HELP! Fuel octane question

Okay, I know Im a dumb ass and everthing else. but heres the deal.

I went to fill up at the gas station and I rode home and everything. And for some reason I think I might have put 87  octane in my tank. I seriously cant remember. Im really freaking out now. What do I need to do? I think I might have put the 87 in it, the more I think about it, but still dont know.

Please Help!!

um,..... so what? what's the big deal? The bike doesn't need high octane fuel. 87 is fine.

^^^ Really? Hmmm, I was told only to use high octane on it. Also I thought the sticker on my tank said on to use high octane, cant recall though.

i was told the only thing gained by runnin higher octane was a bigger gas bill and less mpg...+ i was also told the bike may actually run a lil hotter...just what i was informed
 
on my 92 ninja i went from 140(92 octane) miles per tank to 170(87 octane) and both times i put very close to same gallons back in...didnt notice any hotter temps but the bike doesnt get warm enough to really notice tbh :)

Everything will be fine. Nothing to worry about. Fuel octane is a big discussion here. Do a search. Many folks wont use the higher octaine and beleive its just a waste of cash. I personally dont care, I pump the 92 here.

If you are really concerned you can go to your local autozone and purchase some octane booster, but I think it would just be a waste of time and money.

Nothing to lose sleep over.

can running the bike on lower octane really increase your miles per gallon? i never knew that. what else can a fellow commuter do to increase the mpg?

quote:

ORIGINAL: azncupid22

can running the bike on lower octane really increase your miles per gallon? i never knew that. what else can a fellow commuter do to increase the mpg?

well, to at least the minimum PON of the Manufacture...

you can decrease your final drive ratio to bring your RPMs down. that'll give you more rear wheel turns to less engine RPMs.

so that means i have to change the sprockets right? which direction should i change it? more teeth or less?

quote:

ORIGINAL: azncupid22

so that means i have to change the sprockets right? which direction should i change it? more teeth or less?

depends on if you're talking front or back

front you want to go up. rear, down. you want to bring your ratio closer.

Actually there is a reason for your bike requiring high octane. Nice to know that everyone who speaks on this forum is a mechanic. To answer your initial question, your bike will be fine, it will just run poorly until you use up the fuel. Now for everyone else, the octane rating of gasoline is the indication of its flash-point (for purposes of this conversation)... So, taking that into consideration: 87 will ignite more easily, and under less pressure than 93. High compression engines, like the ones on our bikes (also in high performance cars or anything with forced induction) require high octane fuel because the engines generate a great amount of pressure. What happens when you run a lower octane then the one required is the following: The fuel is vaporized and shot into the compression chamber of your engine via the injector on the compression stroke of the four stroke process. What is supposed to happen is that when the piston is at the top of the cylinder the spark plug fires and bang, down goes the piston and your bike makes power. Remember that fuel can ignite without spark, enough temp and pressure will do the trick. So when you put 87 in your bike, enough pressure can be created BEFORE the piston is all the way up in the cylinder, combined with the heat of your engine, the fuel can ignite prematurely. Now your upward moving piston is fighting the explosion of the fuel, because it needs to come all the way up before it goes down. This is BAD. If you do it once by mistake no sweat, but do it enough and it will do damage. Secondly, lower octane fuel is dirtier and creates more excess carbon when it burns. The carbon that clogs your injectors, exhaust, cat converters, etc... Realistically, its like 12 bucks to fill my CBR with high test, and 11.25 on the cheap stuff. You really wanna risk hurting your baby for 75 cents?

the thought that higher priced higher octane fuel is "Cleaner" than a lower octane fuel is absolutely ludicrous. lemme ask you this... how many people BUY high test fuel? how long do you think that crap sits down there before more is ordered?

now i'm sure we ALL understand the whole octane stuff. run what honda tells you as minimum, or as you see fit. be sure you know what the hell you're talking about though. Honda publishes 93 RON. that's not the standard we use in the United States. Here, we use PON, or Pump Octane Number, aka MON+RON/2. if you do a little looking and some rudimentory mathmatics, it turns out it's something like 87.5 PON.

quote:

ORIGINAL: be vertical

Actually there is a reason for your bike requiring high octane. Nice to know that everyone who speaks on this forum is a mechanic.

 
 
i wasnt implying that i am a mechanic this was a dilema involvin accidental 87 octane fill up...which in my own personal opinion didnt seem like a big deal seein how i have run bout 9k miles w/ unleaded gas(i know ppl have went more but i have only got 9k so far :P) and noticed better mileage and cheaper fill ups. i never expressed my mechanical opinion, simply my own opinion and what i had heard.

quote:

ORIGINAL: knightslugger

now i'm sure we ALL understand the whole octane stuff. run what honda tells you as minimum, or as you see fit. be sure you know what the hell you're talking about though. Honda publishes 93 RON. that's not the standard we use in the United States. Here, we use PON, or Pump Octane Number, aka MON+RON/2. if you do a little looking and some rudimentory mathmatics, it turns out it's something like 87.5 PON.

 
+1. Good info.

sorry... may have come off a little harsh there iroc. It just that, to me, RRs are made to be the base for the development of race bikes. mpg and cost effectiveness were not seemingly a high priority for honda. really its the difference between one to two dollars per fill. i live in ny, we pay like 330 for reg and 350-360 for high test. if you want range, change gearing. your on a bike anyways, getting almost double the mpg you would in a car. also, the RR was not intended to be a DD vehicle. if you want to do that on two wheels get a 250 or a vespa. this point just seems null to me for 1 to 2 dollars a fill.

quote:

ORIGINAL: knightslugger

the thought that higher priced higher octane fuel is "Cleaner" than a lower octane fuel is absolutely ludicrous. lemme ask you this... how many people BUY high test fuel? how long do you think that crap sits down there before more is ordered?

