glrnet Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 I was at Abbey today and Tony showed me a piston from a 350 (sorry don't remember the year) that had been run almost exclusively on 95 Ron unleaded fuel, please don't do it guys, it's going to hurt your engine AND your wallet eventually................... ~edited to make clear this was use of 95 Ron almost exclusively Quote
narcotix Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 I did use to put the occasional tank of 95 ron fuel in my Zed .. But I haven't done it in months now ... The difference in the way it drives is massive! It feels a lot more responsive and smoother! Quote
glrnet Posted February 16, 2012 Author Posted February 16, 2012 Well if it helps............................. Scaremonguring Quote
Zugara Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 Well if it helps............................. Scaremonguring Just having a giggle matey..... Quote
spursmaddave Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 Mine has had the odd tank of 95 but thats it Quote
Dom187 Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 I think this thread should be sticked so people dont keep asking if they can run 95 ron without any problems! Quote
Squee Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 I'm good and always put super in my Zed but I do often worry what the previous owner fed him. I bought it last year with 86k on the clock and am hoping that all of those 86 thousand miles weren't done one 'stripey brand' fuel! S. Quote
Chris`I Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 Its ok to use 95RON so long as you drive like a granny. Everything will be fine until about 5K RPM when the knock sensor decides not to play any more. So for when you are stuck dont be scared to use it, just drive it like a Diesel while you have it in and then make sure you get Super in there ASAP. Stickied as this is proper proof Quote
glrnet Posted February 16, 2012 Author Posted February 16, 2012 Good point well made Chris, have edited my original post to make it clear that this damage was caused by using 95 Ron almost exclusively. Its ok to use 95RON so long as you drive like a granny. Everything will be fine until about 5K RPM when the knock sensor decides not to play any more. So for when you are stuck dont be scared to use it, just drive it like a Diesel while you have it in and then make sure you get Super in there ASAP. Stickied as this is proper proof Quote
JetSet Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 In The States which is the largest market for Zed's in the world its extremely difficult to find anything above 95 RON and if you do it costs $7-8 a gallon. 95 is the premium grade there. In some of the Mountain States for example Colorado you'll struggle to find anything above regular which is 91 Ron .Maybe this is why so many U.S owners had engine problems on their MY06's . In Japan, the home of The Zed 100 Ron is recommended Pete Quote
Chris`I Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 Pete - I dont think the different "RON" ratings are comparable though are they? I think 95RON in the US is equivelant to our 97RON and that is equivelant to 100RON in Japan? Quote
ioneabee Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 what happens if you put 97+ ron in a shed though - obviously built and designed around 95 Ron (mods - move this if you like) Quote
Chris`I Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 what happens if you put 97+ ron in a shed though - obviously built and designed around 95 Ron (mods - move this if you like) Nothing, depending on when said shed was built. The extra resistance to detonation of 97RON over 95RON would be wasted as the car would not run as high a compression. So the car would always fire the spark before the fuel to reach det prematurely. So unless it has higher compression and can alter ignition timing then its pointless. If it can use it then you'll get slightly higher MPG as the fuel is burnt more efficiently than 95RON. Quote
JetSet Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 Pete - I dont think the different "RON" ratings are comparable though are they? I think 95RON in the US is equivelant to our 97RON and that is equivelant to 100RON in Japan? No, they use Aki ratings in the States and the maximum AKI available is 91, the equivalent of 95 Ron. No idea about Japan though Quote
Chris`I Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 Strangley Wikipedia doesnt mention the JDM equivelant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating Quote
Jez @ H-Dev Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 No, they use Aki ratings in the States and the maximum AKI available is 91, the equivalent of 95 Ron. You can get 93 (at least) over there, which is the same as our 98 roughly. I'm surprised that that piston failed - the ECU should have switched over to the low octane maps and prevented knock from occuring - obviously that didn't happen in this case. 1 Quote
Jez @ H-Dev Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 Strangley Wikipedia doesnt mention the JDM equivelant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating I'm pretty sure the Japanese use the same RON measurement of knock resistance as we do here. Quote
JetSet Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 Chris, it would seem that in Japan 100 Ron is the standard for high performance engines. There doesn't seem to be anything sold between 95 and 100, so the 100 Ron recommendation makes sense to me now Pete Quote
Chris`I Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 I'm surprised that that piston failed - the ECU should have switched over to the low octane maps and prevented knock from occuring - obviously that didn't happen in this case. The knock sensor only works up to 5kRPM in the 350z, so even on the high det map, its long been assumed the car can still kill itself if highly reved with 95RON in it. In fact I'm pretty sure Mark@Abbey had one on the dyno that was knocking like mad before he mapped it for 95RON. Thats why the owners manual says not to rev it above a certain amount of revs when you use 95RON in an emergency. I beleive it also states to get Super back in there ASAP. Quote
Jez @ H-Dev Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 I'm surprised that that piston failed - the ECU should have switched over to the low octane maps and prevented knock from occuring - obviously that didn't happen in this case. The knock sensor only works up to 5kRPM in the 350z, so even on the high det map, its long been assumed the car can still kill itself if highly reved with 95RON in it. In fact I'm pretty sure Mark@Abbey had one on the dyno that was knocking like mad before he mapped it for 95RON. Thats why the owners manual says not to rev it above a certain amount of revs when you use 95RON in an emergency. I beleive it also states to get Super back in there ASAP. The ECU will only react to knock up to about 5.2k - if it knocks a lot in that rev and load area the ECU will switch over to the low octane maps which have around 2-3 degs less ignition advance. So you still get less advance over 5.2k if the engine is in high knock mode. The amount of knock required to get the ECU to switch to high knock mode is still quite significant - so damage could be done before the engine switches maps. Also, pulling 2-3 degs out of the ignition map isn't really that much if you're going from 99 to 95 RON fuel. I've attached a screenshot of the knock window - you can see rpm in the y axis and engine load on the x axis. So, I agree - run the car on 98/99 RON and if you have to run 95 then drive gently and refill with higher octane fuel asap. Quote
JetSet Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 No, they use Aki ratings in the States and the maximum AKI available is 91, the equivalent of 95 Ron. You can get 93 (at least) over there, which is the same as our 98 roughly. You can find 93 and in some cases even 94 in the big cities or near to refineries but the areas I've been to its usually 91 max. I'm surprised that that piston failed - the ECU should have switched over to the low octane maps and prevented knock from occuring - obviously that didn't happen in this case. Would be interesting to know what engine this came out of, I would imagine the high rev 06 and onwards engines would be more likely to have this problem. I'd also like to point out there are more things that can blow a hole in a piston than duff fuel Pete 1 Quote
Vik54 Posted February 16, 2012 Posted February 16, 2012 what happens if you put 97+ ron in a shed though - obviously built and designed around 95 Ron (mods - move this if you like) Nowt If you're lucky a few extra MPG and give yer bits a clean Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.