I would like to buy the 91 at the pump vs the 87 or 89 octane pump gas. With the prices so high at the pump you know everyone is putting 87 with 10% ethenol in it. So is the gas "fresh" when you buy 91, being no one really buys it? I'm sure there is stabilizers in it but if there was then why does it only last a couple months in the can when you bring it home? I'm sure it's fine but does anyone know why?

 

unless your car/quad/sled/motorcycle specifically calls for 91 octane premium,there is not advantage to running it in place of 87 octane,except for the big jump in price. Premium seems to keep stable in storage a lot better than the lower stuff, especially if it is 10% ethonal,that really seems to shorten the life of the gas in storage. My boat calls for 91, I have a half tank left from the summer before, and it ran fine this year,so I can say the 91 seems to hold it pretty good, although I did dump in a can of Seafoam before storing it.

 

Well it may not call for it but with all the Polaris ATV's I've had I have come to believe that there is an issue that comes with the ethenol in the 87-89 gas. Most all fuel parts are constatly needing replacement do to dry rot and other things. I want to switch to 91 without ethenol in it to see what happens. The price is about .20 more per gallon but in the hundreds of dollars I have spent on rubber parts I could buy ALOT of 5 gallon gas cans of premium for the $.20 difference in price....Now there is looks of 20% ethenol soon!
I've put $290 into rubber fuel parts. At $.2 difference in premium that would have bought me 1450 gallons of 91 if that has been the issue to start with.

 

Damage from the ethanol is an issue,do any of the stations around you offer "non -oxegenated" fuel? this is gas without the 10% in it. I wonder what rubber compound is used in your quad,my 95 Wolverine has had gasohol run in it for years without a single fuel related problem. Some rubbers, like Buna or Viton react differently to chemicals,perhaps Polaris owners should write to the factory requesting ethanol rated parts.

 

Not around here as far as "non-oxegenated" fuel goes. Just the 91 that I know of that is premium (non-oxegenated with no ethenol). Not sure of this being the complete cause of these failures but it is very suspicious. I wish they had Viton in there, I would think that would hold up better. Someone should find out from Polaris if their machines are rated for E-10 / E-20 use????? but it sounds like Polaris is hard to get anything fromt them.

 

You'll be hard pressed to find non-oxygenated anywhere that isn't 91 octane. That's how they keep the premium fuel sales up. You basically have no choice if you want to run it in bikes, atv's, classic vehicles, and small engines. It's quite the scam since most of those vehicles mentioned were designed to run on 87 octane.

 

A friend of mine runs 110 octane high performance fuel in his scooters and lawn equipment. Never has any problems and one of his three scooters is an '85 Honda Spree 50. Does anyone know if this is safe to use in the Polaris?

 

Safe, probably, but a horrible waste of money in vehicles that don't have the compression to get the power out of that kind of fuel. In some cases, it may leave unburnt deposites in the combustion chamber. Octane is not power, it is the resistance of the fuel to combust,preventing "ping" or preignition in high compression motors from excessive heat build up that results from faster burning, lower octane fuels. Anyone who takes a standard compression motor and tells you "I get a lot more power from race gas" is fooling himself. A badly carboned up motor that pings on regular would seem to run better on high octane,but it would just be running closer to normal, if the carbon was all cleaned out, it would run just as good on 87 octane, in some cases, better.

 

All i have ever ran in my quad is 91 octane. Never had a problem.

 

In thereory,Couldn't you just use 85 grade and just buy a couple of dollars bottle of octane boost? I would think that 1 bottle would be good for a few fill-ups.