I was reading my book on my 05 Recon ES. It is a 2.4 Gallon tank including the reserve. It says to run 86 Octane or higher. I run 92 or 93 most of the time if its availiable. Which as everyone should know the higher octane you run the hotter your engine will run. I was reading about Oxygenated fuels and stuff in the hand book and it said that you could run 10% Ethenol or 5% Methanol in your ATV. For any of you who do not know. These are both a form of Alcohol that people use in race cars. To the touch its a very cold fuel. It keeps race car motors cool so that it is harder to overheat them and it gives a bit of power gain because you can ride it harder and stay cooler. We circle track race and use Alcohol I cannot recall which one it is right now I know its Sunoco Racing Fuel. I belive its Methanol though.

I was waundering has anyone tried this yet? I know it would hafta help out the engine. Espescially a air cool engine. Even though in my 2.4gallon tank its only going to have aprox .25 gallons of alcohol in it. Just that little bit could make it run cooler and run better. I was waundering has anyone tried it and has it turned out working good? Have they noticable fouled any plugs alot more than normal. Has your ATV just run better since its cooler. I am thinking about trying it because we ride 3-4 hrs at a time sometimes and it would help to keep them cool when we are not going real fast on trails.

 

In the kids quads and atvs forum, I was just talking to a few people about this. It pretty
much does nothing on smaller quads, but it might work on a recon.

 

actually, the higher octane you run the cooler your engine will run. Higher octane burns slower, making it ideal for higher compression engines that generate a lot of heat just due to the compression. Lower octane fuel burns quicker and ignites easier, and running low octane in a high compression engine will make the fuel ignite too early from the heat of the compression, resulting in loss of power and pre-ignition or "pinging".

the best thing to do is find the lowest octane fuel that runs in your machine without pinging. Then you are getting the most power without engine damage.

I have a 2 year degree in automotive and I'm currently employed as a Ford Dealer Technician, in case you were wondering.

 

The alcohol that is added to gasoline you buy at the pump is ethanol. When folks run pure alcohol in an engine, isn't that methanol????

 

What you said about gas does not actually make sense. If higher octane burned slower and cooler more people would use it. I dunno whether you are lieing about were you work or had a bad professor. Ask anyone at the race track. They can run 107 octane racing fuel and it will burn faster and hotter than if u burn 87 octane. Its common sense. Higher octane you run the hotter it will be because the fuel has more spark and umph to it.

 

higher octane fuels only give you more umph in a higher compression engine. you will actually loose power in a lower compression engine, and yes, higher octane will make your engine run cooler than lower octane will.

 

higher octane fuels burn slower. The reason engines running ethanol or methanol run cooler is the higher octane of alcohol. I've ran the 10% ethanol blend in my ATV's, you are not going to notice it running that much cooler.

 

radejr, ask anyone who knows anything about fuel properties and they will say the same thing that Quicksilver said.
The higher the octane rating, the harder it is to ignite the fuel. That is why it is run in high compression engines, to prevent pre-ignition.
If it was possible to make zero octane fuel, it would sponteneously combust!

 

Whatever you guys say. I know your wrong. Just riding someones back because you know them.

Ask anyone at the race track. Higher Octane will burn hotter. It will burn faster because it cannot burn it all it will shoot some of it out the exhaust.

I am done argueing and I have already talked to 3 people prior to this topic all are racers and know their fuel and told me the same thing.

 

Octane has very little to do with the combustion temperature. Jetting (the proper air/fuel ratio), has more effect than octane by a large margin.
Race motors generally have very high compression ratios...hence the need for high octane to tame the preignition.
In MN, we dont have much choices for gas...its almost all blended with 10 ethenol, and alcohol has a much lower btu content than gasoline, so the net effect is leaner mixtures. Ask anyone who runs alky in the motor...and they will tell you about HUGE jets, and if its jetted corectly, itll run the same temperatures as a gas motor.