your car is tuned on regular 98, and is "on the edge" I would steer clear, it could give you problems.

Joel, did you end up getting any? Do any logging of your car and the differences between fuels?

Sorry "hard tuned" (before I edited it) meant cars with programmable ECUs that tuned to make more power than the stockie ECU. Ie leaner AFRs, more ign advance. Thus they are more succeptable to detonation from a shitty fuel. (being 'harder tuned' than factory if you get what i mean).

Are you kidding? How many Skylines or other imports out there actually don't have programmable ECUs these days. Surely only poofs own Skylines without prorammable ECUs :).

The ONLY reason people buy Power FCs etc is to reprogram fuel and ignition to make more power, this typically means more ignition advance and less fuel.....or have I misunderstood your statement that there are bugger all hard tuned import cars in SA?!?!?

Are you kidding?  How many Skylines or other imports out there actually don't have programmable ECUs these days.  Surely only poofs own Skylines without prorammable ECUs :).

The ONLY reason people buy Power FCs etc is to reprogram fuel and ignition to make more power, this typically means more ignition advance and less fuel.....or have I misunderstood your statement that there are bugger all hard tuned import cars in SA?!?!?

....or did Nozilla say it?.....

well i run stanadard ecu at the moment so i guess i'm a poof, unlike your good self i don't make a heap of money so a programmable ecu hasn't come into my budget yet, i sincerely apologise! (if u couldn't tell i was bein sarcastic!)

  • 3 weeks later...

Got a tank of this at the moment, thought I'd give it a try

So far so good, knock levels on the PFC are much the same, and th weather has been a bit warmer the last few days too

Feels better than with BP 98 in it, more of a crispness to the exhaust note I reckon

Chops - what you said about the AFR's leaning out - would this have anything to do with the 10% ethanol content in the fuel not being able to be read by the current range of AFR meters used by dyno operators................

I spoke to a guy at the SAFF stand at the show, and he was saying they dyno tested the fuel on allot of cars, and they came to the conclusion that due to the ethanol content in the fuel, the AFR meters struggled to read this

My guess is Martins cars picked up power because he added fuel to compensate, and there is your power gain......

Most of the cars I have seen Martin tune, mine included, where quite lean, so by adding fuel to his tune, might xplain the power gain??

Also, ethanol, being like a alchohol, should cool the inlet charge a tad better than fuel when it gets injected shouldn't it?

Just my two cents!! :D

Ethanol contains oxygen (CH3CH2OH) and therefore the fuel provides some of the oxygen required for combusion itself.

Therefore, if tuning is not altered, for the same mass of air and fuel, there will be less unused fuel in the exhaust, which will be read as a "leaner AFR".

Yes, the cooling effect you explain also sounds likely.

Yeah, that was my thinking too

One thing I can report, as you pointed out, is that the economy seems to be poorer than that attained with Mobil or BP fuel

Either that, or my attempts to test its ability has meant I have driven the car a little harder :P

So far, its hard to say if its better or not, definatley a tad cheaper, but it looks like you burn more of it, so the cost advantage kinda cancels eachother out

Anyone else tried it?

I'm thinking it would be great stuff with a das of toluene in it.........

ethanol is a good knock retardation so you can run a bit more timing

ethanol contains oxygen so more fuel is needed compare to before

overall you will use more fuel than before but produce more power from more timing advance.

Fuel consumption will depends on your right foot.

Ethanol contains oxygen (CH3CH2OH) and therefore the fuel provides some of the oxygen required for combusion itself.

Therefore, if tuning is not altered, for the same mass of air and fuel, there will be less unused fuel in the exhaust, which will be read as a "leaner AFR".

Yes, the cooling effect you explain also sounds likely.

I agree with 9krpm, the fact that Ethanol has more oxygen in it means it is has less potential to burn because it is already down the path of oxidation. Therefore more fuel is required for the same bang and the bang is smaller at the same time.

On balance, I reckon Ethanol in fuel is crap.

Toluene is good because it is hard to burn so you can then run more timing with a lower isk of pinging. It also produces a bang equivalent to or better than say straight 98 octane petrol. They say BP98 does not use aromatics (like Toluene) to achieve 98 octane, so when you do add Toluene in, the Octane rating increases more readily.

I was going to rig up a water + ethanol injection system for high boost.

The ethanol is a good knock retardant and also produce extra O2....just like NOS but not as good. A lot of people gain more power with the water + ethanol injection system by leaning the engine out a little bit more than normal. However with this fuel available from pump I don't have to worry about the plumbing work.

I think it's a great fuel and will give it a try soon. I am still worried about long distant or interstate trips. Does anyone know if this fuel is available in other states?

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