unleaded or superunleaded

[jonoy]

If you go from unleaded to super unleaded would this have ant effect with scooter on tick over

[Rich Oswald]

Not saying it wouldn't but I have never seen a difference.

Rich'

[jonoy]

cheers its probably just coincidence

going to do a 35 mile journey tomorrow and getting very paranoid about making it

[IaninDorset]

I tend to use unleaded over super in my T5 as it can develop just a touch bog on the super but in my Reliant three wheeler it loves Super and really is quite perky.

Thing is, is to try both and see if you find yourself going that bit faster uphills etc and check your plug with the super and see where that leads you to.

[CHRIS in MARGATE]

I think it's in the imagination.

[IaninDorset]

Its one of them highly debated subjects, certainly there has been study for cars in this, most normal car users won't even notice the difference because their engine management automatically compensates for higher or lower octane levels but if you were driving a higher specced tuned Jap supercar, you would notice quite a fair bit of power loss, Thorney Motorsport did this with one of their tuned BMW's and found a 40BHP difference in output using the lesser octant than the usual super stuff.

To get the use out of a motorbike or scooter would need the timing and plug adjusted to utilise the extra "bang" from super, my T5 has the LML Xpress adaptive CDI which I think is used to normal unleaded and plays up just that touch with a slightly different fuel e.g. super. Under the old system, unleaded is 4 star and Super is what we used to call 5 star when a scooter would be quite happy with 1 or 2 star, bit smoky but did the job and cheaper than the 5 by a fair bit too.

[sunrisemac]

A bit of info I found amongst my junk for reference

<<Unleaded fuels carry a RON (Research Octane Number) rating. Put simply, RON determines petrol's 'anti-knock' quality or resistance to pre-ignition; or if you want to put in another way, the Octane Number denotes its resistance to detonation.

If you run your vehicle on low octane petrol you might notice a 'knocking', 'rattling', or 'pinging' sound (as it’s often called), which means the fuel is detonating instead of burning smoothly. This is not only a waste of energy, but it can also damage your engine in the long run. Burning is the desired effect of any internal combustion engine (not an explosion per se).

Fuel with a higher octane number suitable for your vehicle's engine will eliminate knocking. Older cars that were designed to run on a lower RON fuel can also benefit from a higher RON, because the older the car and the higher the kilometres, means the engine will have a greater propensity to knock. This is mainly caused by a build-up of contaminants and carbon deposits which, when hot, can cause pre-ignition.>>

[IaninDorset]

Ah but the companies claim that the super variant because it burns hotter and faster, makes for cleaner engines as they say carbon is burnt off more efficiently.

Then again, back in the eighties, we were all having to do regular decokes on our engines and our engines used to eat a lot more spark plugs and almost unheard of today but carbonised brittle rings and "burnt saucepan" pistons where the carbon had ignited and melted a lovely hole was a right pain in the bum back then too so they did something right somewhere along the line.

[Eden]

Super unleaded for me.
people riding standard engines probably wouldn't notice any difference but for tuned engines super uneaded can be the difference beteeen blowing up and nit blowing up. Petrol choice is determined by the state of engine tune and the way an engine is used.

[Rich Oswald]

Super unleaded for me.
people riding standard engines probably wouldn't notice any difference but for tuned engines super uneaded can be the difference beteeen blowing up and nit blowing up. Petrol choice is determined by the state of engine tune and the way an engine is used.

+1

[terryj]

i use the super just because some brands dont add ethanol to the better fuel