Fuel for Barra 182 - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

MHiggins · 05-18-2003, 03:06

Will using a relatively higher octane fuel in a BA Futura give any other benefits besides cleaning? That is, will the ECM automatically advance the timing to take advantage of the higher octane, or dose it have to be done manually?
I really enjoy this forum, and i'm also very happy with my wifes new Futura.We now have about 700 k's on it now and it has made our other cars seem like dinosaurs.

IAN SCHMIDT · 05-18-2003, 04:11

premuim fuel will help as the ba uses active knock sensors and can adjust its timing for better fuels. as to how much power not sure with standard car but you can notice the difference with the turbo xr6 we have

John McMaster · 05-18-2003, 04:56

Welcome to nuthouse...some say it's addictive but I don't believe that...nurse...nurse...where's my valium.

As for your question re:fuel I run premium in my SE ute and find it runs much smoother than on plain unleaded,with regard to the computer side I'll leave that to those who know.

Tripper · 05-18-2003, 06:10

some people claim better milage out of running the higher octane fuels such as optimax i cant speak on this as i always run optimax and if optimax is not avaliable i put in some octane booster

snavy · 05-18-2003, 08:42

yeah you get higher kms out of a tank, but i doubt it would give you much power wise, if anything it would be a placebo :)

also i heard 98 ron fuel is better quality as well.

05-19-2003, 00:55

Can i ask why you and your wife purchased the Futura over the other models? My dad also bought one and is wrapped with it, especially the power as he has been mostly a V8 man in the past.

What options you got on it or is it a company car as such?

DooKs · 05-19-2003, 06:55

Forget about Shell Optimax, since its introduction, is no longer 98ron, go for Mobil or BP.

XRSIK · 05-19-2003, 23:21

Ive been doing some experiments - In my Barra 182 equipped XR6, I have been measuring what I can get from a single tank (repeating the tests for accuracy) using different fuels. I have a mix of city and highway driving.

On Mobil Synergy Premium (the 98 OCT one), the best I have got from 2 experiements was 480kms from a full tank. Now from regular unleaded (91 OCT), I consistently get about 480km with a once off best of 520kms. I cant notice any difference in power either. Now although the falcon has a knock sensor, im not sure if it will advance timing (i think its mainly to protect against knock from poor quality fuels). Today I filled up with a full tank of Caltex Vortex (96OCT) will let you know how it goes.

Despite the apparent lack of performance or economy gain, I still fill up with the 98OCT once a month due to the cleaning properties of the fuel.

Did anyone read the Sunday Drive in the herald?? there was a big article about it - they reckon that even if the car has a knock sensor it wont make a difference if the car is optimised by the factory to run on regular unleaded (different for XR6T as this is optimised to run on premium).

Im also investigating getting a programmable UNICHIP, so that the computer settings can be changed on the dyno to suit 98OCT fuel (the only way youll probably get a noticable performance gain).

TS50 · 05-20-2003, 00:10

now its funny, my wife has a 1998 mazda 626 (well Ford own mazda, well a bit of them) anyway, my wife, who is not a "car" person (cannot understand why I Love driving my T3 TS50, silly girl, but i love her anyway), as soon as I started running her car on Preminum, she noticed. Blew me away. I wouldnt say the car is quicker, or any more economical, but it is so much smoother. You wouldnt believe the differnce it made. So here we are 4 yrs later still using premium inthe Mazda