Premium fuel required?

Is it really necessary to burn premium fuel in either the MC or the MCS? Anyone with any experience on this? Seems over kill to use premium on a 4 cylinder 163 hp motor, even with a super charger. After all, this isn't a flat 6 twin turbo Porsche we are talking about!

Reply to
Chuck Millirons
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While the car is under warranty? Absolutely.

After that? Your choice. But look at the final compression ratio. Higher-octane fuels are formulated for use in high-compression engines. Even the 91 octane of today's premium fuels is laughably low; when the original Mini was released the typical pump fuel in the UK ranged from

93 to 98 octane, and you could even buy 101 octane quite easily.

It's fine to run 89 or 87 octane fuel in a low-compression, low-revving large displacement engine. I'll stick with 91 octane in our MC.

Reply to
John Francis

I'd like to think more on the lines of...

"Damn this is a fine piece of machinery, I'm going to feed it fine fuels.. " :o)

At least thats what I'll think when I take delivery of mine in January :)

Reply to
Ian Clark

Look at car #2 to see what can happen if you don't use a proper octane fuel:

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Reply to
Ryan Graham

Well, the supercharged version makes 163-hp from 1.6 liter. This is about

102 hp per liter, equivalent to about 550 hp from a small-block Chevy motor. And a turbo Porsche is only slightly higher at 115 hp per liter. This is not your everyday econo car motor.

The engine does have knock sensors so presumably would detune the engine if knock is detected on regular gas. But I don't get the idea of paying extra for a car with high performance so you can turn it a lower performance car by running cheaper gas in it.

- Mark

Reply to
markjen

Hi,

I've been running my Cooper in the UK for about 18months now and have almost done 50,000miles in it. I've done a wide range of driving in this time, some of it on 95 octane, some on 97 and a little on 98 octane. As discussed previously here the engine in the Mini is a fairly high revving unit (although not compared to say, a Honda VTEC).

The higher octane fuels have always proved to be worth that extra couple of pence per litre, massively so if you enjoy driving the Mini as it begs to be driven (i.e. HARD). Use 95octane and take it over 5k revs and it'll feel breathless and tight. With 97 octane it's a lot better, but get into the realms of 98 octane and you'll enjoy the car much much more. When I've been around the Nurburgring in Germany I've always used 98 and it has made the car massively punchier.

If you can't get 97 easily then just use the highest octane fuel you can whenever you can get it, the effect of the high octane fuel will last a couple of tanks worth of the dull stuff !

I have a friend with a Mini One, too who tried 97 when I mentioned it's effect and he says it has the same effect on his car.

From design to design the effects will change: I tried it in a Rover 825SLi (K V6) and it didn't make too much difference.

good luck !

DH

Reply to
Diamond_Hell

I just thought I'd inject a point here to avoid misunderstandings across the pond: American octane ratings are about 5 points lower than the ratings in Europe for the same gasoline. Thus, the 98 referred to above is like our 93.

Reply to
Wayne S. Hill

"markjen" wrote in news:KVupb.69650$mZ5.433233@attbi_s54:

Makes no economic sense to run lower octane anyway. The engine does adjust and run fine, but mileage suffers so you're really not saving any money by buying cheaper gas.

Reply to
Rilian

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