A question on octane Spark since you brought it up. I have been told high octane fuel has an advantage in high compression engines but you are basically throwing your money away purchasing high octane for engines that are not high performance. True?
Back when I was in high school around 1969 or so, I has a Honda 175 motorcycle. I could tell the difference in gas quality by its top end speed. The engine and its size and horsepower seemed very sensitive to different grades of gasoline. At the time the very best performer (and I checked performance often
was Texaco Sky Chief (I think that was its name for its premium gas). Next best was Skelly premium. At the time we still used a number of gas tractors on the farm and Skelly dealer was our tank gas supplier (regular of course). I remember discussing my motorcycle results with him and at that time he told me that Skelly regular was 98+ octane. That was regular. I forget what permium was.
So that gives a comparison of then and now. 98 octane for regular back then where even premium does not get there now.
Used to have a couple of Dodge cars in the family, both 318's. My brother kept very good gas mileage records for quite a while when he was driving back and forth to school. In that particular car at that time the mileage he got from premium increased enough in mileage to just offset the higher cost. He ran premium all the time because not only did he gain enough mileage to pay for it, anyone who ran a car in that era knows that if you set the timing according to spec, engines would pre-detonate or knock under heavy acceleration. The premium did not do it. I always retarded the timing on the 318's just enough so they did not knock everytime you stepped down on the accelerator (had several of the engines over the years in cars, pickups and one big truck). I remembered the movie we watched in auto mechanics class of what happens to pistons under prolonged periods of pre-detonation.
My point is, the very best gas we can buy at the pump today is not even close to what the cheapest gas was back then as far as octane rating. Fortunately computers can adjust timing today in modern engines to account for low fuel quality. I run premium in all motorcycles (some require it in the manual, some don't. I think wifes new Can-Am Spyder calls for it) as well as all small engines. The cars and pickups get the cheap stuff.
Ethanol today is primarily used as an oxygenate. The refineries can produce higher levels of other fuels (like Diesel) by changing the crack spread to favor them and this results in lower octane gasoline. The high octane of the ethanol is then uses to upgrade this low octane gasoline to minimum standards of 86 or 87. By using ethanol, the refinery can increase yield of higher value products thus increasing profitability.
The thing I hate about any of the new cans is the flimsy safety spout will break in six months or a year, rendering the high cost jug almost useless. Very hard to find replacement spouts with the right thread. We keep at least a dozen gas cans around at any one time to refuel welders, compressors, pumps etc. Gets rather expensive to replace them when they don't last yet the jug itself is almost indestructible. Not counting the ones that blow out the back of pickup/service trucks. Empty gas cans WILL blow out the back of service trucks. Over and over. My guys are not as careful as I am about that because the replacement does not come out of their pocket.
