M42club.com - Home of the BMW E30/E36 318i/iS
DISCUSSION => General Topics => Topic started by: 123willy4 on January 02, 2008, 04:13:06 AM
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Down under in Australia, i have been normally running on 96 (RON) octane Mobil fuel with the occasional fill up of 98 RON.
But a petrol station recently opened near me that sells a 95, 98 and 100 RON Octane fuel with a 10% ethanol blend.
Would i see (feel) better results using this ethanol blend?
Bearing in mind money is no object
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the higher the compression ratio, the better and higher should the fuel be... on my yamaha r1 (11.8:1) i only use 100octane from shell. for the 318is e30 (10:1) i use 95.. i made a test over nearly 5000km with the car... i didnt see and feel any difference in consumption and power on the stock engine, may be there is one... but nearly unmeausurable
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On the 318 I'd use 98 if you do much hard driving. The e30 M42 does not have the knock sensors that the e36 versions had, and lower octane fuel will ping/nock/detonate in our version of the motor at high rpm or large throttle inputs. The 100 octane fuel probably wouldn't hurt, but I try to avoid using anything with ethanol in it in an older car. Ethanol is very hard on all of the rubber parts of an engine/fuel system, especially if it was not designed for ethanol use. Also, ethanol doesn't have the stored power that gasoline has, so it doesn't produce as big of a bang.
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I think 95 is recommended.
I agree with Gearhead though, stay away from ethanol if you can.
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thanks, i wanted to check because the brochure said ethanol was ok for post 1986 BMWs
but then i read the small type that said in older cars the ethanol is not ideal for rubber parts!
will probably stick to what i have been doing