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I thought i read in an article about the WC engine saying that it required Premium (93 or better) octane fuel.
Can anyone confirm/deny that for me please?
Many thanks,
DC
While the manual does allow for running 89 AKi/PON or whatever the far-too-many standards are (89 in North America). My concern with running anything below 91 in North America is the Ethanol content which isn't supposed to be good for motorcycle engines.
IIRC, almost all gas in CA has ethanol added @ 10%~, and all other states either follow suit or allow it in 89 and 87. There is however a growing problem with stations blending in more than the allowed 10%. If you could be certain you were getting ethanol-free gas than you'd have a different discussion. Because that isn't usually possible, I'm more comfortable using 91 to be safe.
Fortunately, for me, in Nova Scotia and most other provinces, they don't used ethanol in 91, only in 87 and 89, so it is an easy decision for me. Use 91 and avoid ethanol.
BTW, the octane requirement isn't really a sign of power/efficiency. It is a combination of combustion chamber design. Higher octane is harder to burn and therefore will withstand higher compression pressures before detonating than lower octane will. However, many well engineered engines can easily run 89 octane (NA) with higher compression using good cylinder-head design. Ford's DuraTec 3.5L was on the Ward's 10 Best Engines list for 2007 when it was introduced. The normally aspirated version runs a 10.3:1 compression ratio, produces 265HP and 250TQ using solid-lifters and running on 87 octane. When introduced it had the best figures in the world for running 87 and, I believe, was as good or better than anything running 89.
Higher octane is harder to burn Higher octane is slower, not harder, to burn
Ethanol content isn't relevant since it's an octane enhancer in any event.