Premium Vs unlead......

I Tend to agree Bigcol, I actually have a subaru liberty with the standard 2.2L engine. Every second weekend we take that car from Sydney to Bathurst over the blue mountains with four people in it , Running on premium is like i have another 10 HP.

Axle.

What brand fuel did you buy? In my Pajero (3.5L) I find I get 1-2L/100km BETTER economy on Shell Optimax (98 octane in Vic) compared to Shell ULP (91 octane). It's consistently better.

Yet "another" company's 98 octane saw 18-20% increase in consumption. I honestly think that the couple of times I've tried that particular "premium" fuel, it's either been watered down with much more than 10% ethanol, or they've had 91 octane E10 in the storage tank instead. Other people have reported it as having very variable performance, one tank is crap, the next fantastic. Bit like free range eggs being substituted with cage eggs :-)

It was the Caltex Vortex.
our paj when I use plain unleaded is 10.2Lt per 100kms... didn't dare add up the figures for the prem!!

I don't trust caltex anymore. Filled up with their diesel one day on the way home and the car felt like it lost the turbo, a very definate drop in power after leaving the servo, ok I let that one go, might not have been the fuel, maybe just a one-off 'something', strangely enough I got the power back after refilling with bp on the next fill.
Had a few slight power losses since then, after filling with caltex, seat of the pants feel only, not every time, haven't kept a record, but seems quite often with that brand.
Today was the last straw and the end of using caltex for me, I can usually stand the KTM up on the back wheel just under power in second, no clutch, with no problem, I usually use bp ultimate.
Filled up today in a smaller Nthn NSW town whilst on a ride , couldn't find bp, so filled with the next best thing I could find, caltex vortex (95 octane), felt a liitle down at first but put it down to my imagination, until I went to pick the front up at one stage, no chance! Strange, I thought, tried it again, this time even flicked the clutch, nope, that didn't work either. Next time I took off after stopping I did it in 1st, front lofted about 1 foot, if I had of given it that much normally in 2nd I'd have gravel rash on my ar$e, let alone 1st.
On top of all of this my fuel consumption went from a normal 19.5 km/lt down to 15.7km/lt, I can understand 1 or 2 km/lt at most, with the type of riding we were doing, but no way should it be 4.
So that was enough proof for me, no more caltex! ( or ampol or wollworths, pretty sure they use caltex aswell )
So maybe try your test again Jo, only this time using bp premium or ultimate.

Avagoodn
Pezza

Hey stranger!
We have always found great value with the Caltex unleaded. I really thoght the premium would be the same....

Buttttttttttt as a few of you have said that we should give it a few goes through, then we may see a difference...
well we'll give it another 2 fills in the next 2 weeks.
Will spend triple my fuel bill I bet! but will give it another 2 times which basically would be another 1700kms..... if there is no improvement after that many km's then it is back to unleaded!!!

Hey Perry was that you the other day on the KTM that snuck up beside me and a truck on my left side about 4.50pm on Beaudesert Rd? don't remember the day though.

Nah mate, wouldn't have been me, the only part of Beaudesert rd I've used in the last few weeks is the stretch between middle rd and Logan mwy, and then only around 12 midday or midnight.
Besides, I probably would've noticed your sticker and done something silly like pressing my face up against your passenger door window or pulling up your windscreen wiper before riding off whilst flicking up the birdy. LOL.
Like I said above, try doing your test using bp instead of caltex, think you'll find a difference.

Avagoodn
Pezza

yeh you would do that to!!!!!!

Who knows whats in the underground tank at the servo, by the looks of some of the deadbeat delivery truck drivers with an IQ of 25 that I have seen there on occassion it wouldn't suprise me if diesel came out of the unleaded nozzle!

Hey Laura
The extra cost for premium if it were effective for our vehicle is not a bother, but mileage wise, that is my point, on plain unleaded I got 180-200km per quarter tank, on the premium I got 71km on a quarter of a tank. That being the case I'd hate to know my total weekly fuel bill!
Cheers
Jo

hey Datto..
Mark read what you wrote (kinda goes over my head) he doesn't know what the compression ratings are. But the other stuff you wrote he said well yeh it makes sense so we'll give it a few more tries... but I don't know now... I wrote another reply below with the current fuel stats.
Cheers
Jo

Shelf life of a month? Bugger, better use those jerry cans in the shed I was saving for a war!

Ohh Scuba you're good!!!!!!!!!!

Caltex Vortex/Premium, whatever they call it in your state, is rubbish!

Every time I use it economy goes out the window and there is a very noticeable difference in torque and engine rev-ability.

Shell Premium brings out the best in our cars. BP Ultimate makes the engine feel stronger down low, but top end seems to be the same as if it were on ULP.

However if your engine is not tuned/designed to run on premium, the only benefit you will notice is a cleaner running engine due to the detergents used. Remember higher octane burns slower and if the sparks is not strong enough or the compression is not great enough you will be wasting fuel.

In your case the 3L Pajero is not designed to be run on premium. However if it were the 3.5L it would require 95 octane.

Agree with your comments southy, but I wish to add, I had a 3.5lt Paj that never had a drop of ultimate or hi octane anything and it did the job fine for 170000km in two and a half years. So where it may be deemed "ideal" to use Hi octane, I personally don't believe it to be "necessary". I do not have tertiary qualifications on fuel analysis so I may stand to be corrected and maybe I just had a good run with my Paj???

Jo, save your bucks, buy unleaded and put a few more goodies on the truck. 6months of fuel savings (at your current scenarios) and you would have enough for a front air locker mmmmmmm.

Regards, Trevor.