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What do you do when

nelliott

Cowboyatheart
You are in remote areas where there is only 85 octane gas?

Happens a lot if you are out of the "major cities and routes" in Canada.

Can an additive be added to a tankful to increase the octane to meet BMW specs?
 
I spent an afternoon long ago researching those Octane additives for my sport bike which has 13 to 1 compression. I live in Colorado and we have lower octane fuel here due to the elevation. We do have 91 available but when going eastbound the elevation drops so I wanted to guard again detonation by maybe increasing it slightly. I do not want to test the anti-detonation technology on the bikes since it has to start detonating for it to work.
The test results I saw on the internet showed a very small increase in detonation resistance between the different brands so I was left debating if it was worthwhile or a waste of money.

I still add some to the sport bike occasional when not going into the mountains and I figure it can not hurt anything. I use either Lucas or STP Octane booster. I use the water absorbers regularly in my fill ups because I believe the water content in the gas causes more problems than anything. Just my amateur mechanic educated guess!! Cheers,
 
You are in remote areas where there is only 85 octane gas?

Happens a lot if you are out of the "major cities and routes" in Canada.

Can an additive be added to a tankful to increase the octane to meet BMW specs?

For short durations, I just run the lower octane, and get premium in the tank as soon as possible.

Though most EFI mapping is programmed to 'compensate' for lower octane in fuel, it compensates with less mileage, less power to pass, premature detonation (knocking), carbon deposits, etc.

If prolonged, an octane booster (additive) would work just fine. :thumb
 
This is covered in owners manual, right?


Turn in your man card. Real men "don't need no stinking instructions"

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Just ride easy with no wide open throttle & no high RPM's. Some BMW's have a knock sensor that can adjust for low octane & others don't. My K1200 LT has no knock sensor & some have cracked ring lands with low octane fuel. I run 87 octane in town & at least 91 octane on the highway & when I ride hard.
 
Be really careful when choosing a "water absorber" (unless you really need to try to break down some water) - many are high in ALCOHOL.
 
No worries! I don't ride the Motorsport in remote areas; all my other Airheads will burn that cheap swill!

Does BMW build "adventure" bikes that require premium? The advertising shows these going into Third World places; are they not up to using the sort of fuels you find in the Third World?
 
Does BMW build "adventure" bikes that require premium? The advertising shows these going into Third World places; are they not up to using the sort of fuels you find in the Third World?

Criticism is misdirected--they should be building diesels.
 
The advertising shows these going into Third World places; are they not up to using the sort of fuels you find in the Third World?

Based on what I've heard on this board, every third world country has a plentiful supply of incredibly pure premium gasoline sold at the pump by the pit toilet and village water well.......
 
Does BMW build "adventure" bikes that require premium? The advertising shows these going into Third World places; are they not up to using the sort of fuels you find in the Third World?

The oilheads have a coding plug that can be inserted into the appropriate socket in the fuse box, just for these kind of situations.

Amazingly, the guys on the Long Way Round didn't know about it when I asked if they had used them. But when you get free motorcycles, I guess you don't really care. Damn poseurs!

And furthermore, if you do not load the engine heavily, the required octane isn't likely needed.
 
What Do You Do When...


Wait, are you implying that the engine compression changes when the engine isn't loaded? I think this is a function of the combustion process itself which is regulated by the fuel map at all different engine speeds and throttle positions.

Kent
 
nope, compression does not change.

but the ONLY benefit to higher octane fuel is that it resists early ignition (pinging, pre-detonation, knocking, etc) better than a lower octane fuel.
and our engines generally will run just fine on lower than called for octane rated fuel... as long as you are not subjecting the motor to hi load conditions- hi air temps, hi engine temps, low rpm, lower elevations, and heavy weight loads. the easiest thing to do under such circumstances is to .. drop a gear, and go.
 
What Do You Do When...

After reading the comments above, I'm not sure if I interpreted the poster's use of the word "load" correctly. In any case, rather than debate or question it, I found this link (http://www.lafn.org/~dave/trans/energy/case4coasting.html#s5) which actually does a pretty good job of explaining engine performance and efficiency topics including BMEP (Brake Mean Effective Pressure) and BSFC (Brake Specific Fuel Consumption). If one looks at the fuel maps including in this link, you can appreciate that fuel economy can worsen by shifting up and having the engine operate at lower RPM. Right or wrong here, I am interpreting load to be essentially analogous to BMEP.

Kent
 
Wasn't it somewhere said that german octane ratings are different from US/Canada ratings?

/Guenther
 
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