Author Topic: Fuel octane rating in your country  (Read 587 times)

Offline muskrat

  • Global Moderator
  • Wise & Enlightened
  • **
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 10780
  • Karma: 130
  • Lithgow NSW Oz
    • Shoalhaven Classic Motorcycle Club Inc
Fuel octane rating in your country
« on: 31.10. 2022 08:25 »
G'day Fellas.
As the title says. Seems different countries have different octane ratings for their fuel and different amounts of ethanol added.
Here in the "lucky country" we have non ethanol 91, 95 and 98. Our ethanol blend is 10% giving 94 octane.
What is yours?
Cheers
'51 A7 plunger, '57 A7SS racer now a A10CR, '78 XT500, '83 CB1100F, 88 HD FXST, 2000 CBR929RR ex Honda Australia Superbike .
Australia
Muskys Plunger A7

Offline terryg

  • Resident Legend
  • *****
  • Join Date: Nov 2012
  • Posts: 565
  • Karma: 6
    • thecarshipenterprise
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #1 on: 31.10. 2022 09:27 »
I hesitated to post this but here goes…

There should, I think, be a simple answer to your question but there isn’t.  In the UK, from my experience and what I’ve read, we are now offered:-

E10 - 95 octane
Premium unleaded - 95 RON
Super unleaded - 97/98 RON
(source RAC website)

The latter 2 can contain UP TO 5% ethanol.

E10 can contain UP TO 10% ethanol.

It’s not clear to me whether ‘octane’ and RON are used interchangeably.  I don’t think they should be globally as the US rating system is different.  In Europe RON and octane are typically interchangeable, I think.

There are also, according to supplier’s information, variations in the composition of named brands. This depends upon where in the UK they are purchased owing to supply from particular refineries and applies especially to ethanol content.  This shouldn’t affect octane/RON rating but perhaps it does.

Some fuel brands offer higher performance grades, for example Shell V-power at 99 octane.

In short - it’s a bit of a lottery.
Terry
'57 'SR', '59 SR, '63 RGS

Offline Swarfcut

  • Wise & Enlightened
  • *
  • Join Date: Oct 2018
  • Posts: 2222
  • Karma: 54
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #2 on: 31.10. 2022 09:54 »
 G'day Musky. A further consideration is whether any of the major fuel brands  actually differ in what's in that motion lotion. I'm familiar with the UK West Midlands Oil Terminal at Kingsbury, Warwickshire. This the largest regional distribution centre in the UK, so word has it, and you can observe the Road Tankers lined up for filling.

 In the line will be the branded fuels, as well as the Supermarket brands. So I reckon when it comes from the depot it is all the same stuff, and the claimed additives are added by the bucket full at the filling station. Urban Myth? Someone in the fuel game can tell us the story.

 Cheers

Swarfy.

Online groily

  • Wise & Enlightened
  • *
  • Join Date: Jul 2007
  • Posts: 1850
  • Karma: 31
    • www.brightsparkmagnetos.com
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #3 on: 31.10. 2022 10:22 »
Pretty much the same here in France as in the UK. With RON 95 and 98 unleaded at E5 nowadays, plus E10 95 - and in some places a sub-90 RON fuel which is a bit less expensive. (I was going to say 'cheaper', but that's a joke). A lot of places only sell E5 and E10 95, plus diesel. Seems 98 is on the way out, sadly, along with 20/50 oil in many places here. Went to Amazon for my most recent oil supplies.

In the US things are calculated a bit differently and you usually see 'MON' (Motor Octane Number) and/or 'PON' (Pump Octane Number - an average of RON and MON I think).

Apparently the different calculations are  to do with a mysterious 'K' figure on which there are differing approaches: https://www.sae.org/publications/technical-papers/content/2017-01-0666/

I don't know about differences in quality between vendors or where such differences might be introduced, to Swarfy's point - but I do know that a local guy with a fleet of vehicles of all sorts will only buy Total fuels, claiming better fuel economy - enough, he or his bean-counter says, to make a worthwhile financial difference over a period. Who really knows!?
 
Bill

Offline muskrat

  • Global Moderator
  • Wise & Enlightened
  • **
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 10780
  • Karma: 130
  • Lithgow NSW Oz
    • Shoalhaven Classic Motorcycle Club Inc
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #4 on: 31.10. 2022 13:38 »
G'day Fellas.
Yes it's a bit of a mine field. RON v MON v PON
Down here we use RON and most of the fuel is 0% ethanol. Different companies have there own mix of additives I prefer Caltex/Ampol, BP if I have to and don't like Shell! I only use 98 in everything (bikes, car, lawnmower, whipersnipper). I've dropped the comp ratio in the Honda and Cafe so no longer do I use an octane booster as well.
I found this to compare the numbers https://www.torquecars.com/articles/fuel-octane-ratings.php
Cheers
'51 A7 plunger, '57 A7SS racer now a A10CR, '78 XT500, '83 CB1100F, 88 HD FXST, 2000 CBR929RR ex Honda Australia Superbike .
Australia
Muskys Plunger A7

