new shell optimax

pc007 · 29-11-2006, 10:00 PM

hi chris
i had my car tuned by you here in canberra to 98 ron fuel. My question is i filled up my wife's car at shell and noticed that shell have their new replacement optimax out. Its 100 ron and has 5% ethanol in it. Is this ok to use on my xr6t or not. i was a bit worried about the 5% part and is it ok to use a higher ron fuel than the car has been tuned to. I always use 98 ron vortex.

peter

**Stav** · 04-12-2006, 06:28 PM

Id keep using the vortex.

**Bluehoon** · 04-12-2006, 09:48 PM

the bosch fuel systems aren't designed around ethanol, and the injectors don't take too kindly to ethanol either...

The ron rating won't casue any issues but.....

**Bluepower** · 05-12-2006, 01:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pc007

hi chris
i had my car tuned by you here in canberra to 98 ron fuel. My question is i filled up my wife's car at shell and noticed that shell have their new replacement optimax out. Its 100 ron and has 5% ethanol in it. Is this ok to use on my xr6t or not. i was a bit worried about the 5% part and is it ok to use a higher ron fuel than the car has been tuned to. I always use 98 ron vortex.

peter

Hey Peter, hows things?

I echo the above sentiments, and in addition I have tried the new fuels, and with little (if any) difference in power or economy.

BLOAN · 05-12-2006, 10:32 PM

Why are so many people scared of ethanol? Majority of major car companies do not have a problem with up to 10% ethanol based fuels so I can't understand why anybody else should have a concern! I run Boost98 & consistantly get 20-40km's extra out of a tank with the added bonus of being 4c/l cheaper than any other 98 octane fuel!

sbutler · 05-12-2006, 10:41 PM

I have been using boost 98 in the T3 for over a year my son uses it in his XR6T & its great.
If anyone has concerns with E fuel they should rest eazy, Its fine, it was the fuel companys scare tactics from a few years ago still frighting people.

XRQTOR · 06-12-2006, 03:00 PM

I have seen an article from the states where a guy with a TT stang ran E85 (85% ethanol) for well over 12 month's, the only downside to ethanol based fuel was that it required more injector/fuel to match the power. On straight petrol his fuel system was at 65% and on the E85 it was almost at 85%. Considering it was half the price of petrol i think it's done quite well.

**Bluehoon** · 06-12-2006, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XRQTOR

I have seen an article from the states where a guy with a TT stang ran E85 (85% ethanol) for well over 12 month's, the only downside to ethanol based fuel was that it required more injector/fuel to match the power. On straight petrol his fuel system was at 65% and on the E85 it was almost at 85%. Considering it was half the price of petrol i think it's done quite well.

What injectors was he using? When the article was done, was there any inspection of the valve train on the motor?

XRQTOR · 06-12-2006, 06:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bluehoon

What injectors was he using? When the article was done, was there any inspection of the valve train on the motor?

7oLB's i think, they stripped it after 12months and it was like new. Even the fuel system showed no sogn of abnormal wear.

XRQTOR · 06-12-2006, 06:05 PM

But do you think i can find the link, it was a 1o page article and was a brillent read.

**Bluehoon** · 06-12-2006, 06:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XRQTOR

But do you think i can find the link, it was a 1o page article and was a brillent read.

murphys law..................

XRQTOR · 06-12-2006, 08:18 PM

Does anyone know what sort of gain's the fuel additives will give, 98+ a bottle of nulon will give Xron. Also what are they worth per bottle.

b-juggles · 06-12-2006, 09:24 PM

one for the chemists out there...is it true ethanol is slightly acidic so that is why one might get injector failure or premature wear?

pc007 · 06-12-2006, 10:26 PM

thanks guys for all your comments

J_Tank · 06-12-2006, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XRQTOR

Does anyone know what sort of gain's the fuel additives will give, 98+ a bottle of nulon will give Xron. Also what are they worth per bottle.

about $35 for a bottle that'll do two tanks worth, as for what its worth in terms of performance I'm not sure...

FPV GT · 06-12-2006, 11:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b-juggles

one for the chemists out there...is it true ethanol is slightly acidic so that is why one might get injector failure or premature wear?

Not actually a chemist but have some informed knowledge.

Ethanol can act as a solvent, and there are many known cases where adhesive failure has occurred at the bond between the carburettor float and float arm in carberuttored engines.
Elastomers (techo name for rubbers) are most susceptible to attack from ethanol. Read rubber fuel lines
Simply, some older cars did not use vulcanised rubber fuel components, hence why there are some issues with pre 1998 vehicles. Even some components used today are not fully ethanol "happy" , this of one of the main argument used by the anti-methanol crowd, read oil companies.
The best solution is to replace these components with ethanol “happy” ones
Not that this should be an issue, as most vehicles are not stored for periods of time, but ethanol blend fuels increase the solubility of petrol deposits lending to the release of gum bound debris, followed by blockage of filters and fuel metering components.
High concentrations of ethanol can be corrosive to all tin, steel and aluminium
Another problem is that ethanol has a water affinity problem, this means it absorbs water, and if enough water is absorbed, de-mixing of the blend can occur.

Regards
Paul

Dannopower · 07-12-2006, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pc007

hi chris
i had my car tuned by you here in canberra to 98 ron fuel. My question is i filled up my wife's car at shell and noticed that shell have their new replacement optimax out. Its 100 ron and has 5% ethanol in it. Is this ok to use on my xr6t or not. i was a bit worried about the 5% part and is it ok to use a higher ron fuel than the car has been tuned to. I always use 98 ron vortex.

peter

Hi peter,

I have used shell optimax extreme 100 octane in my ute without a worry at all, its 5% ethanol. I dont use it anymore, gone back to bp ultimate.

