Anyone tried the New Shell Optimax Extreme???

[wkthyk]

Anyone try this new fuel on City?
Today I put a tank of the the new Shell Optimax Extreme fuel into my T2. It is suprising that the engine runs much more smooth, and the idle becomes stable when compare to using the normal Optimax. I don't know is that related to the HKS computer which tuned in Japan. I will try feeling what different in power, torque and fuel consumption in the coming few days.

The only thing I worry about is the 5% ethnoal in the fuel. Can our City use E5 fuel? I gave a search on net and seems some Nissan S13/S14 and pre-MY01 WRX get a bit problem with this fuel on their stock ecu.

[campbell]

Where abouts are you?

We don't have many outlets around Brisbane offering the ethanol blends.  Our (club) collective experience is that (normal) Optimax is the way to go.

Honda Australia can not give you any advice specifically on the Turbos and ethanol use.  So don't even think about asking them.  The problems are not performance related but compatibility with fuel lines, including filler and vent hoses, low pressure and high pressure.  Also any hose plumbed into the inlet manifold is exposed to the fuel vapours, yeah, I know, with the injectors there shouldn't be much compared to carby cars, but this includes back into the diaphragms for the vacuum advance and AC idle pullup.

Honda generally do not recommend any ethanol going into any pre 2000 cars.  it's not that there might be any problems, it's just that Honda haven't done full tests to be able to say that there wouldn't be any problems.

We'll all be watching your experience.

good luck.
Campbell

[city_cabriolet]

I used an ethanol blend all the time in both the n/a cabriolet and the T2...

You get worse fuel economy, but the fuel is cheaper... Other than that, it works the same.

Optimax is the ants pants, and i got that when i could, but if in a hurry, an ethanol blend petrol station is round the corner, so...

[si]

Lets not forget also that ethanol absorbs water easily, which can then lead to your fuel tank getting rusty...

[James]

yeah and ethanol does nasty things to a lot of older style o rings and rubber seals. Also isnt very nice to the oil film on the cylinderwall so i hear.

[wkthyk]

I have done the compare between the new Optimax Extreme and the old Optimax for 4 tanks (two for new one and two for old one). These 4 tanks are tested in daily driving in Sydney CBD area.

New Optimax Extreme: Averagely 500km per tank
Old Optimax: Averagely 470km per tank

The new optimax extreme is always 3 cents more expensive than old optimax at all Shell Stations in Sydney.

OnRoad Dyno test has been done as well, although I don't think my Gtech meter isn't really accurate.

New Optimax Extreme: max 79hp@3rd Gear at wheel
Old Optimax: max 74hp@3rd Gear at wheel

The car goes smoother with new fuel, this may because the new fuel is 100ron which is closer to Japanese fuel (Ron 102~105) and more match with the computer setting (HKS FCON which has been tuned in Japan.)

Another funny thing is, with the new fuel, water temp is lower than using the normal optimax (Observed from the stock water temp), but the exhaust temp gets slightly higher with the new fuel (about 50 degree higher)

Finally there is another observation, back fire is occured when using new fuel and running at 2nd gear high rev. This doesn't happen with old optimax.

Note: I think Ignition timing should be slightly tuned for the best result for the new fuel because the fuel should have a better ability to resist detonation, but I haven't done this during the test. I will try to change the timing and see how's the different.