Thinking about switching from 92 pump gas to a higher octane av-gas for my Banshee. I would just like to know everyones pro's and con's on it. Thanx.

 

There's nothing that I can see from your listed set-up that would require higher octane. You won't gain any more power from more octane, and at least in my opinion, while Avgas won't harm your engine, I feel that throttle response will suffer.

Avgas is blended to run in constant RPM engines, and therefore will behave differently. If you still feel the need to drain your wallet, VP Racing Fuels offer several lower octane fuels, some of them being oxygenated, which WOULD help power. Try looking at www.vpracingfuels.com

 

Additionally, AV Gas if formulated and octane rated to run at very high altitudes and is not reccommended by engine builders. Higher octane fuel in stock or near stock engines causes more problems then it is worth. The higher octane fuels are harder to ignite so in a low compression motor it will cause hard starting and poor throttle response. Save your money until you do something that requires race gas.
On a side note, it seems like a huge pain is the neck (and the wallet) to have to run race gas unless you race.

 

Avgas was used many years ago before racing gas could be found. Avgas, I have been told, does not run the same from one barrel to the next. You will find that no racers use the stuff, they all run race gas. If you have a stock engine, the most that you will want to do is 50/50 with 93 oct. gas. Any more than that and you are wasting your money.

 

Your motor will make the most power using the lowest octane gas it can tollerate. Do you ride your bike at 30,000 ft? If you do, then i guess AV gas is for you. If not, and you think your motor needs it, which it probably doesn't with the mods you have listed, check out VP or Torco.

 

You should not run higher octane gas unless your engine combination requires it, i.e. detonation with lower octane gas. Besides that stuff is expensive.

 

I run av gas in my banshee with no problems at all. I have run it for 2 years now. I have mild porting 20 cc domes and fmf woods pipes along with a bunch of other stuff but the motor pulls WAY harder with av gas.I switched back to 94 octane and realized that it was worth the extra trip to go get the av gas.I say try it and if you dont like it dont get it again!!

 

The specific gravity of avgas differs from that of most pump or race fuels, which will require different, i.e. richer, jetting.....

 

I too run AV gas..it works fine, despite the many false knocks about it I have read so far.

 

Thanx for the advice. At what point should you run a higher octane fuel? My compression the last time I checked after putting my head on was almost 160. Right now all I run is 92 pump gas with octane boost. Should I be running a race gas or stay with what I use at this point?