1.9 Non-Cat, Differenced Between 95 And 98 Octane

[james306 0]

I know this has been discussed before as I have searched but the page isn't opening for me.

 

My 1.9 non-cat has been running on 95RON fuel since I bought her, she runs fine and I hear no pinking, although I've not heard pinking before so not 100% on what I'm listening for. From what I have found these engines are designed to run on 98RON fuel but can have the ignition timing retarded to run on 95. I would rather be running her on 98, and haven't before as my belief until recent was from someone who I thought was knowledgable saying that they run s*it on 98 as they were designed for 95.

 

What are your opinions between the two fuels?

[Anthony 1,000]

They were originally meant for 4 star and thus should be run on SUL (97 RON)

 

You can retard the ignition to run on 95RON, but they feel distinctly flat and unresponsive in comparison and fuel economy suffers too.

 

You friend doesn't know what he's talking about.

[james306 0]

You friend doesn't know what he's talking about.

 

Agreed, I will be switching to 97/98RON fuel next time I fill her up, but need to check if the ignition has been retarded in the past to run on 95RON. Do they have a timing mark on them?

[starky5 18]

Not wanting to sound simple but 95RON is your normal unleaded and 98RON is shell v-power that sort of thing yea?

[Daviewonder 533 3 Cars]

Does anyone know what the timing should be set to for 95 Ron and 98 Ron?

[welshpug 1,626]

yup, till it pinks then back a bit!

[johnsimister 10]

My understanding is that 1.6s could happily have their timing retarded by 2deg or so to use 95-octane, ie back from 30deg at 3000rpm to 28deg as was recommended by Peugeot, and you'd be hard pressed to notice the difference. So I did that to my old 1.6 and it was fine. But 1.9s never had that official Peugeot approval, were always meant to be kept at the original setting and were supposed to be run on 98-octane, which was (and is) the standard high-grade fuel in France and much of mainland Europe. The original UK super unleaded was 98-octane too, but a few years ago was dropped to 97-octane. (It's something to do with different base fuel stocks and the cost of refining.)

 

Anyway, to get to the point. I used to run my 1.9 on super unleaded as recommended, but recently I tried 95-octane and it felt exactly the same. No pinking at all, and no sign of any other distress. So I have used it ever since. The timing is set correctly as far as I can tell, although it's harder to set on a 1.9 because no 3000rpm figure is quoted so you have to use the idle figure. And it goes just as a 1.9 should. Maybe the compression is down or something, but it doesn't feel that way and romps happily up hills.

 

I've seen a graph comparing 1.6 and 1.9 ignition advance curves somewhere, which would help ensure the timing is right at say 3000rpm where it's easier to hold an accurate speed, but I can't find it. Any ideas, anyone?

 

John

[DamirGTI 327]

During the years the formulation of fuel changed (un leaded fuel , different octane booster additives , different vaporisation/burning specs. etc.) and the wear and tear built up inside and outside the engine on all mechanical and electrical components ... thus , each engine now needs a tad different ignition timing based on fuel quality and the state of the engine and engine management components so OE specs won't do anymore ..

 

Best done as said : "till it pinks then back a bit"

 

Damir