ethanol free gas

[dirtrider]

39 minutes ago, Toter said:

Glad it has worked for you. From my experience with engine building, I am not comfortable doing that. The small savings doesn't justify the risk to me.

Afternoon Toter 

 

That is probably a safe approach. I have a guy in my riding group (not a close friend just a riding acquaintance)  that had been using 87 octane for a while. He always bragged that it ran OK & his fuel mileage didn't drop much that he could determine. 

 

All worked pretty good (or at least it seemed to) until this spring. We had a small spring ride up through mid & northern Michigan, kind of cool with light traffic.  I was the small-group leader & I typically like to  zip right along (typically 85-95 mph with some a little higher thrown in where traffic & conditions allow).

 

The problem was, there was a  gusting 45-50 mph headwind for a good portion of the higher speed travel (there were times I had to go to wide open throttle & hold it there to maintain 90mph in 6th gear.  I was on my hexhead, the rider I am going to talk about here was on a wethead. Also his wethead had a higher aftermarket windshield. 

 

Long story hopefully shorter__ by the time we got back home from that zippy  trip the guy's wethead was idling really raggedly & stalling once in awhile on light throttle launch. ( I just thought he got some bad gasoline as he bought regular when the rest of us bought premium)

 

He got home OK but he called me the next day to take a look at it for him as I have GS-911. 

 

It was running so bad that by the time he brought that  motorcycle to me that it would barely idle, so I though I would start by removing the spark plugs to see what the plugs looked like. (I couldn't believe that it even ran), the electrodes were melted almost like someone took a cutting torch to them). I put them under my high magnification lighted bench magnifier & looked for signs of piston alloy on the plugs, fortunately I really couldn't find any. 

 

Then I used my bore scope in though the spark plug holes & found the top of the pistons were lightly cratered but it looked like it was mostly just cratered in the carbon layer on the piston tops. I couldn't tell for sure that it didn't go deeper but the carbon layer probably somewhat protected the alloy piston under it.  

 

I installed new spark plugs, cleared the fueling adaptives & it started, idled, & ran good again.  (he was very lucky & right on the edge of disaster). 

 

Before that trip he  rode that motorcycle quite a while on cheap regular 87 octane until that happened   (mostly light commuting to work & weekend group breakfasts) so I can't be sure all the plug damage happened on that one high-engine-load ride but that sure pushed it to conclusion. (for some reason he no longer uses 87 octane) 

 

Problem with a motorcycle is: due to wind noise, ear plugs, higher RPM engine noises at higher speeds, higher engine loadings, a rider really can't hear the combustion knocks & preignition damaging crackling that might be occurring.   

 

 

[Dave_in_TX]

1 hour ago, Toter said:

Glad it has worked for you. From my experience with engine building, I am not comfortable doing that. The small savings doesn't justify the risk to me.

I assume you are referring to my use of 87 octane in my 2014 R1200GS. I never experienced engine knock. Although 87 was not recommended for the 2014, later years listed 87 octane as acceptable ( I don't believe there were any engine differences).

[Dave_in_TX]

1 hour ago, dirtrider said:

Afternoon Toter 

 

That is probably a safe approach. I have a guy in my riding group (not a close friend just a riding acquaintance)  that had been using 87 octane for a while. He always bragged that it ran OK & his fuel mileage didn't drop much that he could determine. 

 

All worked pretty good (or at least it seemed to) until this spring. We had a small spring ride up through mid & northern Michigan, kind of cool with light traffic.  I was the small-group leader & I typically like to  zip right along (typically 85-95 mph with some a little higher thrown in where traffic & conditions allow).

 

The problem was, there was a  gusting 45-50 mph headwind for a good portion of the higher speed travel (there were times I had to go to wide open throttle & hold it there to maintain 90mph in 6th gear.  I was on my hexhead, the rider I am going to talk about here was on a wethead. Also his wethead had a higher aftermarket windshield. 

 

Long story hopefully shorter__ by the time we got back home from that zippy  trip the guy's wethead was idling really raggedly & stalling once in awhile on light throttle launch. ( I just thought he got some bad gasoline as he bought regular when the rest of us bought premium)

 

He got home OK but he called me the next day to take a look at it for him as I have GS-911. 

 

It was running so bad that by the time he brought that  motorcycle to me that it would barely idle, so I though I would start by removing the spark plugs to see what the plugs looked like. (I couldn't believe that it even ran), the electrodes were melted almost like someone took a cutting torch to them). I put them under my high magnification lighted bench magnifier & looked for signs of piston alloy on the plugs, fortunately I really couldn't find any. 

 

Then I used my bore scope in though the spark plug holes & found the top of the pistons were lightly cratered but it looked like it was mostly just cratered in the carbon layer on the piston tops. I couldn't tell for sure that it didn't go deeper but the carbon layer probably somewhat protected the alloy piston under it.  

 

I installed new spark plugs, cleared the fueling adaptives & it started, idled, & ran good again.  (he was very lucky & right on the edge of disaster). 

 

Before that trip he  rode that motorcycle quite a while on cheap regular 87 octane until that happened   (mostly light commuting to work & weekend group breakfasts) so I can't be sure all the plug damage happened on that one high-engine-load ride but that sure pushed it to conclusion. (for some reason he no longer uses 87 octane) 

 

Problem with a motorcycle is: due to wind noise, ear plugs, higher RPM engine noises at higher speeds, higher engine loadings, a rider really can't hear the combustion knocks & preignition damaging crackling that might be occurring.   

 

 

If I ran my bike that hard, I would probably use higher octane fuel also.