Does a higher grade fuel do any good?

[slomo]

Ok. Thanks for all the info.
An engine burning regular will acquire carbon buildup after time. Will higher octane do the same thing? Will higher octane clean any deposits from an engine?

Higher octane combats engine knocking. End of message.

If you have a 9.5:1, 11:1 or 12:1 engine, which negates ALL mower engines, THEN you will use higher octane.

Has ZERO to do with cleaning anything, more HP, quicker starts, get the yard cut faster, valve deposits or anything else you might toss in here.

 

[sgkent]

fwiw I began using TruFuel last year. Every piece of equipment I own now starts on the first or second pull - where it used to take 5 to 8 pulls sometimes. This is not an endorsement for the product - just an observation.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Higher octane combats engine knocking. End of message.

If you have a 9.5:1, 11:1 or 12:1 engine, which negates ALL mower engines, THEN you will use higher octane.

Has ZERO to do with cleaning anything, more HP, quicker starts, get the yard cut faster, valve deposits or anything else you might toss in here.

Add to that because it is more expensive the petrol stations sell less per day so it tends to be staler than e10 or plain unleaded .
Stale is not a problem for a computer controlled fuel injected auto engine but it is a big problem for a carburettor engine

 

[sgkent]

the larger molecules combined with additives take longer to oxidize so they give better protection against pre-ignition, detonation, and pinging. There is no noticeable gain in torque or HP on a governed engine. That said, in our cars, high octane non-ethanol fuels give us about 20% better mpg. The National Academy of Sciences did a peer reviewed study last year which came to the conclusion that when all factors are considered, ethanol in fuels puts out, as I recall, about 25% more CO2 than non-ethanol fuels, and the production of ethanol pollutes the soil, and water substantially compared to non-ethanol fuels. You won't find one Green Advocate in Congress or the Executive Branch talking about the study, even though the definitive science is now proven to be 100% contrary to their positions. The TruFuel we are now using in the lawn equipment is 92 octane non-ethanol fuel.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Yes ethanol in fuels is a con job from start to finish.
Gasahol e-85 to e-95 actually does lower overall pollution in engines designed to run on it.
Alcohol has a much higher detonation pressure so you can run engines on it with compression ratios up to 20:1
You drastically increase the fuel efficiency as you increase the compression ratio so you get higher mpg
It burns cooler so less scrap heat .
Gasahol was used to great effect in South Africa during the BS trade embargos of the 70's & 80's
The down side is that the auto industry did not follow up on this "experiment" and go to alcohol engines big time
IT would be a different world if they had
I used to drive an illegal taxi fitted with a tow motor engine running LPG
It actually had more power , ran better and used far less fuel than identical taxis with petrol engines converted to run LPG and was streets ahead of std petrol engines.
Now the locals car builders moved heaven & earth to get the government to change the ADR for cars to allow them to fit the engines that they already made for tow motors & fork lifts into passenger cars but the government steadfastly reused to do it

 

[JD_Driver]

I have to somewhat local locations where I can get ethanol free fuel. It is 91 octane. Machines seem to run better, but just a gut feeling