We have discussed the concept behind high RON/Octane number fuels many times, here. Obviously, there are other benefits to fuels like BP Ultimate but a high RON/octane rating in the GX160 is NOT one of them.
The logic goes as follows.:-
Diesel engined cars use the high compression in the cylinder to ignite the fuel (highly compressed fuel/air gets hot enough to ignite).
Petrol. driven cars use a spark plug to igtnite the fuel..... however, high enough compression WILL ignite equired in a diesel).
However, compression-ignition in a petrol engine is a BAD thing (less power and more damage done to the engine) so we try to avoid it.
But.... if you raise the compression in a petrol engine and can STILL avoid compression-ignition, you CAN get more power from the fuel.
So... how do we raise the compression WITHOUT getting compression-ignition? That's simple..... put something INTO the fuel which makes fuel compression-ignite at a HIGHER compression. What that means is that such fuel is LESS likely to ignite at high-compression.
Having such a substance which makes it harder for compression-ignition to occur means that we can run high-performance engines at a HIGHER compression without them compression-igniting.... so long as they run more expensive fuel with special additives.
So..... how do we know which fuels can be run in such high compression cars? We mark that fuel with a higher Octane number or 'RON' (Standing for Research Octane Number). High octane/RON fuels can be used in high compression pterol engines. It's NOT the High-RON fuel that gives more power, it's just that we can run it in high-compression engines.
Using high RON fuels in a low compression engine does NOTHING to improve the power AT ALL.
The GX160 engine is a LOW compression engine, thus, High RON fuels are an expensive waste of time for the GX160.
Ian
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