GAS TYPE????????

:?: I was just wondering wut the best gas to put in my 1980 XJ650 Maxim was. Unleaded?? Premium?? or Super??

 

When i am going mostly downhill I use regular unleaded If I want to go Super fast I buy Super gas, but I never ever use Premium no way. Actually I use premium fuel from Chevron or the 76 station by the house I stay away from the mom and pops stations just prefer to use fuel from a store that maintains their tanks/ tests for water on a schedule. If you see the tanker truck dumping fuel keep on going

 

thank you for the advice im new to bikes and was just wondering

 

Well welcome to the site Shawndavis765. Try the regular if your bike does not ping it will be fine.

 

Go to some of your local stations and ask them if their fuel has ethanol in it. If it does, don't get your gas there. This is what gunk's up the carbs real quick.
There is only one station in my town that has, what I call clean gas (no ethanol) so I get the premium there. It has a higher octane which I like. Got to remember, back in 80 they still had regular leaded fuel and the octane was higher.
My bike runs real nice on it. Most bikers in town get their gas at this station for this same reason.

 

Here in Minnesota you can find whats called non-oxygenated gas. Its usually 91 or 92 octane & is supposed to be ethanol-free. My bike seems to like this better than the usual 10% ethanol blend. Anybody shed some light on this?

 

Your octane rating is based upon compression ratio. The higher the ratio, the higher the octane # you need to run to avoid detonation (a bad thing).
Shawn, I run 87 octane here in southern CA. without issue. I would try running the low octane first and if it pings, move up a grade. Do not worry about the leaded/unleaded thing, you will be just fine.
As for ethanol, I'm not sure I've encountered it yet but I'll keep my eyes (ears) open.

 

There are Three reasons for this ethanol has less energy than strait gas. Ethanol has a higher octane which lets fuel blenders use lower quality base fuel and still get the same octane rating on the pump. Lastly it works like a sponge for water and will even pull it out of the air watering down your fuel.
Good stuff!! :twisted:

 

Totally disagree!!!!
Not Good Stuff!
Ethanol is crap! It goops up your carbs! Don't get gas that has it!

 

Yamaha specified a fuel with a research octane number of 91 or greater. Research octane number is used used everywhere but North America. In North America we use the pump octane number (R+M)/2.

Pump octane number is roughly 5 less than research octane number. So a 91 pump octane ~ 86 research octane. In most of North America regular is 87, so it's just fine.

Tetra-ethyl lead wasn't used to boost octane, it was used to protect and lubricate (primitive) valves. Apparently the XJ valves are fine without lead because we seldom hear of a valve failure on them.

Which makes one wonder why people think they're not getting ethanol with premium, which is actually more likely to have it.

I'm afraid the days of getting gasoline without ethanol are pretty much gone. I'm under the impression that unless you buy it at the airport (inside the fence) it's almost certain to have ethanol in it. I seriously doubt the attendant at the station knows if there is ethanol or not.

 

This is totally wrong!!!!
At least here in Oregon it is LAW!
Stations must note on the pumps if they are selling ethanol.
All you have to do is ask. I don't know if this is a federal thing but I do know that is is a state thing here.
There is ethanol free gas. Just ask!
You do not want to put ethanol gas in your bike and if you don't care enough to at least ask then you don't care if your bike runs next year or not.

 

If your bike does not ping on regular thats what i would run. The higher the octane the slower it burns. These bikes are not computer controlled so the computer will not back down the timing when it senses ping. So you won't make more power by using premium.
Here in the Atlanta area i can't find gas without ethanol it will mess your carbs up quick if bike is not used regularly. Gummed up my carbs in less then 3 months when not in use

 

Owners manual recommends "regular gasoline". I would try to get it without ethanol, however we can only get ethanol free gas by going with the highest octane rating. I use regular without problems. The notation at the pump is "may contain up to 10% ethanol"

 

anyone who won't put ethanol gas in their bike should be prepared to do a lot of pushing

 

Only place I have found in NY with ethanol free is at the Indian reservations and I couldn't even make it to one without filling my tank with the ethanol stuff.

