Better Fuel? Ethanol or Clear?

eightpilot

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Mosinee WI
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2021 Thundercat
LOCATION
Mosinee WI
Talked to Ben about some knocking i'm having with my Winder. He said he has a lot of fuel related problems in Wisconsin. So i have always run clear (non ethanol) 91 octane in all my 2 strokes. We do have access to 93 Octane, but its 10% ethanol blended.... How may of you guys are running ethanol blended fuels in your boosted Winders??
 
Pretty well all pump fuel around here has ethanol!! There is no getting away from it!
 
93 is always preferred over 91. Wisconsin is one of the places in USA that 1100 Turbo sleds had knock light on big tunes where other areas where fine.

My tunes are designed to run well with up to 10% ethanol. If you run non ethanol fuel you will actually reduce your power output a bit because it makes the tunes a bit richer.
 
Makes sense.... I will give a tank of 93 Octane a try today.... Thanks TD..
 
What about running about running 100low lead aviation fuel?
 
Ethanol is not an issue so much on turbo, that is a 2s thing that often comes up in turbo forums.

How long can you hold it WOT before lite flickers?
 
93 is always preferred over 91. Wisconsin is one of the places in USA that 1100 Turbo sleds had knock light on big tunes where other areas where fine.

My tunes are designed to run well with up to 10% ethanol. If you run non ethanol fuel you will actually reduce your power output a bit because it makes the tunes a bit richer.
so its better to run with 10% ethanol ? cause im running with shell non ethanol 91 octane!
 
Ethanol is not an issue so much on turbo, that is a 2s thing that often comes up in turbo forums.

How long can you hold it WOT before lite flickers?

About 5-7 seconds.... only happens about 20-30% of the time tho.
 
Get some Lucas oil octane booster. It works. I carry with on my sled. I also wrap electrical tape around the cap so it doesn't loosen up in my bag.
 
What about running about running 100low lead aviation fuel?
I will be trying 5-10 litres mixed in with 20 litres the 94 from petro can station when I run the 290 flash . 270 at 16.8 psig boost deto- flashed at around 122 mph on straight 94 pump fuel.
 
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What’s the best octane boost for these sleds?? How much (octane boost) do you put in with a fill up, if you can only find regular gas?
 
Talked to Ben about some knocking i'm having with my Winder. He said he has a lot of fuel related problems in Wisconsin. So i have always run clear (non ethanol) 91 octane in all my 2 strokes. We do have access to 93 Octane, but its 10% ethanol blended.... How may of you guys are running ethanol blended fuels in your boosted Winders??
Try some Torco. Kenne Bell recommends it and it works. Had my Mustang with a tune, cold air, big advance, etc but it knocked under certain conditions, and not much Torco eliminated it. It superchared now...no issues. Torco is the real deal.
 
What’s the best octane boost for these sleds?? How much (octane boost) do you put in with a fill up, if you can only find regular gas?
Kenne Bell''s site has some good info on octane boosters, and what's needed to raise it so many points. They recommend Torco race fuel additive...it's not that expensive and doesnt take much to actually raise octane several points...not fractions of a point.
 
Torco works great, I find that Lucas is easily found in most spots and works very well too. 93/94 plus half a bottle of lucas goes along way to avoiding early knock light.

The knock lite technology we have is such a wonder, When you are out holding the throttle WOT for any length, you will become accustom to approx how long you can hold your sled WOT with the fuel currently in your tank, and which map tune you are on at the time. Having this technology gives us instant notice when knock is detected, and if no action is taken will start to pull timing and boost eventually too. But most of us watch the lite when holding it WOT and get out of the throttle at first blip of red light.

For trail riding, where you are only snapping WOT for a few quick burst seconds at most, you should never see a knock light. I ran 500++ miles in Qc in very cold temps for a weekend, the trails were all big hi speed trails, so much of the time over 70mph. I ran 87 octane the entire time, never saw a knock light. Only time I saw it was when i jumped onto a lake and held it much longer WOT.

So what Im getting at is, octane and your knock light go hand in hand. You need to run the right fuel/octane for your type of riding for any given day. Speed run/radar/GPS days you obviously need the octane to hold it longer distances. But trail riding, much of the time you are not able to hold it WOT for long periods.
 


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