Mk1 Fuel. Super or not.

[Tiny]

I was reading through the proper owners manual at lunch time. and apparently you need to run your mk1s if you dont have a cat and have the steel non vented filler caps on 98ron fuel UK super unleaded (research octane number).

If you have the vented clicky type fuel cap and a cat then 91+ron is fine.

So what should we be using.

Ill scan in the pages from the owners manual for those interested.

[LimeyMk1]

Either or Ben. See what the car prefers, run it on standard for a few weeks and see what it's like then change to super for a few weeks. It seems to be pretty variable as to what you can get away with.

I reckon it depends on what your combustion chambers are like and the general health of your fuel system. I also always used to use NGK grade 6 plugs where Grade 5 are recommended which may have influenced my car getting allong fine with standard unleaded.

[MartG]

My NAs used to pink a little when run on 95RON fuel, so I usually ran them on Super. The SC always gets Super

[Tiny]

well it seems to be fine on Normal and it has no cat and the correct fuel cap for super but its had a mk1a engine fitted so i just dont have a clue what it should be since putting super in its going to take a tank or two to fully flush through onto super but already it feels better smoother acceleration more responsive and less revs to cruise at 70.

[LimeyMk1]

less revs to cruise at 70.

Don'tcha mean less throttle?

[Tiny]

Yeah less throttle input required to reach the same revs to reach 70

[MartG]

it has no cat

No UK spec Mk1 had a cat - when they were originally sold in the 80s unleaded was still rare

[Tiny]

so what were they ran on?

4star?

[WeirdNeville]

For what it's worth the Mk1b gets 33.7Mpg average on V-Power and 29.1Mpg on 95 RON (trackdays excluded). So it's worth the Extra 7p a litre as you get another 10-12% in Mpg.... Unless of course they doctor the pumps on V-Power to make you think it's more efficient?

I'm still undecided myself. I think I prefer the way the car runs on V-Power, but I don't know if it's placebo effect of putting posh fuel in and going for a proper drive. Gah, the old girls done well and she's worth it. She can have the good stuff for a while.

[MartG]

so what were they ran on?

4star?

Yep

[Jaspa]

My A lives on normal stuff and is fine

[System-G]

I've run all our AW11's (1a, 1b & SC) on all types, 95, 98 & 99 with no probs. Although it's not recommended the SC's are run on 95 because of the higher jap grade fuels the ECU are programmed for.

All UK cars will be fine on 95. You won't notice much difference in performance by running on 98+ except perhaps in your head.

Saying that, now that the fuel price has dropped, I'm back to running 98+ for the engines own health

[Tiny]

shell fuel Card + with V power club membership = 6% off per liter

Paying about 90p a liter when the bill comes through for V power at the moment


Big question is If i can get my hands on some proper 4Star not the LRP crap but some Proper 4star leaded will i see a difference over v power?

[oukie]

so what were they ran on?

4star?

Yep

With my mk1a I gotta little leaflet done buy Toyota that lists all petrol stations that sell unleaded,

This was in the owners pack and must of been in car when new, on the other side is a uk major roads map

[Mk1 Turbo Powered Steve]

I nearly always use V power but on my way back from Derby yesterday i filled up with 95 ron Murco, they didn't have any Super unleaded.
Still seemed to run fine but will continue to use V power when available

[Paff]

I always use whatevers cheapest, saying that I don't really care about the engine giving up as I'll just fit another one. Afterall its only my cheap temporary car until I finish rebuilding the V6.

Back when I cared about my old 4A tho I still used the cheapest I could find, always ran fine and in fact still is even tho its been swapped into its 3rd car now.

[crazylegs]

i read/heard of a report a few months back that was done by independant researchers (if thats possible) who tested standard cars on normal and super furels of all brands. most ran worse on the supposed better fuel, less mileage and power. wish i could find it. maybe it was in the Sun!

[Tiny]

yeah that was Which but they used a 1.4 focus and something equally pointless for the test like a 1.2 matiz. didnt make any mention of Imports or high performance cars and was destictly biased.

[jimi]

Don't know which manual you are reading, but this is what mine says :



Jimi

[Tiny]

looks exactly the same only mine says this