blowfishRus6
New member
there is a difference in the quality of gas. i havent noticed much but my car does run better with better quality gas (bp) i start to have real ruff idels with cheap gas stations.
You are fine on 87 oct
I like what you've written Reptile but whenever I've read about the whole 'flame front' thing with regards to KR I'm a little foggy. Another way I think about KR and timing is that fuel takes time to burn in the cylinder. Once combustion begins and starts to spread you will reach a point of peak combustion. Ideally you want this to occur slightly after the cylinder reaches TDC. If peak combustion happens before TDC you get Knock. Imagine your piston racing towards the top of the cylinder and before it gets there it runs into the meat of the fuel burn explosion. All of a sudden the force of peak combustion is trying to force the cylinder down and yet the mechanical makeup of the engine keeps forcing the piston up. At some point things are going to break. Anyway, that is why timing is retarded as one way to combat Knock. You start the combustion later to allow peak combustion to happen after TDC.
That is a picture I can get in my head. It helps me understand timing with relation to what I want to achieve with tuning but also how I would want to use it to battle KR. KR is actually the PCM retarding timing to accomplish this.
I need to try to get my head around the part about higher octane not burning slower, though. My understanding has always been that higher octane fuel has a more controlled (hence slower) combustion. That's why it helps combat knock. It allows the peak combustion to occur after TDC. Just a different method to get to the same place as retarding timing. I'll need to re-read your section on octane and burn rates and why higher octane reduces Knock a few more times.
Thanks for doing this.
I can't remember where,...
Maybe on ClubGayPride...
There's a thread about Octane Boosters
Talks about what they put in them, good ones & bad ones...
I don't use any of them, but I do use Lucas Fuel Additive
LucasOil.com I buy the big bottle, get like 32oz or more (Like 5-6 tanks worth)
you have to add a whole **** ton of those octane booster things in order to actually get anything out of it. best off just running premium anyway.
Higher octane does burn slower.
There's always a lot of confusion regarding octane, octane-boosters and how they work. Typical misconceptions are evident in blank-statements like:
"Higher octane fuels burn slower, thus their higher octane number"
"Higher octane fuels burn hotter, therefore more power is generated"
"Higher octane fuels explodes with more force, thus their higher power"
All three of which are untrue and are coincidental in effect,
Some racers think that they need a slow burning gasoline to make good horsepower. This is far form the truth. What we need is a good fast burn gasoline to be able to complete the burn in the time available.
Keep in mind that at 6000 RPM, each spark plug fires 50 times per second. At this rate, there is very little time to draw the intake charge into the cylinder, compress it, burn it, expand it, and exhaust it. A good fast burn gasoline is very important in making as much horsepower as possible at this engine speed. The most horsepower is developed when the gasoline is burned completely.