What fuel do Club CJ members prefer?

[Gleno]

I only use 91 these days, i wouldnt say 95 or 98 exactly sets the world on fire so to speak.

[sleeper]

merlins quote.

I notice that there are two responses with 91 Octane fuel being used, one with a comment on 98 not being required.

The NA's are high compression engines and as such should be run on a high octane fuel, like 98. The tune allows the engine to run on 91 octane, but with reduced torque and increased fuel consumption.

The high octane fuel allows the ECU to rune the engine on the Hi-Octane fuel and spark maps - they are waaaay different to the Lo-Octane fuel and spark maps.

My Evo9 runs on BP98 form the local servo, but I would convert to E85 in a heartbeat if it was available nearby.

full stop>

[Syke]

i certainly feel decreased torque when not using 98. Hate to think what it would be like on 91

[Mizta B]

I ran my VRX on BP Ultimate all the time on a Merlin tune
Nother lower rating ever went into my tank
I now run the Focus on BP Ultimate all the time too
The ST will soon be retuned, and this is my fuel of choice for her also

[sleeper]

yeah, its a no brainer confirmed by merlin, our lancers run cheaper and better using 98.

[himynameisdaniel]

I think its interesting to read about that in the US of A they are dealer stock to run on 87 RON. with 91 being the "Premium" offered at most service stations.
Have I been reading this correctly?

[hjubm2]

Personally I will only use Caltex Vortex 98 in my car. This is partly because I work in a Caltex service startion but also because I have only ever heard bad things about BP's Ultimate 98 fuel. Have heard from a dozen or so people in the past year that they have had nothing but problems from BP Ultimate.

On the 91 fuel front I know for sure that the Caltex 91 fuel has no ethanol in it at all. The only Caltex fuel that does in SA is the E10 version. We only sell the Standard 91 & Vortex 98 at work, both of which do not contain Ethanol, they are both just refined to different levels with different additives added along the way.

On a related note has anyone here ever had any problems running on BP's Ultimate?

[RustyBin5]

Call me a noob - (Rusty you;re a Noob). But I have never heard of anyone having "problems" with fuel of any type! Perhaps some allow slightly better performance - but what problems can arise - surely if a fuel causes damage they would be liable ??? Enlighten me ! lol

[hjubm2]

It's more dirt etc in it more then the fuel itself. From what I have heard somewhere along the line in the BP shipping process the fuel gets dirt or other objects in it that then has a bad effect on the cars. Granted this can happen to any companies fuel but I have heard it happening to BP's Ultimate 98 a lot more then any other companies for some reason.

[BZC-45S]

I'm tuned for 95 octane. Due to the amount of kms I do, having to fill up every 4 days there's like a 6 cents price difference between 95 and 98 octane, which translates to ~$3 or so per fill up, might not be much but it all adds up.

Anyway, in tweaking my tune, data logging via Tactrix became a ritual as I experimented with all the brands of fuels to find the 'best' one. I've consistently found Caltex/Woolworth's Vortex 95 to be the worst - at least the outlet near me - in terms of knock. I would consistently log knock even under moderate, not WOT acceleration. 7-Eleven's 95 octane apears to be the best.

It's unfortunate as I tend to shop Woolies for groceries but Coles Express/Shell fuels tend to be better quality than the Woolies for the outlets near me. So I don't exactly make use of the voucher discounts.

As for 98 octane fuels: I was surprised that BP Ultimate - which many people seem to praise, were no different in knock characteristics for my engine than other brands 98. In fact in my testing all 98 RON fuels acted pretty much the same in terms of engine knock (for the stock GST basemap tune - I didn't tweak as I was more focussed on setting up my engine for 95 octane), so that should at least be of some comfort.

[citris.87]

On a related note has anyone here ever had any problems running on BPs Ultimate?

Yeah mate, I have, in the lancer on two separate occasions, using 98 from BP it was running really crappy. First time I checked with a mechanic, and he said, yeah you have dirty fuel, I just figured, maybe it built up over time, w/e. Cleaned it out, off I went, about 2 weeks later, went to a Different BP, almost immediately I had the same issue as before, took it back, yet again dirty fuel.

About 3 months later, on our way to Keel Bottom for a vamping trip, we filled up a mates 4x4 with BP 98 at the truck top BP on the way out of town, about 2 hours from anywhere, the car started running like crap, I pulled out to try and overtake a truck, and it was like I hit a wall, the car just shook like crazy, and lost all power, after that, we could do more then about 50k, on the way back, same story, 50k the entire trip home on the highway, not exactly safe... When he took it to a mechanic, what a surprise, dirty fuel.

This time the mechanic said to us, it's a known BP problem, they don't clean there trucks properly, or something, switched to Caltex, never had an issue.

[VRX_08]

I always use 91, never had an issue with 91, can't see the point in putting 95 or 98 in as it costs you more in the first place. So it probaly still costs you the same or even less to use 91 and get less kilometres out of a tank of fuel from what I have read and heard!

I majority use BP 91, vary rarely use anything else unless the BP servos are alot more expensive then Shell, Caltex, etc.! I would just prefer to support someone else besides Coles and Woolworths too, I get so annoyed when I very rarely use Shell, the console operators always try and sell you everything in the shop!

[JustinR]

I think you'll find there will be different experiences with different service stations in terms of quality of product. A perfect example would be when Dirtee (Tim) came up here last year, he told me the car was lacking power. After suggesting he filled up at my local BP with 98 he said he noticed a difference when he travelled back home. I can only assume that where he is filling up is not 98 or of a bad quality.

I haven't really had a problem filling up the Lancer with any type of fuel, only once noticing the lack of power when filling up with 91 when i was running on fumes.

For the record, after the tune and filling up with 98 on a fortnightly basis, I found my car is much more fuel efficient than when it was running on 91. I'm getting roughly 550-600km out of a full tank.