Ok its very american and compares their low octane fule, but interesting none the less
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uIsbRaArvk
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V-Power is good stuff. One of the car mags did a feature on it using some of their long term test cars a while back, including economy tests, dyno testing, and borescope examinations of the piston crown and combustion chambers on a 'before and after' basis. The results were very good, particularly in terms of cleaning.
It's a shame the price of the stuff has got silly in recent months. I ran the M140i on it for the first 7,000 miles or so where Shell were asking 6-7p per litre more than the regular 95 brew. That gap is more like 15p now. Tesco Momentum 99 is 3p more than the standard stuff, and performs just as well, although I suspect it isn't as good from a cleaning perspective.
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I watched the first couple of minutes and the last minute.
Maybe I missed something but they seemed to assess the fuel efficiency by measuring the comparative runtime of a basic generator, designed for low grade fuel, using the fuels in succession. No benefit using V power on that test. But isnt V power designed for cars that adjust to different fuel characteristics, not a basic generator that plods on whatever its given? It needs to be tested on a modern car.
Having said that my own experience (civic 1.8) backs up that there is little or no fuel efficiency benefit in V Power. Its not scientific but I just let my on board average mpg run, on V-Power, for months on end so it was very stable. I then switched to standard Shell and the cumulative average mpg over the next thousand miles actually improved by a small amount. A few fills later I reverted to VPower and it didnt change either way. Sure weather will have influenced the results but no way was I getting a 15p per litre benefit! So its back to standard and average mpg readout has not moved for weeks.
Like DP I am unhappy at the cost - which is never declared until you reach the pump. Mindful of the other alleged benefits however I will stick in the odd fill to give the systems a clean. I have also signed up for a card that gives me 5p a litre off BP Ultimate so will be giving that a go.
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>> Maybe I missed something but they seemed to assess the fuel efficiency by measuring
>> the comparative runtime of a basic generator, designed for low grade fuel, using the fuels
>> in succession. No benefit using V power on that test. But isnt V power designed
>> for cars that adjust to different fuel characteristics, not a basic generator that plods on
>> whatever its given? It needs to be tested on a modern car.
My thoughts too. A generator or mower engine won't gain any advantage from a high grade fuel. You have a basic ignition system with no knock sensors, which will run with the same timing whatever fuel you add. It will be set up for the "worst" fuel that meets spec, and that setting is then locked in. The higher octane rating of the fuel (resistance to detonation) won't matter because the fuel will burn when the plug fires, and the plug always fires at the same time.
Modern petrol car and bike engines constantly adjust their timing based on live data from knock sensors that detect pre-ignition and back the timing off slightly, but many can achieve their optimum timing (when the flame front transfers most energy onto the piston) on 95 RON. In those cases, you won't see any advantage from higher grade fuel. If the engine can't achieve it's optimum timing on 95 RON, and has to run slightly retarded to avoid detonation (turbocharged or high revving, high compression NA engines, mostly), then the higher grade fuel will give more power as the engine can "use" the extra octane to run at optimum settings.
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>> >> then the higher
>> grade fuel will give more power as the engine can "use" the extra octane to
>> run at optimum settings.
>>
>>
Or as we used to say 50 years ago, there's no point in using 4-star if your car was designed for 2-star Regular.
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Why pay more for higher grade fuel to get more MPG when it can be had by the way you drive?
I know this because Ian constantly gets 63.9mpg from the V90.
I can't get it above 46.4mpg.
But I enjoy driving it!
Pat
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>> My thoughts too. A generator or mower engine won't gain any advantage from a high
>> grade fuel. You have a basic ignition system with no knock sensors, which will run
>> with the same timing whatever fuel you add. It will be set up for the
>> "worst" fuel that meets spec, and that setting is then locked in. The higher octane
>> rating of the fuel (resistance to detonation) won't matter because the fuel will burn when
>> the plug fires, and the plug always fires at the same time.
The main defect in that experiment is probably that it has a carburettor and no lambda sensor, so it is going to "meter" the same amount of fuel (of similar density and viscosity) regardless of what it is. Therefore if it starts with the same quantity and runs at the same rpm it will run out at the same time.
All he proved was that it doesn't matter what petrol you put in your lawn mower or generator to run it for an hour.
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>> It's a shame the price of the stuff has got silly in recent months. I
>> ran the M140i on it for the first 7,000 miles or so where Shell were
>> asking 6-7p per litre more than the regular 95 brew. That gap is more like
>> 15p now.
Garages try to price match regular diesel or petrol with nearby outlets, but the "premium" fuels are fair game for high prices.
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>>Ok its very american and compares their low octane fule, but interesting none the less
The US measurement of fuel is different from the UK.
In most countries in Europe (also in Australia and New Zealand) the "headline" octane rating shown on the pump is the RON, but in Canada, the United States, Brazil, and some other countries, the headline number is the average of the RON and the MON, called the Anti-Knock Index (AKI), and often written on pumps as (R+M)/2. It may also sometimes be called the Posted Octane Number (PON)
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The price of fuel here is very volatile. It seems to change on a Thursday, I don't know why. But in a month it can vary in a 15p per litre range - up and down.,
What with that and the amount of time I spend in traffic jams, I tend to notice the changes. What is very weird is that 95 & 97 do not change proportionately to each other in one gas station. It's as if it is to a station's advantage to prefer one or the other.
Petrol Station a might have 80p 97 and 75p 95. Another might have 85p 97 and 70p 95. I can think of no reason or logic. Anybody else?
Also, if a Car Mfr recommends 97 and one habitually uses 95, what is the likely, or possible, impact?
Or vice versa. I have a Nissan Pickup, old as dirt, which is recommended 93, but my wife insists on putting 97 in it. "Because it's better". Aside from wasting money, is there any harm?
Last edited by: No FM2R on Tue 16 Oct 18 at 21:32
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I've been using exclusively Shell V-Power diesel or BP Ultimate since 2013, definitely get a slight increase in MPG which is offset by the increased price but with the added bonus of the higher cleaning properties.
Makes the PD runs slightly quieter which is not a bad thing! and I'm convinced it burns cleaner as I've not had any smoke under load.
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>> In most countries in Europe (also in Australia and New Zealand) the "headline" octane rating
>> shown on the pump is the RON,
French pumps show two octane ratings derived from different indices or measurement methods.
No interest to me as I'm always buying gasoil.
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I took a photo of a pump in LA a couple of weeks ago and in the state of California, the price is very high compared to most states due to the far-left administration's high sales tax...
It is as said above. The price between Regular and Vpower was much smaller than the UK. 3.679 vs.3.929 which is 6.8%. regularwas 1.99 in texas, 2.29 in Nevada)
While the fuel in the UK is much more expensive, the pumps and facilities are more modern and maintained and you can fill up before you pay at the kiosk here whereas I never saw that in the USA where you had to pay first, sometimes even with cards!
i.imgur.com/jPPbt8Y.jpg
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I would hardly describe anywhere in the states as "Left Wing"
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>> I would hardly describe anywhere in the states as "Left Wing"
They voted for Obama.................once.
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>> >> I would hardly describe anywhere in the states as "Left Wing"
>>
>> They voted for Obama.................once.
Twice actually.
And even he is not "left wing"
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Shell V power - DP
