Nissan Primera GT and 97 RON petrol

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John Smith 22 years ago

Hi,

I have a 1998 Primera GT and it says on the petrol filler flap to use 95 RON petrol. I assume using 97 RON will be a waste of money as the engine is tuned for 95 RON. I believe the GT has a chip that is more accurately tuned which gives it the 150BHP compared with the standard 2 litre. It is certainly more picky about the petrol I put in it, it definitely doesn't like some cheap supermarket petrols.

Is there any thing that can be done short of having a new chip fitted that would enable it to make best use of 97 RON petrol? I haven't looked closely but there seems to be a way of adjusting the timing on the distributor, there is certainly some sort of scale there.

Thanks for any info.

John Smith.

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John 22 years ago

I totally agree that some supermarket petrols dont offer performance but others will disagree. I just asked my neigbour who has a Primera and he uses Shell fuel as he feels the car is more responsive and econonmical. I also use Shell in my Rover 600

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James Dore 22 years ago

Heh. My tr8 loves Sainsbury's super unleaded, and it's cheaper than a lot of regular unleaded's locally, as well (80.9p). Add in that they do

1/2/3p a litre off when you do shopping, sorted! I guess it depends on how fussy modern engines are - the rover v8 don't mind as long as it's 97ron. It just uses a lot of it.

Cheers,

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Adrian 22 years ago

John Smith ( snipped-for-privacy@ukc.ac.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I'm surprised something that recent *has* a dizzie.

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Lordy 22 years ago

More to the point, what benefit do you think putting 97 ron in a low powered and normally aspirated engine will achieve ?

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Tim (Remove NOSPAM. 22 years ago

If you do a back to back mpg trial on 95 vs 97 ron i wouldnt be surprised to find that the improvement on 97 outweighs the extra cost.

The GT engine has a very high compression (10.5:1) which is more susceptable to pinking on lower ron fuel;- the ecu will be holding back on the igntiion advance in response to the signal from the anti knock sensor- using 97 ron fuel will allow more advance and you find the car feels more responsive and keener due to the extra igntion advance and better burn.

Do *not* attempt to adjust the dizzy position- timing is controlled by the ecu, and moving it from the datum point will cause problems. The reference marks are for different engines- i.e. the 2 litre SPI engine uses a different mark etc etc..

Tim..

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Adrian 22 years ago

Lordy ( snipped-for-privacy@recycle.bin) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I've just retarded the ignition in the Acadiane, so it doesn't pink on 95.

It's *really* hurt the "power".

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Steve B 22 years ago

It's a dizzy but a rather good one, and you can change the base timing if you do it right, the ECU has to be tricked into accepting the change. See

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and the linkat the end of the timing section. The best petrol I've found for a '97 2.0 (non GT tho') Primera's mpg is Total. That's with accurately calculated, full to the brim and back, same journeys, speeds and traffic (none much). It's the best out of (worst and dearest) BP, Tesco, Sainsbury, Esso (2nd best) anyway, with a 3mpg spread between these makes over the last 6 months and the results have always repeated themselves as I've retried each one. Can't say I've noticed much difference in power or smoothness though. Shell Optimax does seem a little more responsive though, but I've got less mpg with it than standard Shell, but I have advanced my timing..

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MeatballTurbo 22 years ago

Yep, my Sab Turbo runs wonderful on Sainsburys 95, OK, on Tesco, and hates ASDA, haven't tried a Morissions as there isn't one too close.

But it really loves Optimax (recommended miinimum Octane on the inside of the flap is 98RON)

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Rich Russell 22 years ago

On some versions of the SR20 engine that's found in the Primera, the CAS is part of the dizzy - so you can just move it to advance/retard the static timing. However - most SR20's have no dizzy as such (coil pack instead), so this won't work.

Dizzy's on the end of the exhaust cam in the Pulsar/Sunny GTI-R for example. Mine came over from Japan wanting 100RON fuel, and it's an easy job to stick a timing light on the pulley and take it back a couple of degrees by moving the dizzy round.

97RON fuel should be fine in the Primera GT - but I'd reset the ECU and get it to re-learn the way the engine behaves on the new fuel before doing any 'comparison' type tests. See the various SR20 engined car sites such as SE-Net, GTI-R owner's club, 200SX owner's club etc. There's a lot of knowledge of that engine in it's turbo'd guise which is equally applicable to the non-turbo versions.

Some modified Pulsar GTI-R's and 200SXs with the SR20DET version are currently kicking out in excess of 500bhp on 97RON fuel....

Rich.

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Nissan Primera GT and 97 RON petrol

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