The octane game: Auto industry lobbies for 95 as new regular

Automotive News ^ | April 17, 2018 @ 11:00 am | Richard Truett

[outofsalt]

"GM, Ford and Fiat Chrysler are seeking just one grade of fuel: 95. That would eliminate today's grades, generally 87 octane for regular, 88-90 for midgrade and 91-94 for premium." "In testimony Friday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee's environment subcommittee, Dan Nicholson, General Motors' vice president of global propulsion systems, said making 95 octane the new regular aligns the U.S. with Europe and is one of the most affordable ways to boost fuel economy and lower greenhouse gas emissions."

[Ozark Tom]

68inHg manifold pressure supercharger?

[central_va]

Bring back leaded fuels. Better burn, longer engine life.

"Tetraethyllead (commonly styled tetraethyl lead), abbreviated TEL, is an organolead compound with the formula (CH3CH2)4Pb.

TEL is a petro-fuel additive; first being mixed with gasoline (petrol) beginning in the 1920s as a patented octane rating booster that allowed engine compression to be raised substantially. This in turn caused increased vehicle performance (fuel economy).[3][4] TEL had been identified chemically in the mid-19th century, but its antiknock effectiveness was discovered in 1921 by the General Motors research laboratory, which had spent several years attempting to find an additive that was both highly effective and inexpensive. Among those GM also considered was ethanol, which was known to be widely available and inexpensive, but TEL was promoted because it was uniquely profitable to the patent holders and because the oil industry was generally hostile to ethanol.[5]"

[Fred Hayek]

The other thing is to run your generator periodically. It helps to move the parts around once in a while.
Large data centers and hospitals with backup gensets are required to have at least some runtime each month, as part of their maintenance.

[Fred Hayek]

Winter blend has a bit more butane in the mix to raise the vapor pressure. It is definitely a necessity when living up north with subzero winter temperatures being the norm.

[T-Bone Texan]

It’s all part of the Elites’ Agenda 21 plan wherein we are all made poor, concentrated, and unable to readily move around.

I think they actually came out and said this.

[EMI_Guy]

Charles Kettering, who worked within the GM kingdom, was at the point in getting tetraethyl lead additive to work. His efforts allowed aero engines to achieve gigantic HP output for WWII.

[Some Fat Guy in L.A.]

Yep, and conveniently, those of us who drive older vehicles would be forced to get new ones. Jagoffs.

[editor-surveyor]

.
The “governor” on most low cost generators is a steel flap and a spring inside the cooling shroud.

Better units have calibrated centrifugal governors inside the crankcase that need clean oil to operate properly.

Water is the most common ‘garbage’ in fuel systems, but it usually doesn’t accumulate if there is alcohol in the fuel.

[Fresh Wind]

I can always tell when I get the first tankfull of winter gas in the fall, and when I get the first tankfull of summer gas in the spring. The mileage difference is significant.

[outofsalt]

"However I could pump Jenny for 16-17 cents...In fact, most of my buddies pumped Jenny too."

Seems like Jenny got around ;)

[trebb]

Those of us with turbos would be happy enough - those who only need regular might bitch a bit....

[FLT-bird]

Why the hell would we want to align with Europe? Gas is two or three times more expensive there.

[drop 50 and fire for effect]

How about we get rid of the stupid regional boutique blends instead.

Excellent point. The octane rating may or may not be important, I drive my Ford F150 over here in Germany, and it does fine, but no spectacular improvement on 95 octane fuel.

But forcing refineries to make multiple blends for different regions and change blends for summer or winter does add costs.

Pick one blend and stick with it.

[az_gila]

Also back in WWII we produced 115 octane aviation fuel and it made a difference in performance.

---

Yes, but that 115 octane stuff needed TEL (tetra ethyl lead) to reach that octane rating. It was produced all over the UK in WWII and later for auto fuel. Just like the US, it was phased out for auto fuel in the 80's.

Now the only source world-wide for TEL - used in aviation fuel - is a single plant near Port Sunlight on the River Mersey - cue Gerry and the Pacemakers...:^)

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

“Many people think high-octane gasoline is more powerful than low octane gasoline. This is not true. The energy produced from a gallon of high and low octane gasoline is almost the same. Any minor variation depends on what additives are used by refiners and blenders. The key features of high-octane gasoline are a higher ignition temperature and a slower burning rate. . .”

I can’t precisely quote the equation at this moment, but it states where “r” is the compression ratio, efficiency is proportional. Raise “r” and the economy increases provided...you’re feeding the correct fuel into a higher r engine.

By their very nature diesels kick the tar out of gassers with respect to economy: vastly higher r, more specific heat value than gasoline and slow burning making for great BMEPs on the piston crown.

To try to explain the fundamentals, think of it this way:

1. Gasoline engines, Diesel engines, gas turbine engines, Steam engines - any engine which uses heat to expand/pressurize a gas and to produce power - has to
   1. start with ("take in,” in the case of internal combustion engines) cool air or water

   2. use a pump to raise the pressure of the air (or water)

   3. heat the air (or water, in the steam engine case)

   4. allow the air (or steam) to expand against a resistance, producing work, and

   5. throw off as much remaining heat as possible (and there will be heat which must be discarded) to return to step 1

2. Engines produce work only in “proportion” to the increases in pressure and temperature at which they operate.

3. This argues for compressing the air in a gasoline or diesel to very high pressure, which produces high initial temperature before combustion should begin. And in a diesel design, the fuel is not mixed with the air (and thus does not start burning) until it is time for the expansion stroke of the piston to begin (unfortunately there is a nontrivial lag in the combustion process, so that by the time the first bit of fuel injected burns, there is more fuel injected, which combusts explosively at the high pressure/temperature of the combustion, resulting in “diesel knock.”) But in general the diesel concept is consistent with the design of very high compression, thus very high temperature/pressure ratios, and thus excellent efficiency in producing work from fuel. It can therefore fairly be said that if you are not using a diesel, you are not doing your very best to get high efficiency.

4. Primarily because of “diesel knock,” and the weight penalties that imposes on the design of diesel engines for a given power capability, spark-ignition gasoline engines are preferred by automobile drivers. But the compression ratio which is serviceable in a gasoline engine is much lower than for a diesel because the advantages of the gasoline engine over the diesel are pretty much predicated on avoiding the “knock” problem. And the limit of the serviceable compression ratio of a gasoline engine depend on the minimum octane rating of gasoline for which it is designed. If you design for 87 octane, you use a lower compression ratio than you do if you design for 92 octane.

5. An engine designed to be able to operate smoothy on 87 octane gasoline does not run any better on 92 octane gasoline. There is no significant difference in the heat value of the octane grades, and no difference in the hardware you are using it in. Thus, no predicted improvement in performance.

6. OTOH using 87 octane gas in an engine designed for 92 octane gas is destructive of the engine. At the onset of the Energy Crisis, General Motors committed engineering malpractice in a very similar way, by the simple expedient of modifying a gasoline engine to very high compression ratio, and substituting diesel fuel injectors for spark plugs. The result was wonderful performance on paper - but, entirely predictably, very poor service in real life.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Also back in WWII we produced 115 octane aviation fuel and it made a difference in performance.

The Germans had trouble producing anything we would have called aviation gasoline because of the bombing campaign they were under.

[NorthMountain]

Seems like Jenny got around ;)

I got her number.

867-5309

[Magnum44]

3% better fuel economy

For upwards of %10 to 20% increase in cost. Give me a 62 VW beetle please.

[CJ Wolf]

Same as toilet flushing regulations. They know.

[outofsalt]

I think her area code is 666...Is that toll free?