 

I'm guessing you mean Avgas, I wouldn't put it in my bike. Aviation cylinders have 2 spark plugs, Avgas is designed to burn slower towards the center instead of fast outward.

Unless I can ever fulfill my dream of a radial engine bike, I'll stick to the road stations.

 

This video from 76 explains all you need to know about gas: click on the super model video.
http://www.76.com/OurGas.aspx

 

with any luck you have one of these near you. My experience with ethanol is that it eats plastic and rubber fuel system components not originally designed to handle. IE factory tank liners on fairly new BMW's.

If we're lucky the green folks will catch on to the fact that it takes more petroleum to grow and ship corn gas than you would use buy just running dino gas through the tank.

as for octane rating, the lowest that won't ping is the best. on my first bike I would set my points to just barely ping on cheap arco gas then back off one RCH and run shell from there on out.

 

"Points" betcha two-thirds of the crew on here don't even know what those are, much less anything about gap or dwell.

Here in Michigan, although labeling isn't required, pumps with ethanol-laced fuel are generally labeled as such.

I run Mobil or BP midgrade or premium in the XJs, although I've run regular before with no apparent ill effects.

Here's something very interesting I've discovered over the years:

My old Norton is quite sensitive to the "quality" of the gas being burned; not so much octane (regular vs. premium) but quality. I can TELL crappy gas from "good" gas based on subtle but definite variations in vibration levels. Even in a perfect state of tune, Old British twins shake something fierce. Norton made great leaps in engineering the "Isolastic" system to allow you to ride the bike and keep your dental work, but it still vibrates, and a lot of that vibration comes thru the handlebar. I can tell by the "degree of buzz" in the bars at road speed (4K RPM) when I'm running poor gas or better gas. BP (Amoco) and Mobil make the bike run the smoothest, Sunoco is OK, Marathon and Shell will put my right wrist to sleep in short order, as will pretty much everything available over in Ontario. (Sorry, Hosers, but it's true.) So I use the "Norton Engine Happiness Scale" to choose the brand of gas I run.

 

I'd like to know why you think ethanol will damage our carburetors. That's not typically one of the problems associated with the fuel. I'm not a big fan of corn ethanol (give me the Brazilian sugarbeet stuff, however, and things change) but I've never heard that one.

The major technical issues with 10% Ethanol (E10) are with fuel pumps, which isn't really a concern for us. It's not because they clog; they can cause sparking issues with in-tank fuel pumps. In fact, our bikes could probably be made E85 safe with an intake valve upgrade and a tank liner treatment, if they aren't already.

Now, E10 does have slightly less energy density and a higher octane...two things that people seem to get confused. The premium fuel isn't premium for any reason other than that it actually needs MORE spark to ignite it. This may be a bad thing with the notorious weakness of our spark system.

Fitz is right...the quality of the gas has far more to do with the crude source and the cracking process than with any additives meant to reduce pre-ignition. Fitz, I know you know the truth, so I'm suprised you waste your money on higher octanes. Still enamored by the "Premium" label, even though you know better? Or do you notice that the higher activaton energy of higher octane gas gives you a smoother power stroke?

If our XJ's don't run well on E10, and being in California I really don't know, it's probably due to the HIGH octane rating combined with a weak spark. However, if that were the case you would also have problems with mid and high octane fuels as well.

Your mileage will be lower with E10, and your power may not be as high. But it is overall cheaper, even with the lowered mileage you get. And if you still can't outrun a car from a stoplight, you have other issues with your bike that a fuel type won't address.

Keep in mind the original Model T's were flex fuel vehicles. We'd probably be oil independent right now if it weren't for Prohibition. And it's not environmentalists that want to stop using oil, biofuel isn't that much better...I've been to the middle east, i'd rather not go back if I don't have to.