I think its cleaner. I'll be happy to pay just 75cents more to fill up for Exxons Techron or Shells stuff. And I dont think it sits down there too long since I buy my gas where there is a lot of costumers.

Ive done fuel tests for 87 and 93, don't have my specs either these were run years ago. 93 is cleaner with more additives. Now i also did my own real life experiment and filled my P71 (police interceptor crown vic) with 87 (required) for 15k miles and took my fuel pump and injectors apart. That shit was FILTHY and this was mobil 87, fuel pump was clogged and so were the injectors. After putting a new pump in it and new injectors i filled it up with 93 and ran it again for 15k miles. It was much improved and injector flow test proved that none of them were clogged. Took the fuel pump apart and it was clean. Now this is whats required by ford and thats 87 and thats what i ran.

Now on another note i run 93 in my car because 91 is required. On a trip to Montreal couple yrs ago i stopped by a gas station pretty much in the woods and filled up with 93. A couple miles down the road the car started running like crap, running lean and bogging like mad on the highway (i had my scanner with me in the car and monitored the whole thing.

Ok it requires 87 and some people will live with that (im sure thirdgen only puts 87 in and is up to 115k miles) but in some states 87 isnt as clean as 93 because of the weather conditions and climate. Believe it or not 87 in FL is dif then 87 in MA. Now ever since ethanol has been put into gasoline its been causing havocs with older in ground gas pumps found at DPWs and police stations. The water in ethanol tends to rust it out and cause expensive damage to cars.

Like someone said is 75c every fill up really gonna kill you? And the reason u get better gas mileage is because the bike is "designed" to run on 87. I run 93 personally because of what ive seen 87 do lol and i get around 160miles before the light comes on.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Nauree

quote:

ORIGINAL: knightslugger

the thought that higher priced higher octane fuel is "Cleaner" than a lower octane fuel is absolutely ludicrous. lemme ask you this... how many people BUY high test fuel? how long do you think that crap sits down there before more is ordered?

I think its cleaner. I'll be happy to pay just 75cents more to fill up for Exxons Techron or Shells stuff. And I dont think it sits down there too long since I buy my gas where there is a lot of costumers.

just understand that those customers fill up with 87 50:1 over 91

Then again we could argue this for years and years

quote:

ORIGINAL: be vertical

sorry... may have come off a little harsh there iroc. It just that, to me, RRs are made to be the base for the development of race bikes. mpg and cost effectiveness were not seemingly a high priority for honda. really its the difference between one to two dollars per fill. i live in ny, we pay like 330 for reg and 350-360 for high test. if you want range, change gearing. your on a bike anyways, getting almost double the mpg you would in a car. also, the RR was not intended to be a DD vehicle. if you want to do that on two wheels get a 250 or a vespa. this point just seems null to me for 1 to 2 dollars a fill.

 
np man we are good...is a DD=daily driver?
i ride my bike every day ..even in this blue @ss cold weather(not to b confused w/ knightsluggers bluer @sscolder weather)...i love it and i wanna rack up 10's of thousands miles on it...i also dont intend to sell this one any time soon :)

I've been an ASE Master Tech for 15 years and have always had high performance cars, usually with power adders and timing advanced so I always used 93 octane.
 
That's why I was dumbfounded when I was reading my owners manual for my '05 600RR and it said to use a min. of 85 octane. Since these bikes are high compression, it does not make sense that such a low octane would be ok. I am assuming that there is some sort of knock sensor that can retard the timing if lower quality fuel is used. i run 93 just to be safe.
 
When I worked at a Lincoln/Mercury dealer, we had a problem with a hard start in the morning (taking too long to start). The engineers found out that the people using 93 octane were the one's having this problem because the flash point was so high that the cold engine didn't want to light the fuel

quote:

ORIGINAL: alecracing

When I worked at a Lincoln/Mercury dealer, we had a problem with a hard start in the morning (taking too long to start). The engineers found out that the people using 93 octane were the one's having this problem because the flash point was so high that the cold engine didn't want to light the fuel

 
What part of the country were you seeing hard starts due to using hi-octane?
 
I have used hi-octane since I started riding my kawi.  I was told to do it by more experienced riders and like the majority here don't feel like the diff in $ is worth the chance that lower octane may damage the engine. 
 
The post about using lower octane to achieve better mileage numbers is interesting though.  When running on 92 the kawi wasn't getting very good mpg maybe 45-50.  Not complaining, but when I went on group rides we had to stop for me b/c I was running low also it doesn't have a fuel gauge either

Seriously. It costs like 12 bucks to fill your tank. If you dont want to worry about mileage or money spent. Jump in your car and drive around for a month. Problem solved!

Haha
 
 

quote:

Since these bikes are high compression, it does not make sense that such a low octane would be ok. I am assuming that there is some sort of knock sensor that can *retard* the timing if lower quality fuel is used.  

 
Lmao did you mean to use that word?

^retard dosent mean stupid, it makes sense how he used it.

on the octane note, my bike says 91 under the seat, but who sells 91? its always 93 or 89 here. I never paid attention to the PON vs. RON, i will have to look into that, pretty interesting.

oh and yeh, i run 93, the extra $1 per tank isnt that bad.

we COULD argue this for years..bottom line is run what you want. its a Honda, it probably isn't going to blow up anytime soon, oil change, shitty gas or not. these things are top dog!
BUT, i run 93, maybe i am brain washed, but i prefer it. havent had a problem yet.