94 ron

[Big Rob]

98 is no cleaner than standard unleaded (91 RON), that's the power of media advertising at work. It has a higher RON, that's all.

BURD is correct about zinc though, older engines with flat tappet cams, don't like the lack of zinc in the oil.

Dr Terry

I worked for years at a local service station and we often had fuel samples taken and were given a report of the breakdown of the fuel.

The standard unleaded always showed a lot of additives, impurities, aromatics (yep, aromatics!), colouring, etc.... sometimes as many as to fill the page and go to a 2nd page. Also, the octane rating varied considerably.

The 98 always showed 3 things; one colour, one aromatic and the rest was petrol. And the octane rating was always spot-on.

I'm not someone that listens to media bullsh*t, but I DO believe what I see with my own eyes.

[Innuendo]

Yep all petrol has aromatics added because petrol doesn't have a distinctive smell.

[playwme]

I worked for years at a local service station and we often had fuel samples taken and were given a report of the breakdown of the fuel.

The standard unleaded always showed a lot of additives, impurities, aromatics (yep, aromatics!), colouring, etc.... sometimes as many as to fill the page and go to a 2nd page. Also, the octane rating varied considerably.

The 98 always showed 3 things; one colour, one aromatic and the rest was petrol. And the octane rating was always spot-on.

I'm not someone that listens to media bullsh*t, but I DO believe what I see with my own eyes.

A good mate of mine owned 3 servos until very recently and he said standard unleaded can have up to 9% Ethanol mixed in. He said the 98 is usually clean depending on the company. I use Caltex 98 in all my small engines too. When I was working in a bike shop we used to have troubles witha lot of bikes fouling plugs. The common factor was Shell Optimax. There was some extra additive in there that worked for cars but was hell on bikes. People weren't too happy when their 12 month old 1000cc sports bike wouldn't start for no apparent reason.

[HK1837]

I worked for years at a local service station and we often had fuel samples taken and were given a report of the breakdown of the fuel.

The standard unleaded always showed a lot of additives, impurities, aromatics (yep, aromatics!), colouring, etc.... sometimes as many as to fill the page and go to a 2nd page. Also, the octane rating varied considerably.

The 98 always showed 3 things; one colour, one aromatic and the rest was petrol. And the octane rating was always spot-on.

I'm not someone that listens to media bullsh*t, but I DO believe what I see with my own eyes.

If you look at the msds for some ULP it will sjow up to 5% Benzene. Not a good thing, Benzene is nasty stuff.

[Taily]

Partial quote:

I worked for years at a local service station and we often had fuel samples taken and were given a report of the breakdown of the fuel.

The standard unleaded always showed a lot of..... aromatics (yep, aromatics!)....

The 98 always showed 3 things; one colour, one aromatic and the rest was petrol. And the octane rating was always spot-on.

and:

Yep all petrol has aromatics added because petrol doesn't have a distinctive smell.

and:

.... If you look at the msds for some ULP it will sjow up to 5% Benzene. Not a good thing, Benzene is nasty stuff....

All one and the same thing (well almost, aromatics are a combination known as BTX - Benzene, Toluene and Xylene isomers), are extracted during cracking (catalytic reforming these days...) and are all present in our fuels these days in varying amounts. Benzene has a very sweet smell, toluene is a little less "smelly" and if you've ever smelt an "Artline" brand permanent marker you've smelt xylene.

All hydrocarbons, all very nasty. Mostly there to keep (or in the case of Benzene due to its Hydrogen content - C6H6) to raise the octane rating of the fuel, hence one reason you'll find more of it in the higher RON fuels.

Funny the snippets of this sort of thing you pick up hanging around and working at servos, in my case a mate owned/operated a Shell then a Caltex servo later on that I used to spend a lot of time in and around many many years ago.

[HK1837]

Aromatic hydrocarbons are well known carcenogens. I remember an argument with a HSE 'guru' once who wouldn't let me bring a cleaner onsite due to possible Benzene. Told him he better ban all ULP cars as they had 5x as much. Wouldn't believe me till I showed him the msds.

[Big Rob]

Getting off the subject slightly, but when I drove to Sydney 2 weeks ago I got fuel at Marulan BP and filled up with Ultimate. I seriously noticed the difference! That stuff is by far the best. I had better throttle response & the motor ran smoother. I wish there was a BP within 50km of my place, they'd get all my business.

[Innuendo]

I always run BP Ultimate.
But I was surprised to see on an episode of 5th Gear (UK, I know) performed worst in their testing.
I know wonder if that is relevant to our Australian supplied fuel?

[Big Rob]

I always run BP Ultimate.
But I was surprised to see on an episode of 5th Gear (UK, I know) performed worst in their testing.
I know wonder if that is relevant to our Australian supplied fuel?

No, it just needs real cars with real engines. Not pommy sewing machines!