1997 XT 500....Premium Fuel?

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peisnowguy

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Hi All

Well I finally got an owner's manual for my sled and it says premium fuel. I thought everyone does the thin head gasket mod and then they have to run premium. Did the 97 have the thin head gasket from the factory? Just wondering if I can run regular fuel in this or if it requires premium. In 1997 the magazines claimed this sled had 90 hp, but I thought they had about 88 hp or lower. Is this where the extra 2 hp comes from when it was released in 97. Just wondering what everyone's thoughts are.

Thanks
 
call me crazy but i run regular in both my 84vmax540 and my 93 vmax4.... i know the 84 says to run premium and i imagine the 93 does to...

my opinion, gas has changed so much in the last 26 and 17 years that "premium" fuel then is not premium now... i run 87 because i believe it to be the freshest, non watery gas i can get. i actually tried 92 or 93 in my older sled last year and it ran like complete garbage (it wouldnt even rev out) i looked over everything and it was all fine... finially i drained the tank and filled it up with 87, the power came back... so i put the 93octane in my car haha...

in my opinion i would rather run E10 87 octane that is fresh (because of popularity) than run 93 octane that has say around for 2 months and collected water
 
Well

After getting the owner's manual I have been recovering from surgery and only put a couple gallons of 91 octane through my sled. It seemed to be easier on gas with the higher octane, but was double riding at the time so not sure if "power wise" it made a difference. I do know the station I get my fuel from is a Shell station and I know they regularly check for water in their fuel. It is regulated here that they check for water in their storage tanks on a schedule. The days of getting water in your fuel here at stations is only a memory....I can't remember the last time I had that problem.
 
My owner's manual says....

Premium Unleaded gasoline

Min. Pump Octane R+M ; 88
----
2
or
Min. Research Octane ;93

So doesn't this mean High Octane gas? I checked the part numbers for heads on the 500s from 1997 to 2001 and there are three different heads. Is there a story behind the different part numbers. Everything else is the same including the head gasket, CDI, and pistons.

I just want to make sure I don't have detonation and burn a hole in a piston. Will the computer detune for regular like a car? I wouldn't think it has a knock sensor like a car does.
 
88 oct or higher is what Yamaha recommends, use 89 and be happy thats all i run in my twins,yes you can use higher but not needed for stock compression.


1-Make sure jetting is right,do a plug check in all circuits,high,mid,low

2-make sure carbs are clean

3-use 89 and go!
 
Yeh I'm in Canada and Shell Bronze which is our regular is 87, so a little lower than yours. I don't think ours has Ethanol in it so that may make a difference. So our silver according to the Shell.ca website is 89, so that should keep my sled happy and a little cheaper than the premium.

Thanks All
 
peisnowguy said:
Yeh I'm in Canada and Shell Bronze which is our regular is 87, so a little lower than yours. I don't think ours has Ethanol in it so that may make a difference. So our silver according to the Shell.ca website is 89, so that should keep my sled happy and a little cheaper than the premium.

Thanks All
Click to expand...
Correct if you guy's are lucky enough not to have that shit ethanol your good with 89.

i run a mix now of 89 and 93,i switch off back and forth between fill ups mixing octane so i always have actually higher then 89,but I've ran just 89 here for years with no problems but with todays bad gas getting worse it pays to run prem every so often within your fill ups.
 
I sent an email to Shell Canada earlier today to see if we have ethanol in our gas. I haven't gotten a reply yet, so just waiting to see what they say.
 
yes we have ethenol. i (and my brother who bought it) always ran 87 in my 01 sx500r. now we did check for lean and detonation but the thing always showed ritch and good. any time we ran it on 89 or 91 octane, it would be boggy, getting worse with the higher the octane. run it on 87 and it was always snappy and crisp.

the head differences i think where the dome sizes. the 01 500's could not use a thin head gasket without running race fuel. the older ones like yours, you could thin the gasket and pick up some performance with 91 octane.
 
fwiw, ethanol will raise the octane of the base gas.

I run 87 in the 600 venture, which is pretty much the same motor as the 500.

I run 87 in all the sleds, ethanol or not, no issues.

Now the xcsp, I will run premium from time to time, then switch the ignition map to 87 for when I run regular.
 
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