I am currently running 87 octane in my atv's. Is there any benefits to stepping up to 89 or 91 octane gas or am I wasting my money? The primary reason that I am wondering is to improve starting and cold weather performance. Both the 425 and 325 start real well, but seem to take forever to warm up and run smooth.

 

I too questioned the use of higher octane fuel, but the rising cost of fuel put me back on the ground. I burn a "winterized" fuel available here in the winter at a local gas station. You remember gasohol dontcha? I find that its cheaper than adding gas line anti-freeze, 'cause already the gas costs in Ontario, here, are about 78 cents a litre Canadian, about $1.95 U.S. a gallon. I remember a time ago several discussions on the use of high octane fuel, and I don't want to start into that again. For now, I'm just sticking with good old fashioned unleaded gasoline.

 

Higher octane gas won't make your machine run faster or seem like it has a turbo in it.
But, the benefits of using it in the winter is you'll eliminate knocking and pinging and it will burn more efficiently and thats important for cold weather riding.
It would'nt hurt to run up to 89 I'm running special (thats about 89 to 90) in my scrambler for the winter and switched to a cooler spark plug, the machine runs great and I have'nt burned a plug yet.

2000 SCRAMBLER 400 2X4

SCRAMDADDY400

 

You do know gasohol contains alcohol, right.
Your engine was'nt designed to be running an alcohol type feul, unless it burns alcohol.
Feuls like gasohol can make your engine run hotter do to its alcohol feul content and you could risk burning up your engine.
Stick to unleaded.

2000 SCRAMBLER 400 2X4

SCRAMDADDY400

 

scramdaddy, what I meant about the gasohol was a description to clarify that the gas I buy has gas-line anti-freeze already added to it. I have never noticed any hotter running or oil burning, and works great on those -20 days.

 

I was wondering if this is just me or does anyone else have this problem?? When I am at the deer lease, we travel from stand to stand, to everyones feeders and broadcast corn. When I come to a stop it acts like it is going to die or idles really low for about a minute and jumps straight up to a regular smooth idle. Anyone know what is causing this????

 

anything and everything you wanted to know about fuel and octane can be found at www.klotzlube.com

just go to their technical info section and get the pdf document on fuel. you'll quickly discover that octane can be a bad thing.

how's this for a teaser - 87 octane pump actually has more power producing components than 110 race fuel per ounce... go check it out.

 

[green]sandman is so right. if you are not runing a high compression piston high oct fuel is of no help.
in cold temps high oct fuel burns to slow.
the higher the oct the slower it burns.[/green]

 

My dealer told me it's best to run lower octane on a 2 stroke stock bike. I'm not for sure but I believe the lower octane gas may contain more junk which actually helps lubricate a 2 stroke better. That's just a guess though.

The only time I'm told you need to kick the octane up is if your running higher compression from head mods or boring. For example a buddy of mine had a scrambler 400 that he modded heavily and it wouldn't even run on 87 octane - he had to pump 92.

 

Remember, octane is an additivie to make the fuel burn at a lower temperature, hence, reducing pinging and after-run. If you have problems with pinging you may try higher octane to reduce or eliminate the problem. With lower octane fuels the burn is warmer and helps to reduce the build up of debris on the piston. This is why lower octane is the recommended fuel in stock engines. Remember if you build your engine to produce higher compression, this also creates a hotter burn, and that is why you need to use fuel with a higher octane.