Hi,

I drive an A3 1.8T and would just like to know what type of petrol one can throw in it. Saw yesterday that Sasol has something called duelfuel for example, can someone maybe just clear up all the different octanes on the various types of fuels, would be much appreciated and which ones one can throw in ?

And which make would be the best, I see guys saying that BP is the best of the local brands ?

Thanks in advance

Cheers

Well it isn't as if we have much choice the fuel (esp. up in Gaauteng) is crap no matter what you put in you car will not run in its full potential that is because of the state owned Sasol monopoly on the market.
Assuming your car is not decated that Unleaded is your only option and from experiense I thing Shell / BP cleaner unleaded are tops.....
There has been many debates on the Dualfuel which is mainly a marketing gimick to sell so called unleaded to older generation cars claiming that is is Lead free but full of other (just as harmfull to you cat) heavy metals.
So stick to Shell / BP and perhaps one day soon we will have proper octain fuel that can unleash the potential of our machines.

Thanks Vesco,

So what you're saying is that if decatted, then one can use Sasol Super 100 for example ? Or not ?

I will stick to BP then like you say, thanks for the advice

on one of my excursions to sasol in secunda,
they have filling stations for the trucks of all the other garages.

u see shell, caltex, engen etc , all filling up at the sasol.
strange to think that they take sasol's fuel and probably just add in some other mixtures in order to make it different. would be nice to knwo what all they put in.

hey JC, maybe u could help out on this one as u work for SASOL bro.

cheers for now.
Bryce.

Hey Jan,
if you remove the catalitic converter you can run on Leaded fuel (higher octane already) and the Racing Sasol 102 octane is pretty damn good. This will easily transform you car into a monster.....even is mixed half half to normal Leaded with 97-98 ocatne your baby will be running the way it was made to run....not sure of the Freeway plan implications if decting though maybe someone else here will enlighten you.
Other route is Toluane mix search here and see the comments it is a good / safe way of improving performance without having to remove the catalitic converter.
Cheers

Thanks for the advice and info guys. Yip typical corruption ... all those different brands petrol are probably the same ... some just add their own crap to make it their own ...

I'm still on FWP for a year, will then look into removing the CAT ... if not why not ...

Hey.

My experience over the last week has been that BP 93 unleaded + Amsoil Octane booster = 0 timing retard, whereas just BP 93 unleaded would result in 5-6 degrees of retard.

I'm not sure of the octane boost from 93 (the bottle says 7 points), but it works. Its expensive though - ~R97 from the distributors for one tank. In my next tank of fuel, I'll chuck in half and see how many degrees timing is retarded.

hey Khetan what do you mean by 7 points sure not 7 octanes up ???? if so it isn't so bad R 97 bucks but how do you get that from +/- 500 ml of liquid I find it hard to believe.
Cheers mate

Hey.

Not sure, dude. I think its closer to 98 octane rather than 100 octane.

Khetan,

Have you tried Toluene? Only 5L needed per tank. At +- R7.00 per litre up there in JHB it comes down to R35 per tank but you will replace 5L of petrol so it is minus +- R25 ......so only +-R10 extra per tank Might go up to R15-R20 if you decide to add some more but it doesn't sound as if you need more that 5L if your car only retards to 6 on 93UL.

Audi A3 1.8T
ex "BroSpeed" RXi

I emailed the folk at Engen a little while back and they pointed out that 30% of their petrol is piped up from the coast and the rest is supplied from SASOL. They refine all their fuel on the reef, and while it is supposed to be 93 Octane it is not always exact, it could be as much as 2 Octane out (apparently). The different fuel companies put their own additives into the fuel when they are refining it, this gets the Octane to the "correct" level and adds their colour.
A rumour going round (and has done the rounds before), is that SASOL "dump" excess alcohol into our fuel, both to subsidise/buffer against fuel price fluctuations and to get rid of excess stock. Not sure how true this is though? also not sure how healthy this is for engines/injection/exhaust systems?