There has been a few intances, and one happened to Geea, where the part ethanol based fuel was sitting in the tank for an extended period of time (A month of more) without the car being started.It seems the ethanol had separated from the fuel and had eaten away parts of the fuel line lining, as well as turning to a sort of sludge in the tank.

If you are using the car regularly you wont have this worry. its just if something happens with your car and its sitting for some extended period of time, then its worth remembering.

Im sure if you send a PM to Geea he can add more.

XR6TickfordBoy · 07-12-2006, 05:29 PM

Well looking at whats written on the pump at United Servo's on there 95 ron/ethonol petrol it states that it cleans fuels systems, so I gather that's an admission to some sort of acidic properties!

Ruger · 10-12-2006, 01:18 AM

Thinners would clean your fuel system well and good too but would you use it?

AFAIK im sticking to what Bluehoon says our injectors arent designed for it so i wont use it. that and im lucky to go through a tank a month

pc007 · 10-12-2006, 10:44 PM

Unfortunately my wife filled ($20) worth of optimax in the T to get her home (as I had filled her car with the optimax she thought that it was ok. I forgave her after she said sorry) but we were doing a trip to Sydney the next morning so i quickly filled up with vortex again, and will continue to do so thanks again for your advice guys

peter

Dannopower · 11-12-2006, 06:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pc007

Unfortunately my wife filled ($20) worth of optimax in the T to get her home (as I had filled her car with the optimax she thought that it was ok. I forgave her after she said sorry) but we were doing a trip to Sydney the next morning so i quickly filled up with vortex again, and will continue to do so thanks again for your advice guys

peter

I think there's only one optimax with 5%ethanol, used to be called optimax extreme. Im not sure what its called now, but the std optimax is still 98 (even though its crap!!!)

AU1XLS · 11-12-2006, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dannopower

I think there's only one optimax with 5%ethanol, used to be called optimax extreme. Im not sure what its called now, but the std optimax is still 98 (even though its crap!!!)

98= V Power
V Power + 5% Ethanol = V Power Racing

XRQTOR · 17-12-2006, 07:41 PM

Ah ha i found the info i was hunting for.

Turbomustangs.com along with Steve Cole Enterprises Inc (username: Karl Hungus) has completed some preliminary testing with the environmentally friendly, cheaper than 91 Octane, E85 fuel blend.
First off what is E85? E85, is a motor fuel blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline to be used in flex-fuel vehicles. Ethanol is alcohol used in transportation fuels. It is a high-octane, liquid fuel, produced by the fermentation of plant sugars. In
the United States, ethanol is typically produced from corn and other grain products, although in the future it may be economically produced from other biomass resources.

Benefits:
It has a motor octane rating of 104-108, it is also quite cold to the touch. It is currently about 1.99 per gallon, while 91 Octane is approximately 3.30 a gallon. E85 is cleaner burning, emitting a lot less greenhouse gasses. It is also a renewable resource. To top it off it is made 100% within the confines of the USA.

Cons:
It takes more of this fuel to create the same energy as regular gasoline. Therefore your car will use more fuel and you will see a decrease of approximately 10-15% in fuel economy. To make big horsepower you will need more fuel pump and more injector. Many people state that the fuel is corrosive and it could have adverse effects on aluminum fuel rails, injector o-rings and fuel lines. But so far in 9 months of testing we have seen no such side effects.

Test Car
1995 Mustang GT street car, 331 cubic inch, custom twin turbo system with twin T70 p-trims w/ .58 AR, T56 tranny, solid roller: 242/236, .600 lift.
Fuel System: 3, 255lph Walbro in line fuel pumps, 160# injectors.
No alky, no nitrous, no ice on the intake, etc.

The first thing we did was add 40% fuel to the fuel map under WOT. We also added about 20% fuel in part throttle areas. We were tuning using a regular gasoline wideband air fuel ratio of 14:1 at part throttle. On the dyno the car made the best and cleanest power at 12:1.

At 6 psi of boost and 35 degrees total timing the car made 575rwhp from 6000rpm until 7500rpm. The power never fell off. We tried less timing but the car didn’t respond well and the power curve was sloppier. At 13psi and about 29 degrees of timing we made 872rwhp. At 20psi and ~24 degrees of timing we made 989rwhp.
At 30 psi and 20 degrees of timing we ended up with 1066rwhp. The fuel injectors were at 75% duty cycle at this power level. Whereas with gasoline they were at about 55%. The fuel pressure was also slightly falling off at the top. The lack of a large power increase from 20-30psi is due to the tiny exhaust housings on this street car.

In total we made 16 dyno pulls and we never heard any detonation, but we did hit fuel cut a few times during testing. The next day the spark plugs were pulled and there may have been slight detonation in 2 of the cylinders because the porcelain was speckled. However the car still runs fine. This is definitely a very impressive fuel.
I also want to point out how impressed I am with this solid roller setup. Sure it is slightly noisier than my tiny hydro cam. But you can’t argue with that sick power curve. At all boost levels the car makes peak power at 6000rpm and holds it solid until 7500rpm, I am sure it would pull up to 8000rpm no problem. Steve has also tried a larger hydraulic cam to get the same results but it just didn’t work. The cam was a comp extreme energy hyd roller: 248 @ .050 on int and exh, 114 lsa. The car also had larger 74mm turbos at the time but the power would peak at 6500rpm and drop like a rock, even with expensive valve springs. With the new small solid roller cam the car even lugs along at 1500rpm no problem and idles fine at 900rpm.

Dyno Runs,

http://www.turbomustangs.com/techart...5/coleruns.jpg

**Bluehoon** · 17-12-2006, 08:00 PM

Bloogy good read. Thanx for thet Leigh...