fuel

GROOV3 · petrol head Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 3682

from what people are saying yes

but im just gonna stick with what works

baycie bayce · petrol head Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 1642

ive had both in my gems before with out any problem, i had to fill up once and the lrp pumps were out and it was fine and racq give you unleaded when you run outta petrol (stupid broken fuel guages!) so i havent had any problems doing it!

pig75 · tinkerer Joined: 11 Jan 2003 Posts: 72

I ran LRP in my $7000 motor could not stop it from pinging rather expensive lesson. Now I need a new block and pistons.

Loz · backyard mechanic Joined: 05 Oct 2001 Posts: 943

Optimax will run better, get more km's, more power, smoother, and better for the environment.

Poida · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:03 am Post subject: Re: fuel

Racegem hit the nail on the head.

A stock standard Gemini is quite capable of being run on unleaded fuel.

Now I can prove that statement...
Get out your T(whatever) Gemini Owner Handbook and turn to the first page in section 1. See that!! A box with the heading "IMPORTANT", sub heading "Fuel requirements". WOW! Gemini's are designed to run on fuel with as low a rating as 89 octane.
So if you choose to spend more by fueling up your stocky Gemini using LRP or Optimax, you are just wasting money.

Using a higher octane fuel isn't on it's own going to boost the standard engines performance. It will allow you to advance the ignition timing beyond the point where detonation will occur running ULP.

Simply put, the octane rating of a fuel determines the propensity to explode rather than simply burn when mixed with air and ignited. Exploding is bad. Burning is good. The higher the octane, the more resistant to exploding.
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Poida · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 3:27 am Post subject: Re: fuel

I might add a comment on a slightly different subject.. engine oil.

The correct grade of oil to use in a stock TE Gemini is, according to the owner handbook, an SE grade oil. These days oils are graded up to SK. These specs are beyond what is required for the Gemini. So as long as the oil rates minimum SE grade it is acceptable. I personally look for oil graded in the range SE, SF or SG.

The handbook also points to a range of different grades of viscosity. Coming into summer with temperatures expected to reach high 30's even low 40's it indicates a 20W-50 grade oil.

Now using an oil made for late model cars is not always going to be a good move as bearing clearances in later model cars are different to the older Gemini designs. The viscosity of the oil specified is relative to these bearing clearances. Oil designed for most late model cars is too low a viscosity to use in a Gemini engine. It is possibly going to do damage to your engine.

I would not use an oil for summer use other than a 20W-50. In cooler winter months a 20W-30 is ok and if expecting to be in really cold weather around freezing point a 10W-40 is required.

Spending big bucks on the super dooper oil blends is not going to upgrade your cars performance rating!
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Poida · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 4:12 am Post subject: Re: fuel

I'm not sure that any ethanol is used in fuel in Oz at this time. I do wonder what all the fuss is about though. A regulated quantity of ethanol is not going to do any damage to engines. As for enviromental issues ethanol is a clean fuel. The main chemical used as an octane booster in fuel throughout the world now is Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE) and there are health issues relating to it's use. It isn't used in fuel blended in Australia.

This web page may be of interest if you want to know more about what petrol is actually made of. Petrol is a blend of many different hydrocarbon solvents and other chemical addatives.

http://www.deh.gov.au/atmosphere/transport/fuel/paper2a.html
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GROOV3 · petrol head Joined: 04 Oct 2001 Posts: 3682

the main problem is ethenol burns alot hoter and car wear out valves and stuff they reakon quicker than with out it in the fuel

plus its not like they are giing us the 10 cents discount when they dilute the fuel with it

Loz · backyard mechanic Joined: 05 Oct 2001 Posts: 943

Another thing is it lowers the octane rating of the fuel.

We drove from canberra to sydeny in a pretty crazy VS commosore v8. It was fine running on canberra fuel. We filled up at caltex with premium, just the regular one, and when we got to sydney filled up with caltex's answer to optimax, whatever it is, and the car ran like shit and pinged its ass off. Now both fuel definately came from the same fuel depot, and quality control would suggest that the quality difference even if from different batches would be very compariable. So the only reason for this change in performance would be ethanol content, as when refilled back in canberra, the problem stopped.

Pavlos · backyard mechanic Joined: 05 Oct 2001 Posts: 920

Yeah Caltex optimax (or what ever it is) is fucking shit. I ran my TC on it and it felt like it was running on 2 cyclinders. I put ULP in it from BP and after a while it was fine. Ive been running my TC on ULP and premium for about 4 months and I havent had a problem.

Poida · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 8:08 pm Post subject: Re: fuel

There is a major flaw in the arguement.... alcohol is an octane BOOSTER. It isn't going to be the reason that your car pinged it's head off... think about it alcohol drag racers run awesome comp ratios...

You may have had a batch of contaminated fuel. For whatever reason it isn't likely to be alcohol content that caused the problem.
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Poida · Posted: Thu Nov 27, 2003 8:38 pm Post subject: Re: fuel

Ethanol does burn differently to 'petrol' but consider the complete blended fuel is not ethanol alone. Once blended the ethanol component just becomes a part of a whole new chemical. Petrol is a blend of different chemicals.

One of the things that you should note about running alcohol as a straight fuel is the air/fuel mixture is not the same as that for petrol.

In the proposed ethanol fuels for the Oz market the mixture will contain 10% ethanol. This blend is not known to cause any damage to engines.
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S N 3 A K Y · tinkerer Joined: 18 Jul 2003 Posts: 153

I think the main reasoning behind people having a fear of ethanol, is the fact that the news stated that in large doses it can be harmful to your engine. This most likely made people only take in the negative part of "harmful to your engine" and misconstrued it as being bad full-stop.
I have no idea on how bad or what it's like to run this stuff as i use nothing but BP Ultimate 98, but i have to admit the news reports i saw did make me hesitant to have the stuff in my tank to burn inside my engine.
T.V said it was bad, and we all know that T.V doesn't lie. Homer Simpson said so...

S N 3 A K Y