I read that Tesco premium has the highest octane rating you can buy on the forecourt. The premium stuff apparently burns more readily and therefore runs marginally cooler. My BMW twin will run on virtually anything but noticeably pinks a lot less on super. Stirlingmoz
I remember reading that the higher octane rating can keep head temperatures down. Is this actually true?
I read it in a Classic Bike magazine. I’m not a high mileage man on my classics so don’t mind spoiling them at the pump. Stirlingmoz
Ive realised any mpg gain from supreme fuel that I might get from the golf is lost due to the fact that my Mrs drives it like she just stole it, everywhere. If you ever go out with her you’ll assume she must have a false right leg, leading to a loss of feel of the accelerator pedal, as no one else I know actually accelerates towards red traffic lights. I’m sure she thinks the hand brake is there to give that little bit of extra braking when all four disc brakes just aren’t enough
I think I might have married her long lost twin................... Once said she thought she'd hit a bird on the way to work but drove on and then home again - a 45 mile round trip. The front bumper panel was cracked and flapping loose from it's near side fixings, and the near side fog lamp was hanging out on it's wiring like a mad eye...............
I took @lost-en-france's advice when we went to Brittany last year to use 'Super' because it contains less Ethanol. The old engine might have enjoyed it, but I didn't notice any difference in economy. Tony
Funny enough I was just thinking about this. I used to use Super in the bus and felt it did run a little better. It’s not my daily driver so economy wasn’t really a worry. My Subaru is tuned for 98R and that gets very upset if I use anything other than Shell or Tesco Super so it was as much habit as anything else. I had a little backfiring on overrun so I stopped using it to see if it made any difference but it didn’t seem to - Dropping the idle speed helped that a lot - it has no chokes so the last garage that worked on it had cranked it up a little - I expect there’s also a tiny hole in the exhaust somewhere. But I’ve also noticed that oil temp seems slightly higher than I recall on long runs so I’ll try some Super again just to see. The only other thing I can think of that’s changed is the oil filter - VW Heritage sent me a generic one rather than the OC28 they listed and I wondered if the flow isn’t as good but thought I was just being paranoid. Or OC D. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I'm in this camp now having put "standard" in for the first roughly 600 miles of our recent 780 mile week long oddessy ... No "super" available at the last fuel stop, so we had an immediate comparison to make. Wasn't expecting a difference as I also thought it was just about clean carbs in Bays, but there was what I can only describe as "almost one gear's worth of difference" on inclines ... All felt the same on the flat, or at least if there WAS a difference I couldn't swear to it ... (Seriously hot weather, but only doing runs of about 50 miles at a time so, being new to engine mechanics, not sure whether "hot heads" would have been a factor.) Next tank will be "super" again to see whether it's back to the old "Elmo" or a case of "Elmo no like big drives and hurts now."
Remember my Father at the garage "fill it please and two shots of Redex" Then driving along with a contented look on his face. Halcyon days
Well after filling up with Shell Super today I can say that it didn’t make any difference at all to the oil temp. I don’t have Head temps so I can’t say for certain about that though. As for running better? I think there’s a really marginal improvement in response but may be I’m just imagining it. Meanwhile I filled up the Subaru with Tesco Momentum last night and so far seems not quite as sharp as Shell despite the higher octane. I’ll reset the ECU and see if that makes a difference as it can be temperamental on different fuels - with standard stuff it really runs poor and the anti knock retardation doesn’t disappear after refilling with super without a reset. Edited to say that in the Subaru Tesco Momentum does seem to be as good as Shell Super in terms of performance. Whether the additives are the same quality and the ethanol as good for the car I can’t say. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Not much, to be honest, but if you're feeling flush, buy a bottle in Halfrauds and slop it into the tank. It's really just solvent that's supposed to clean your carb out.