discussion Petrol Quality for Performance cars - South Africa

[jayaynikkal]

I buy at Brights (Which is like a Western Cape-only Builders Warehouse type deal).

Not long ago, maybe late 2022/early 2023, it was R165/150ml. Went up quite a lot.

Yeah, I see online it's about R180ish...

I'm torn between running this or E10 on every tank...

 

[individj]

NF Black should be banned. NF Ultra makes no sense for what it costs.

The ethanol going in first is just to aid mixing

I think the benefit to me is having a little 1L bottle in the boot to chuck in randomly....not necessarily for every fill up.

 

[Morribiscuit]

The other option here is of course water injection and Meth... These have anti-detonation characteristics and even just spraying water will cool your charged air. Ran both of these in the past and would not hesitate to do it on the F90 when plan ends. Never got around to it on the F10. BMW themselves had a system (that I hoped would become an M Performance part) on the M4 DTM or Champ edition

The downside is you must be VERY comfortable using meth, familiar with it's properties, buy as good of a system as you can afford in terms of safeties and good integration... and of course trust the installer. I guess this goes for any mods but with meth, because it burns with an invisible flame, you really need your wits about you. Most guys I knew running it back when I did, ran it for safety but you can tune for extra power. This may no longer apply as systems have become smarter and can integrate better with the ECU (and drop you to a safe map or safe zones in your map). This wasn't a thing 10 years ago on rubbish subaru ECUs.

The BIG positive for direct injection motors is that it is 'effectively' port injection and thus carbon build up is not a thing.

*M4 GTS had water-meth stock

I remember working as a promoter for //M at the Festival of motoring many years back and it was a real attention grabber! Around same time the monstrous M760ix had come out. May have contributed to the BM obsession too.

 

[Morribiscuit]

Yeah, I see online it's about R180ish...

I'm torn between running this or E10 on every tank...

Try both and see what your car 'likes' more?

 

[Yulz9081]

I buy at Brights (Which is like a Western Cape-only Builders Warehouse type deal).

Not long ago, maybe late 2022/early 2023, it was R165/150ml. Went up quite a lot.

Just ordered 3 cans online from Ace Auto. It's on sale for R156 each and free shipping.
After claiming the VAT, it works out to 3 cans for just over R400. Not bad.

 

[Brandon777.bf]

There is definitely a very fair point to be made with regards to storage and convenience of all these different options. Cost is ofcourse a big factor since I am running the car as a daily and want to run it well while I daily it but also not hesitate to step on it when I want to, so convenience goes a long way to. Finding that balance is key.

At the moment the car is a stage 1 MHD on 91ron map with a down pipe and I don't plan on going the HPFP route or anything else to be honest. Very happy with where it is.

I am trying to cost-effectively fix my timing issues (cost effectively) while maintaining the convenience of just hoping into it and going.

The timing corrections are concerning and the tune seems to run well on some days and bad on others. I am looking into reading my logs better as I get clued up more on this.

I have far less experience than many of you so I am trying to learn and find that starting point. Sometimes you feel as if you've found it but there is always a conflicting argument or counter point which can make a person indecisive.

I am sure for many of you this is your 4th .... 5th or even 6th performance car and for many you have the ability to experiment with a car.

Unfortunately not at that point in my life yet so I am doing it safely. There is a massive difference between someone buying an M240i to daily and someone who treats it like a toy on the weekend and can afford to fuck up 😂

 

[Spanky]

At the moment the car is a stage 1 MHD on 91ron map

Wat?

Not to be a pedant, but we established early on in this thread that the subtleties matter. The nuance of RON v.s. OCT seemingly led to you flashing a car with a 95OCT map (which is actually 98RON equivalent) when the car was fueled with 95RON. Essentially assuming that RON = OCT.

Gotta 'speak' right so wires don't get crossed. There's potentially a lot at stake, as you say.

 

[jayaynikkal]

Try both and see what your car 'likes' more?

How safe is storing E95 at home though? Especially in larger quantities.

 

[TurboLlew]

There is definitely a very fair point to be made with regards to storage and convenience of all these different options. Cost is ofcourse a big factor since I am running the car as a daily and want to run it well while I daily it but also not hesitate to step on it when I want to, so convenience goes a long way to. Finding that balance is key.

At the moment the car is a stage 1 MHD on 91ron map with a down pipe and I don't plan on going the HPFP route or anything else to be honest. Very happy with where it is.

I am trying to cost-effectively fix my timing issues (cost effectively) while maintaining the convenience of just hoping into it and going.

The timing corrections are concerning and the tune seems to run well on some days and bad on others. I am looking into reading my logs better as I get clued up more on this.

I have far less experience than many of you so I am trying to learn and find that starting point. Sometimes you feel as if you've found it but there is always a conflicting argument or counter point which can make a person indecisive.

I am sure for many of you this is your 4th .... 5th or even 6th performance car and for many you have the ability to experiment with a car.

Unfortunately not at that point in my life yet so I am doing it safely. There is a massive difference between someone buying an M240i to daily and someone who treats it like a toy on the weekend and can afford to fuck up 😂

Running poorly on some days makes me wonder if you gapped your plugs? I had to gap my plugs on my F10 M5 even running good fuel. Americans don’t have our heat to deal with. I was using the 91 OTS map for a while. It would throw drivetrain warnings on anything higher until doing the cooler manually gapped plugs.

Running as a daily you will be putting enough miles on that the car that putting in a bottle of the liqui moly stuff above is probably worth a try. It’s just a tank to see what happens with your timing. If it works carry on.

NF I have first hand negative experience with it on plugs. That gets expensive and inconvenient very quickly. if it gets on your paint you have to respray the panel.

Eth pros are all covered above. The eth based octane boosters all rely on your car (modern cars really) adapting. On a 10%mix that is perfectly fine. Anything more will require tuning as you have to flow more fuel given the much worse energy density of eth. But with MhD there are probably maps. I know with BM3 there were plenty of options.

 

[sash]

Has anyone tried this...

 

[Morribiscuit]

How safe is storing E95 at home though? Especially in larger quantities.

How much is a larger quantity?
Keep it in a cool, dark place, use within 3 months max.

 

[jayaynikkal]

How much is a larger quantity?
Keep it in a cool, dark place, use within 3 months max.

50L of E95.

Concern I have is the solar system inverter and batteries that's installed in the garage attic.

 

[Brandon777.bf]

Wat?

Not to be a pedant, but we established early on in this thread that the subtleties matter. The nuance of RON v.s. OCT seemingly led to you flashing a car with a 95OCT map (which is actually 98RON equivalent) when the car was fueled with 95RON. Essentially assuming that RON = OCT.

Gotta 'speak' right so wires don't get crossed. There's potentially a lot at stake, as you say.

Thats correct. The car is currently stage 1 on 91 Oct which is the 95ron map. The lowest quality fuel option on the application.

I understand your point. It was a simple mistake. I'm sure with you're experience on the app it's a fairly easy thing to notice that you don't get OTS maps that go lower than the one I am running in terms of petrol quality.

I will try and run some liqui moli and see if that helps the timing corrections.

This is a science and each engine is slightly different.

The disparity for performance on a day to day basis is lower than I made it previously seem. The car on stage 1 won't run less than 270kw with that being a bad day, on a good day it will run as high as 290kw.

I guess heat plays a huge role as well.

I have also found differences when refreshing tunes.

Something that is very odd and I hope so one can help with this.

The car will at times stay in boost even when i am fully off the petrol causing it to still go forward (can't think of saying that in a better way).

I am not sure what could cause that