Octane, stumbling and stalling

If you want ethanol free look to marine fuel. I'm pretty sure in Florida all automotive fuel must have ethanol in it. There's a station down the road from my house that sells "Marine only" gas, 91 ethanol free.

Put 95 w/5% ethanol in while here in Germany today (I had no choice other than Diesel) and viola....stumble stumble stumble.

Dude, maybe you can smuggle back some real gas for your fellow Californians on your carry-on!

Put some ethanol-free 89 octane in yesterday at $4.49 a gallon. I can tell the difference already. I won't go back to the corn crap unless I have to.

I try to run premium if possible but have had to use regular with E and could not tell the difference.

The only access I have to ethanol free is 100 octane. I filled up with it last night and plan on running this consistently the next few weeks to see if, after the ECU adjusts, the low speed herky-jerky subsides. Don't care about performance, just want smoother riding.

Plus it smells good. Hehe.

Claymore said:

Brad I will agree, but only in so far as if you do not have your bike dynoed. If your bike has had its ecu reflashed to remove the closed loop and has a piggyback like RapidBike Race it is my contention that the Panigale will make more power with a higher octane (with the same or higher energy content than its usual fuel), obviously only up to a point, but that point will certainly be higher than 98 RON.
Somewhere on this forum somebody had a R adapted to racing and the racing fuel his engine builder and tuner used when tuning the bike added about 10 hp by itself. I will see if I can track it down.

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Oh yes I agree with that

If the engine has been specifically "tuned/optimized" to run on 98, then it will certainly be an advantage to stay with it, and a definite disadvantage to go with the 95.
The Superquadro engine is not unique in that regard.
Manufacturers are(for the most part) bound to ensure their engines are tuned to safely run on lower octane fuel in accordance with the information in the Owners Manual.
The reason being, that one cannot ensure the quality of the fuel everywhere.
For example, if there was a petrol station that had low turnover of fuel and there was high octane fuel going off/stale in the tanks. Then it follows there is a possibility that engine damage may occur

That's why I made reference to standard tunes and stocks trim in the earlier on.

Also that's why for the dyno run test on my bike, we used the freshest fuel that was available from a high turnover petrol station (without going to the trouble of getting it tested at the lab).

At the end of the day, both of my DUCATI's run superbly on the 95 RON fuel. So I wont be changing a thing

I would hate to be in the US and having to deal with the fuel issues commonly reported on the forums.
It appears that the well documented DUCATI plastic expanding tank issues, are totally unique to the USA with the Ethanol fuel over there

JPKII said:

The only access I have to ethanol free is 100 octane. I filled up with it last night and plan on running this consistently the next few weeks to see if, after the ECU adjusts, the low speed herky-jerky subsides. Don't care about performance, just want smoother riding.

Plus it smells good. Hehe.

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Sounds like a good plan

It will be interesting to hear your experiences

JPKII said:

The only access I have to ethanol free is 100 octane. I filled up with it last night and plan on running this consistently the next few weeks to see if, after the ECU adjusts, the low speed herky-jerky subsides. Don't care about performance, just want smoother riding.

Plus it smells good. Hehe.

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I will be very interested in your results. I would love to get rid of the low speed surging/stumbling nonsense.

I needed fuel cans for a track day and used a can of VP U4.4. It probably ended up being 70% 91 octane pump and 30% U4.4. Bike ran a bit smoother and seemed to pull a bit harder, but this is hardly scientific, just seat of the pants feel on the road/track. It also smells great and keeps the outlet of the Termis from getting all sooty black.

I believe I read in one of the threads on here that an advantage to the Rexxer flash is that it is tuned for US gas vs Euro ala the stock bike. I wonder though if they tune for us gas or us gas with ethanol and if that would help at all.

There is a Union76 Station in Brentwood Ca, It has 100 Racing fuel. but its 10 a gallon. But we have small tanks.

"I have also seen data where a particular engine has made less power on a dyno with the higher octane fuel".

This was also the finding some years ago by Bruce Meyers of the former BCM shop in NH.

In Canada we're fortunate re the ethanol free fuel: Ultramar 91, Canadian Tire (Imperial Oil) premium and Shell V91. Shell is the only one to make it clear, however, with a no ethanol sign on the pump.

Interesting thread - ethanol increases the octane rating of gasoline when blended in but reduces the energy content of gasoline. So we can get 93 or whatever, but it's not the same 93 as Eurogas apparently when it comes to energy content.

Hello
I put 100 or 102 octane gasoline (Aral Ultimate 102 or Shell VPower 100) in the Panigale and it really does run smooth. With 98oct I could see more dirt in the exhaust outlet and that was the same with more than 3 years of the S1000RR.
No problem with power too, it goes into the revlimiter in 6th gear without hesitation (German Autobahn of course )

In Vancouver and the Lower Mainland area we have Chevron 94, which clearly states ethanol free right on the pump, and also shell V power, which is also ethanol free, at the moment its about $1:56CDN per litre

Where do you live? 76 station in Brentwood, Ca has it and its 11 bucks a gallon. 40.00 still a lot but worth it.