I got a 98 cbr 600, engines mostly stock. I got a buddy with a katana 600 and he runs pure 110 racing fuel in his and it runs alot better. So today i filled mine almost all the way up with 98 like i normally do, but i left room for some 110. I mixed about a gallon and a third of 110 with the 98. To start with I didnt see any difference. The the bike sat for a few hours, crunk it up and took it for a ride. Damn thing sounded exactly like my friends hyosung vtwin 650, had a very deep sound to it. Gave it a little hell down the highway to give it a little flush. Seems like it runs a good bit better now, its not got the very deep sound to it like it did to start with but it is a good bit deeper now then what it was before the 110. After it sat it was kinda boggy to start with now it seems to have more power. Is the 110 racing fuel safe to mix or safe at all in these motors? Why was it boggy to start with, the 110 clean the lines out or something?

 

It is a safe waste of money. Get the cheap stuff.

 

dont listen to F34Me as the cheap stuff is no good in my opinion! even tesco vs shell there is a difference i only use shell if i can is truly the best fuel around. this has been tried and tested with both my cbr and a 125cc two stroke race tuned and with the smaller bike the effects were amazingly noticeable. and noticeable mpg gains with better fuels

 

These bikes were meant to run 87. Their engines were built to run on that kinda fuel.

Honestly, I would imagine 110+ish fuels would burn the o-rings out and be hard on the gaskets and possibly cause knocking to your engine in the long run. I didnt know a fuel could make your bike sound different... it might be just you wanting to hear something/feel something different.

The only thing that worries me in the fuel that I get for our bikes is the ethanol they are putting in the fuel, as I have read about how bad it can be for older bikes much like the f3.

 

Your opinion is meaningless and based on myth. "Noticeable" would be something that can be seen on a dyno graph and really isn't the product of speculation. Observing how something "feels" doesn't really prove a clear and apparent difference.

A higher octane rating doesn't imply that the fuel is any better than a lower octane fuel. An internal combustion-engine with a fixed timing advance mechanism will only benefit from the fuel for which the engine was tuned.

Higher octane fuels allow for more compression, more boost, or more timing, which will all give more power. Adding higher octane fuel without modifying any of these will only increase the expense of the fuel and won't yield an increase in power or economy.

Run whatever minimum octane fuel in your engine keeps it from knocking. In terms of fuel quality, most fuel in a region comes from the same refineries. The only differences in the various brands are the additive packages, which get added when the fuel truck is loaded. Additive packages provide very little benefit. There are really only a couple of things that have a serious impact on fuel quality, that's the age and condition of the tanks in which the fuel is stored at the various stations at which it's purchased. Even still, there's no clear indicator which is going to be better. A bright and shiny chain station might have worse tanks than the quickie mart down the street.

 

Great info there Halbritt.

Use your heads guys, if the bikes were going to benefit from the higher octane fuels, don't you think Honda would want you to know that? Don't you think the bike would have come with a big fakking sticker saying something like "if you use 50 bazillion octane super plus mega boom juice your bike will grow wings and fly your a$$ straight to the planet Fukking Zork"?

I will only add that Ethanol can and will make a difference in SOME older motors (pre 2005 ish) because they were not built to run on it. Nearly all modern engines are. It will not always make a difference and not everyone is able to get Ethanol FREE fuel (meaning it contains 0% instead of the standard 10%). If you can get Ethanol free fuel I suggest you experiment with that and not worry about the octane rating.

 

Ethanol-free fuel will definitely improve economy and may improve performance, which might account for the difference between race gas and pump gas. Ethanol has less energy density than gasoline.

I'm wondering if race gas gets better QC than pump gas. I imagine it probably does. This could account for some differences as well.

As a side note, "flex-fuel" or E85, which is 85% ethanol and 15% gasoline has an effective octane rating of 105. Basically, it serves as super-cheap race gas for people that can tune for it. This popular for the turbocharged apps like Mitsubishi and Subaru cars with easily tunable engine management systems. Fill up on E85, load your new map with more boost and timing, enjoy your 20% more power and 20% less fuel economy which is made up for by the cheaper fuel cost.

 

The bike will run fine. The motor's are 12:1 static c/r. The tune may be a little off due to different specific gravitys. Throw in a fresh set of plugs and check them. You can also add some timing if need be with higher octane fuels.

 

The only way you're going to benefit from higher octane fuel is when the compression is upped as in head shaving or high comp pistons, and/or advanced ignition.

It's kinda nice to have bikes that take the cheap stuff. I just wish the damn corn juice wasn't crammed down our throats so much around here.

 

Ahhhh yes the people who think that simply running higher octane makes your car faster. It actually makes your car slower, it's all in your head. That being said, you should run 91 octane (I know the bikes only call for 87) but 91 Octane fuel does not contain ethanol (at least not in ontario) where as regular 87 Octane can have up to 10%.

Now, the reason higher octane is in fact bad for your engine if you dont require it? The higher octane, the slower the burn on the fuel particles. So with lower octane fuel, you actually get a hotter and faster burn, pushing your piston down faster. But with higher compression engines (No the 12:1 on the cbr doesnt count in sportbikes) the fast burn can cause knocking or pinging which is esentially there being too much burn and too little space and can cause cylinder walls or piston heads to blow holes into themselves. BUT when you take an engine that runs normally on 87 and throw higher octane into it, the slower burn causes particles to be UNBURNT when your exhaust valve closes therefore they are stuck in your combustion chamber and creates carbon deposits on your piston heads and valve faces. (Carbon also soaks up fuel like a sponge, causing you to lose even more horsepower.)