Rec fuel or Premium?

mmordan

mmordan

Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2019
Messages
94
Location
Richmond Michigan
Just wondering everyone’s take on this. I have a gas station near me that sells 89 octane recreational fuel and 93 octane premium gas. I’m in Michigan and we have Ethanol in our fuel. Question is which fuel would be better to burn? On average the rec fuel is about 30 cents more per gallon than the premium, so price wise I would prefer the premium. Cost aside though which is best?
 
mmordan said:
Just wondering everyone’s take on this. I have a gas station near me that sells 89 octane recreational fuel and 93 octane premium gas. I’m in Michigan and we have Ethanol in our fuel. Question is which fuel would be better to burn? On average the rec fuel is about 30 cents more per gallon than the premium, so price wise I would prefer the premium. Cost aside though which is best?
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Your premium(93) octane costs more then your 89 octane fuel? Complete opposite here in Ontario. Premium fuel is about 20-30 cents more then regular octane 87. Most stations around here have blended fuels, 87-89 carries about 10% ethanol and most premium 91 doesn't. Sticker on my sled says 91 octane and up. I run 91.
 
This station sells 87, 91, 93 regular gas with Ethanol. 87 octane being the cheapest. Besides those three they also sell 89 octane recreational fuel which as I understand is Ethanol free and the most expensive. I just want to run the best quality fuel I can, a few bucks a year extra on gas is cheap insurance to me.
 
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The reason I started the post didn't have to do with carbs getting gummed up as much as an engine burn down due to fuel. Wanted to know if anyone knew if the 89 octane rec fuel (assuming ethanol free) would be better that 93 octane (with ethanol). So many people talk about the poor quality of fuel today and I assumed they were saying this due to the increasing levels of ethanol we have in our fuels. I'm no chemical engineer so this is just what I have gathered based on stuff I read here and online.
 
northern srx said:
SRX / Viper call for 91 octane fuel ... problem is when you buy the (advertised) 91 octane fuel are you actually getting 91 octane fuel?
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True true, I have been burning 93 up till now whenever I can otherwise 91. Didn't know the Viper required 91 or higher... so I guess the 89 rec is out without using a booster...
 
A couple of bucks said:
Haven't in 9+ years. As long as all of the fuel circuits are not giving me issues, I do not see the reason for doing so. The old adage applies ....... Don't fix what isn't broken.
1oz/5 gallons is full strength.
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I'm gonna do that next year... Had the carbs off this summer to clean them as I had just bought the sled and wanted to go through it and do the needle adjustment. But less wrenching is fine with me...
 
You have some great ideas now! To me its never been worth running recreational gas in my sled not enough octane and I dont mind taking and hour or two to go through my carbs and have a beer and simply just check everything over. Im the mechanical guy that goes through everyone's carbs at the beginning of the season anyways. Seems to be i'm the guy in the garage alone drinking beer next to a torpedo heater while they are out riding in the field waiting patiently for their sled to be done. The litlte kids are the ones that bother the most with the kiddy cat, so I take care of that one first lol.
 
Sucks that the non-ethanol fuel is only 89 octane. Here we have a few stations that have non-ethanol premium, 91 octane. Since my sled requires 91 or better anyway it is a no brainer to get it from the stations that have it in non-ethanol.
For a few years after the ethanol was added there was no non-ethanol option. My sled ran it fine, but it did show a leaner burn when doing plug checks. Every single year that I stored it with ethanol I had to pull the carbs and clean them. Since being able to keep ethanol out of my sled, I store with some seafoam and haven't had to pull the carbs after storage.
You might try some of the more expensive blue stabil, I've heard that it works better with ethanol...but haven't tried it myself so consider it hearsay until you can prove it out.
 
I have another thread where I tested "91 Octane w/no ethanol" at 3 different stations in town.
One was 87 Octane, another was 77, and the one I did last week was 90.
So, just because it says "91", really means nothing... be careful !
 
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