Offline morris

  • Wise & Enlightened
  • *
  • Join Date: Aug 2012
  • Posts: 1768
  • Karma: 27
  • Antwerp, Belgium
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #5 on: 31.10. 2022 19:55 »
Belgian fuel stations only offer E10/95 unleaded, E5/98 unleaded and B7 diesel... and that expensive p*** called AdBlue... *eek*
'58 BSA A 10 SA
'52 BSA A 10 Plunger
'55 MORRIS ISIS
The world looks better from a motorbike
Belgium

Online Rex

  • Wise & Enlightened
  • *
  • Join Date: Apr 2017
  • Posts: 1569
  • Karma: 7
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #6 on: 01.11. 2022 08:50 »
Adblu expensive?
I used to pay £10 for a container that I struggled to lift, and that used to last me a year....

Offline RDfella

  • Wise & Enlightened
  • *
  • Join Date: Aug 2017
  • Posts: 2194
  • Karma: 15
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #7 on: 01.11. 2022 09:31 »
Cheaper than that - leave out the middleman and just pee in the pot.....(that's all adblue is after all).
'49 B31, '49 M21, '53 DOT, '58 Flash, '62 Flash special, '00 Firestorm, Weslake sprint bike.

Online groily

  • Wise & Enlightened
  • *
  • Join Date: Jul 2007
  • Posts: 1850
  • Karma: 31
    • www.brightsparkmagnetos.com
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #8 on: 01.11. 2022 11:37 »
'They' do say, though, that you can't mix it up for yourself even if you've got a spare pig with manageable toilet habits and a very clean urinary system RD!

My van is well old enough not to need it luckily- and we gave up on diesel cars some years back.
And -  FW(little)IW - E95 is up to 30 cents a litre less than diesel for the moment here, it having been t'other way round (opposite of  UK) for years. (I paid 1,57€ this am  . . . or about GB£1.36.)

Not sure how our prices compare with most other places (cheaper than in poorer countries like Spain and Portugal though, that I do know), but it's still a small fortune for the majority of normal rural people who need to get to work, run the kids around, go to shops etc. Most of it's tax & tax on tax of course, as ever  . . .

When the 'theys' get brave or realistic enough to demand £$€ from those who were encouraged to think an EV = ongoing Free Lunch (forget the huge initial subsidy, natch) I think there's going to be a fair bit of squealing. More than the noise of the pig being drained to make the Adblue probably  . . . but won't hear much round here, where an EV is a hen's tooth or rocking horse droppings and no doubt will remain so while range and re-charging remain problematic.
Bill

Online Rex

  • Wise & Enlightened
  • *
  • Join Date: Apr 2017
  • Posts: 1569
  • Karma: 7
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #9 on: 01.11. 2022 12:01 »
Indeed. EV's are little more than a sop to the Greenies at the moment, and will stay that way unless/until battery tech catches up, and that could take a while.
Windmills and solar panels are little better for the same reason.

Offline muskrat

  • Global Moderator
  • Wise & Enlightened
  • **
  • Join Date: Jul 2009
  • Posts: 10780
  • Karma: 130
  • Lithgow NSW Oz
    • Shoalhaven Classic Motorcycle Club Inc
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #10 on: 01.11. 2022 19:37 »
G'day Fellas.
Down here at the moment Diesel = $2.40/Lt, 98 = $2.00/Lt, 95 = $1.92/Lt, 91 = $1.80/Lt, E10 94 = $1.78/Lt.
My 2021 Ford Ranger 3.2/6 speed uses 11Lt/100km. Debs 2021 Mitsubishi 1.5/auto uses 6Lt/100km. Lucky we don't go too far too often.
Cheers
'51 A7 plunger, '57 A7SS racer now a A10CR, '78 XT500, '83 CB1100F, 88 HD FXST, 2000 CBR929RR ex Honda Australia Superbike .
Australia
Muskys Plunger A7

Offline Jules

  • Valued Contributor
  • ****
  • Join Date: Mar 2011
  • Posts: 483
  • Karma: 0
  • 1956 A10 s/arm Golden Flash
Re: Fuel octane rating in your country
« Reply #11 on: 09.11. 2022 22:54 »
Interesting thread Musky, just to add to the RON/MON discussion a bit, the reporting/advertised nos. are one thing, but in reality there is a bit more to it. Engines and their different combustion characteristics, actually respond better to either RON or MON, so the market nos. are really just guides for low/higher anti knock/detonation characteristics, hence you may find that dependent on your engine and the fuel supplier, it may need a higher or lower octane fuel. A good example is the use of ethanol and methanol as "octane boosters", both these alter the fuel anti knock characteristics, but engines respond differently to them.....
Then of course are the amounts of "aromatics" and "detergents" added to the fuels, which also make them more or less suited to different engine/combustion types!!
Shall we talk about oils now?...LOL  *whistle*