Alright, I keep seeing all this stuff here and there about different race fuels. I saw some stuff at the track that left a white residue instead of black on the pipe tip. What the hell is that stuff? Does race fuel make that big of a difference on a street bike with just the usual bolt ups and no major performance mods (i.e. big bore, cams, ect.)? Like my bike just has bigger throttle bodies, bigger airbox, and exhaust. Is that stuff gonna make a difference? How expensive is it? What's the best kind? How much more performace would you get over let's say some 94 oct. pump gas?
stock motor w/ usual bolt ons and race fuel....there is a big difference....the weight of your wallet.....just MHO
Basically, there are 2 kinds of race fuel. The first "normal" fuel is made with a higher octane so that it won't detonate it a built, i.e. high compression, motor. There is no more energy in it than in normal pump gas, so if you're running stock compression there's no advantage to it. This stuff costs around $5/gal. The second is the oxygenated variety. This doesn't have any more energy per gallon either, but it's blended with chemicals that carry oxygen that get released during combustion. That means that you can richen up the jetting and the extra gas will have enough oxygen to burn, so you'll make more power. How much more? Figure 3-5% if you get the jetting spot on. About $15/gal for the wonder juice. Unless you're within 1-2 seconds of the fastest guys in your class, and have a boat load of money to burn, stick with pump gas.
Most of the 5 dollar a gallon stuff burns with a differant hue on the pipe the 15 a gal stuff is the same way leaves it a white color and does not mean that it is running right. 3-5 % with the go juice is a good guess it is more the larger the displacment ie more room to cram stuff in
I'm no fuel expert, but I play one at work for the automotive research company I work for. In short terms, a bunch more technology goes into making gasoline (pump gas or race gas) than you imagine. Gasoline is a bunch of different hydrocarbons (about 175) all mixed together. As previously stated, detonation is real bad in any engine. Detonation is avoided by using higher octane fuel. A quick burn (i.e. flame speed in the combustion chamber) is what you want. With a quick burn, you get the full chemical potential of the fuel released when the piston can turn that into work or POWER. Race fuels generally have a quicker burn....engineers measure the burn rate by a heat release graph. Heat release graphs are made by measuring in-cylinder pressure with a high speed data acquisition system. Now if I can just convince the boss to let me use the dyno equipment and in-cylinder pressure equipment at work to tune my race motor....
Howell 101 would work just fine. ( maybe on the lean side due to stock jetting ) or you could open you pilot screws a full three turns. . . if the jetting is stock. But Howell is a very stable fuel. My 2cents.... it would work fine and maybe a little gain in hp. ( different fuels have diferent flow rates and stability. If you were spending the day on the dyno... adjustting and changing settings,,,, just keep it simple. )
Dan, VP makes some nice fuel that works pretty well & is afforable. They have the Ultimate 4 that is mid priced between the $15 a gallon & regular high octane fuel. They also have mr2 that is pretty sweet, but much more $$$, closer to the $15 a gallon. I will advise you of this though, When I used Ultimate 4 in my race bike (zx-6rr) it left a God-awful smell that lingers & wont go away no matter how much regular fuel you run through the tank. Now I am not sure how it will react w/ the composite tank on the Mille. I havnet put any Ultimate 4 in my Mille yet, but I am sure when I get around to dyno testing it, I will test w/ & without. btw what size throttle bodies did you go with? 54mm or 57mm Lates,
I have the 57 mm throttle bodies, carbon airbox, and SBK Replica Akrapovic full Titanium system (dual)
Dan are those the ti cans as well or carbon cans.....I found a good deal on carbon cans, but I am concerned they wont hold up.....whered you get the 57mm throttle bodies?
I reacently tested some fuels on a bone stock 03 GSXR1000 and picked up 9HP with Nutec SP5+ over 92 pump. Elf Pro Moto made around 7.5HP over pump. The Elf is a bit cheaper than the Nutec but Elf is sending some new stuff over for me to test. Unfortunatel;y I won't have the same bike to test with.
The can's are Ti too. I didn't like the carbon cans because they definetly have no chance in a small low side of surviving, not that the ti system is any better. The only problem with that dual system is that the damn thing sticks out farther than anything else on the bike. So, any lowsides on either side of the bike and I'm buying a new exhaust system, or the can's at a minimum. Plus, the exhaust hangers for the cans are carbon too. I got the throttle bodies right from Aprilia. My local dealer ordered them for me. They were a little over $2K for the entire kit, including airbox. Made a huge difference over stock. Like night and day. The bike is really aggressive now between 2k and 5k RPM. Kinda like having max power in the entire powerband. Really nutty. If you want to check it out, I'll be riding this weekend at Grattan with STT.
Thanks Dan! I would love to check it out, but I wont be any where near Gratten this year, unless work sends me back out to chicago again...
