Posted on 04/18/2018 3:40:59 PM PDT by 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."
(Excerpt) Read more at autonews.com ...
In the 1960s, Regular was 94 octane, and premium was 100. A few companies sold a mid grade at about 97.
There weren’t any Sunoco stations around my part of the world, but my recollection was they had a ‘pick your blend’ pump with 5 or so choices.
I once flew from Tulsa to Atlanta.
The guy seated next to me was a petroleum engineer. He really knew his stuff and it was interesting.
I can’t recall much but one thing was the scale is really on a thousand point scale. In other words 98 octane is 98 out of 1000. It only takes a tiny increase to make a big difference.
Also back in WWII we produced 115 octane aviation fuel and it made a difference in performance.
What is not stated is whether the gasoline industry can sufficiently convert 87 Octane to make enough 95-Octane gasoline so the price won’t be driven up even higher than it already is.
“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.
The higher ignition temperature of high octane gasoline reduces the chance of detonation from “hot spots” within the engine’s cylinders and minimizes pre-ignition. A slower burn rate allows for more efficient use of the ignited fuel’s pressure buildup to be converted to mechanical energy instead of heat. That is why a high performance engine will run smoother and will feel more powerful when high-octane gasoline is used.
Using a low-octane gasoline whose ignition temperature is too low causes pre-ignition. Low-octane automotive gasoline (87-octane) has a typical ignition temperature of 300 degrees Celsius; high-octane (93-octane) automotive gasoline has a typical ignition temperature of 400 degrees Celsius. Aviation gasoline is blended to ignite at 500 degrees Celsius. High compression and high cylinder temperature will cause the fuel to ignite before the sparkplug fires.” http://www.aviationpros.com/article/10387611/octane-101-autogas-vs-avgas
X 100
Everything was telling me dirty carb but I was thinking spoiled food. I had to fill my gas can anyway and at the last moment decided to fill er up with premium and some added Stable. And that worked!
Smooth running for the rest of the day. Voltage constant at 122vac, thanks in part to an octane boost!
Change your Oil! (Neglect is a generator killer.)
Last time I bought, it was under €1.50 a liter, or about $6 a gallon. Aral (BP) was cheaper than Esso (Exxon) but the cheapest I found was at a Jet station in front of a former Walmart (now Real).
Ethanol is expensive, lowers fuel economy, and is a net loser for the country, raises repair costs for small engines.
Want to raise fuel economy, get rid of ethanol.
My car will generate more power from higher octane, not so sure about an increase in fuel economy, but if it can be done in addition to getting rid of ethanol at only +5 cents, I’m in!
“The reason they want this is to drive the cost of gasoline to the price it is in Europe, thus reducing or removing the ability of Americans to move from place to place. You better believe this is all about control of the population.”
Sorry, but no. The BIG DIFFERENCE is taxes. But your fear is correct and what they will do is use TOLLING, variably priced tolling (which requires tracking and databases), to control what the ‘masses’ do...that is what you need to watch for.
You might want to overlay average wages, or minimum wages, in those same years.
I had a similar experience with my old car. It has 204,000 plus miles and for a long time the valves have made a bit of racket, either that or pinging.
I always use 87 octane but once decided to try the 93. It seemed to make a difference. Since then I have definitely been able to tell. I finally learned that it will do OK if I just use the 93 octane about every third fill up.
I usually fill before it gets down more than 7 or 8 gallons.
I’ve tried the higher octane and not found it to produce much better gas mileage than the regular.
The all gas/ no ethanol stuff does.
But either way, this is just going to end up putting more money in their pockets as premium is expensive.
I heard that back in the 70’s when the price of gas started going up.
I think it’s still what they are after.
Modern engine management means we’re always going to have variable timing going forward, especially with equally modern emissions requirements. This is not a bad thing. Simpler isn’t always better.
And the winter and summer blends that screw you in terms of fuel economy, that's right I said it. Oh ya get rid of Ethanol and sell the corn to the Norks to feed their livestock so they have food.
You cannot run a military on multi-fuels that is why the NATO mandate of all small engines ( generators and UAV's ) run on JP-4/8 so they don't logistically have to carry around gasoline. So why should we run our economy on a more common fungible fuel?
Good info, thanks. I put a Tri-Fuel kit on ours and now it runs on natural gas. I have a manual transfer switch installed and can run pretty much the entire house on an 8KW units.
Best,
L
And the stupid winter/summer blends that give us 10% poorer mileage in the winter.
My gas cans for lawn stuff double as my generator gas in case of a power outage. When I fill those cans, it’s always premium with a double dose of marine Sta-Bil, which is said to offset the ethanol better than regular Sta-Bil.
The additional cost is peanuts, compared to the cost of stuff not working when you need it.
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