No Ethanol Gas makes a BIG difference
Help Support Ducati Forum:
Found some ethanol free fuel on a little airfield 25 miles north of me. Tried it and will definatally be buy it from now on. Went there with two 5gallon jugs that cost me $48.60 to fill both. Bike run so much smoother. It's 91 octane by the way. No popping, smooth, between 3and 4000 rpm, huge differance. If you can get some, must give it a try.
Air fields......hmmmm.... Got a few around here. Did not consider that. What oct was helping your bike run so nicely? I've been using ethanol eliminators and getting better responses throughout the power band.
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2012
- Messages
- 2,485
- Location
- The Med
FWIW, Ducati specify 95-98RON and no more than 10% ethanol.
I use 98, even though 100 is readily available.
I use 98, even though 100 is readily available.
Guys
Remember when talking about octane there are several measurements. RON and MON the USA typically uses an average of them called AKI while the EU uses RON. Be careful with aviation or racing gas as some of it still has high tetraethyl lead content that will destroy your cats ( if you haven't tossed them). Some racing gas also has no significant additive packages which is fine for a carb fed V8 that gets a rebuild 3 times a year (but not for my Pani). Marinias are a good source of alcohol free gas as people have mentioned. There are also a couple of web pages and apps that ferret out the good stuff for you.
Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada
Find ethanol-free E0 gas stations
Find ethanol free gas near you!
Some of us guys racing vintage cars also do a little home blending of various commercially available hydrocarbons, but I'd stick to Ultra94 and Avgas or racing gas blends if you don't have a good stocking dealer of proper racing gas. Remember too much octane rating is a waste of money.
Sunoco Race Fuels | Fuel Comparison Chart
road racing fuel, flat track racing fuel
If you can get it Sunoco 260GT is a great choice and even actually legal in 49 states (guess who's the outlier) AKI of 100, proper cleaning additives and no metals.
I also notice a substantial difference in performance based on gasoline source. So far Sunoco Ultra93 seems best pump gas in my area. some of the other brands of 92/93 AKI are horrible.
Wiki has a reasonable article on octane ratings.
Octane rating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hope you can find some near you!
Remember when talking about octane there are several measurements. RON and MON the USA typically uses an average of them called AKI while the EU uses RON. Be careful with aviation or racing gas as some of it still has high tetraethyl lead content that will destroy your cats ( if you haven't tossed them). Some racing gas also has no significant additive packages which is fine for a carb fed V8 that gets a rebuild 3 times a year (but not for my Pani). Marinias are a good source of alcohol free gas as people have mentioned. There are also a couple of web pages and apps that ferret out the good stuff for you.
Ethanol-free gas stations in the U.S. and Canada
Find ethanol-free E0 gas stations
Find ethanol free gas near you!
Some of us guys racing vintage cars also do a little home blending of various commercially available hydrocarbons, but I'd stick to Ultra94 and Avgas or racing gas blends if you don't have a good stocking dealer of proper racing gas. Remember too much octane rating is a waste of money.
Sunoco Race Fuels | Fuel Comparison Chart
road racing fuel, flat track racing fuel
If you can get it Sunoco 260GT is a great choice and even actually legal in 49 states (guess who's the outlier) AKI of 100, proper cleaning additives and no metals.
I also notice a substantial difference in performance based on gasoline source. So far Sunoco Ultra93 seems best pump gas in my area. some of the other brands of 92/93 AKI are horrible.
Wiki has a reasonable article on octane ratings.
Octane rating - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hope you can find some near you!
If you haven't checked it out. "puregas.org"
They list "most" of the gas stations in your area that have ethanol free fuel.
- Joined
- Aug 11, 2012
- Messages
- 102
- Location
- Denver, CO
The main reason for the better gas mileage and more power is the chemical energy between ethanol and gas. Ethanol has about 80% of the chemical energy of gasoline, so using the same volume of ethanol vs gas will result in 80% less power, roughly.
Now the advantages of ethanol are very numerous, but I highly doubt this bike can fully take advantage of them. Ethanol burns much cooler than gas (lower chemical energy output) so therefore you can advance the timing drastically without getting and pre detonation due to cooler cylinder temps. These gains/advantages are mainly noticeable and used in boosted motors, turbo cars for instance. Not only can they raise the boost levels, so long as the mechanical components can withstand it, they can advance the timing to the extreme. The downside to this however, is that when running larger ethanol based fuels, read e85, the fuel economy goes to .... because you have to command ~20% more fueling in the tune to just make up the power by not running gasoline.
On a completely different matter, the lower octane rating fuels have higher chemical energy output, as they burn hotter, bigger explosion, they're more prone to pre detonation. So the basic rule of thumb is run the lowest octane rated gasoline you can without getting knock.
Now the advantages of ethanol are very numerous, but I highly doubt this bike can fully take advantage of them. Ethanol burns much cooler than gas (lower chemical energy output) so therefore you can advance the timing drastically without getting and pre detonation due to cooler cylinder temps. These gains/advantages are mainly noticeable and used in boosted motors, turbo cars for instance. Not only can they raise the boost levels, so long as the mechanical components can withstand it, they can advance the timing to the extreme. The downside to this however, is that when running larger ethanol based fuels, read e85, the fuel economy goes to .... because you have to command ~20% more fueling in the tune to just make up the power by not running gasoline.
On a completely different matter, the lower octane rating fuels have higher chemical energy output, as they burn hotter, bigger explosion, they're more prone to pre detonation. So the basic rule of thumb is run the lowest octane rated gasoline you can without getting knock.
Similar threads
Register CTA
Register on Ducati Forum! This sidebar will go away, and you will see fewer ads.
Sign Up