Hey.

I have tried toluene. Good stuff, but too hazardous for me to fill/store. If it came in nicely decanted 5L containers which are easy to pour into the tank, I might fill it again

I had a Subaru 2.0Rx and had the exhaust decatted. I then filled up with every different type of petrol and octane booster available. My results were as follows:

Shell: not very good
Engen: even worse
Sasol: not bad but the economy was k@k
Total: wouldn't use if driving my worst enemy's car
BP: the best for both performance and economy

I did not notice any real difference between using leaded and unleaded so I am still sceptical about decatting an exhaust in order to use leaded rather than unleaded. The best octane booster by far was NF black. A bit expensive, but worth every cent. Currently I am using BP heavy-metal free unleaded in my A4 1.8T and have had no problems. Performance is good and economy is excellent compared to other brands.

My 2c worth

You guys may find this review of octane boosters interesting. http://members.rennlist.org/951_racerx/OctaneBoosterComparison.html

JohnB

I put a bottle of Nf Octane Booster Racing Formula into the tank last night, but haven't done enough mileage to notice a difference yet. The only problem is this stuff isn't exactly cheap if you want to use it in every tankfull. According to the link in the previous post, not only is the Nulon better but it also makes more sense cost wise. I found out that the Nf is available at most petrol stations but I can't seem to find anywhere that carries the Nulon. If anyone in the club knows where to get hold of Nulon let me know, so I can also try it.

A post I made on the Audisport forum recently you might find helpful
OK. Fuels and octane boosters tested, so you can draw your own conclusions....

Also to be found at http://www.audisport.co.za/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=18t;action=display;num=1104392346

"First of all bear in mind that I use the REVO SPS3 to adjust timing on my car, with settings rated from 1 to 9 (Setting 1 being poor fuel, setting 9 being rocket propellant )
I then fine tune using Datablock 20 on Vag-Com, to determing when the engine is starting to pull out timing (+2 to +5). I then set it shy of that so that I am running maximum advance without potential for any onset of pinging /detonation.
These settings vary from car to car, so dont take these settings if you are using your own timing settings with REVO, ideal settings will most likely differ for your car.

OK, now as a default on my car, I run setting 3/9 for the best straight pump fuel. This is what I come out with for each brand of fuel
Sasol Dual Fuel; - 2/9 or 3/9 (depending on ambient temp), setting 2/9 being most common.
BP Cleaner unleaded; 3/9 consistently, but can go as far as 4/9 under cooler conditions.
Engen Dynamic Unleaded and Caltex unleaded; 1/9 or 2/9.
All other brands; 1/9

This seems to be fairly consistent amongst Turbo cars running under highveld conditions, with DualFuel and BP being the lesser evils! Bear in mind that the standard settings in Europe would be timing 4/9 Plus! Which gives an indication of just how poor our fuel is.

On Sasol 102 unleaded I run no less than 6/9 timing, and I am able to crank the boost up if I want to. I have, on occasion, under ideal conditions, been able to run settings as aggressive as 8, with no retard indicated on Vagcom block 20.

Now for octane boosters. I have ranked them out of 5 based on my opinion of them when used with a good base fuel like 93 BP Cleaner unleaded.

Amsoil Octane booster bottle 4/5. I find with the Amsoil that I am running extremely close to 98 Octane on a single bottle added to a full tank (Timing 5/9)
NF Octane Booster. Didnt think that for the price it was delivering much octane boost, I rank it 3/5. I run setting 4/9 max timing.
Holts Redex X. 1/5 Promises up to 4 point boost, and whilst it is cheap, failed to impress me! Found that I could run no more advance than stock, although the motor pulled marginally better (3/9 max setting).

Anyway, would be interested to find out comparable info from the other folks here. MY next test is going to be with Toulene, so would be interesting to get some feedback on its use from other folks here, before I feed back there.
W "