All,

My Turbo is my daily driver and unfortunately has been grounded for the past 2 weeks.
I've been using my Ducati for my daily commute (48 mpg), but unfortunately it's tank is now also getting close to empty. Both vehicles use premium fuel.
Only a small percentage of gas stations have fuel around here, but none of them have premium fuel. Quid ?
Can I damage the engine by filling up with regular ?

Thanks.

 

I think the computer would adjust for the difference in octane, maybe buy some octane booster to add to the reg. gas.

 

I don't think the FVD flash can compensate for 87 octane gas...
I would go to a race shop and find some 100 octane race gas for the bike and keep riding until you can find Prem.
I have a Subaru ****box for these occasions which takes regular gas. Even reg gas is difficult to find.. this is insane.

I'm worried how I'm gonna take the Pcar to Petit Le Mans...

 

This is a question ONLY your tuner can answer. I will tell you this, in most cases east coast 87 is better then California 91. Im sure there are people in Ca running this flash on their 91.

Call FVD.

 

Excuse my ignorance, but what is going on in ATL that there is no gas? That is crazy!

 

Its a detonation issue, intuitively I would think if you stay off boost it doesn't matter as the load is never high enough to cause detonation.

Back when I had a supra we used to make poor man's race gas using toluene. We would use 1 gallon of toluene per 2 gallons of gas and some lubricant and end up with 100+ octane. Price of toluene has skyrocketed, but if you used 2 gallons or so (wouldn't even need any lubricant for that small ratio) it would probably bump your 87 octane back to 93ish. Its already used in gasoline, you can find it at most paint stores.

Here is an article on it:
http://www.elektro.com/~audi/toluene/tol2.html

Back in the day it was like $4 a gallon, we would make 100 octane gas for just over $2 a gallon hehe.

 

I've used 89 before in my 600RR (also requires 91+ octane) and seen no adverse effects or detonation that I could hear.

I would say as long as your Ducati is still on the factory programming, you will be better off filling that with cheap fuel than your 996TT. However, I wouldn't ride it terribly hard with the crap fuel in there as there would be less room for error in the tune.

 

It's not just Atlanta - Charlotte is DRY and with LONG LINES and NO 93 octane anywhere nearby.


Here's the rub:

Charlotte, Asheville, Spartanburg, Greenville and Atlanta get their gas from the Colonial Pipeline from Houston.

Cities east, including Greensboro, Raleigh, Wilmington, get their gas from water-bound tankers at port in Wilmington.

The Wilmington flow is strong still.

The Charlotte flow is weak, at best, a trickle. The main depot here is getting some fuel, but the tankers arrive, and the lines begin. Was out this morning and noticed a tanker arriving near my office. The line formed before the guy put pipes in the ground. The line is about 20 cars deep in two directions, and still there at 1pm. Another station 3 blocks away has no gas, and has had none in 12 days.

It's all over Charlotte. The lines form, and you just sit and pray they don't run out. You can get $30-$40 at a time, and 87 octane only. I have 3 vehicles that 'prefer' 93 octane, and all are at least half full. We don't top off either. Drive till 1/4 tank, then pray.

I drove 20 minutes to Ft Mill on Thursday to get my kid some 87 in his CRV so he can drive to school. Spent two hours to get gas for my daughter heading back to college, Saturday, got $30 and she made it back. She said Chapel Hill had plenty.

On top of all this, the freaking media circus of all the stations reporting on the shortage, the Mayor saying calm down, don't top off, it will be fine in two days, then it's not fine, and people panic, and the hysteria that comes with it, and you've got an idea of what this is like. There are not enough tankers here, and not enough fuel.

About 2 of every 10 stations I pass has gas, and any with gas won't have it for long.

The real problem is that people are running out, and cannot get to work. The fiasco is front line news here, and the biggest gripe I have is this:

The DOE and the pipeline distribution folks ALL KNEW this problem when Katrina hit. Now Ike takes out refinery prime time, and this pipeline goes dry. And we have about a million people in just Charlotte, add to that the other cities, and you wonder why in the hell they didn't figure this out before this happened again, and find alternative suppliers back-to-back with deliveries every couple of days, and this would go away.

It is one freaking mess here. I'll be parking the Porsche soon, and driving other vehicles.

 

just stay off WOT and boost for now i think thats really where the car utilizes the higher octane...

 

+1^^^

 

Tony:

You've always struck me as a responsible and knowledgeable guy who's been into tuning and the Porsche scene for a long time.....so I have to ask you. Where are you getting this information for your assessment that eastern 87 octane gas is better than the 91 octane that we run out here in California? That would suggest that your 87 octane is really higher than 87...or that our 91 is lower than 91? I've never heard this before, and if it's true, then there must be something wrong with the methodology they use on the West Coast for putting an octane rating on their fuels. That would fall under the truth in advertising laws...so I'm naturally a bit concerned about that statement.

 

Hey Chuck,

You realize your 91 isn't the same 91 sold nation wide, correct? California burns CBG.

You can find more info here.
http://www.arb.ca.gov/homepage.htm

I have "true" 91 octane programs. Programs that have been remote tuned through my dealer network on CA 91 octane.

In general, Im able to run east coast 89 and 87 on CA 91 programs and see similar results.

This is what scares me about not having CA specific programing. Sure, the ecu will compensate, but you are removing a significant amount of safety in the knock control system.

 

Just stay in vac and dont boost at all

 

No, I wasn't aware that California's 91 isn't the same 91 sold elsewhere. My ignorance is probably shared by a whole lot of folks on this and other forums. I naturally assumed that 91 is 91, and that it's a nationwide standard with the standards set by the federal government. You're saying that's not so?

So if you set up a tune for a California car to run California 91 octane....would that tune be different than a tune ...say for a Florida car running their 91? I realize some states routinely sell 93 or have even higher octane ratings available....where I am there are one or two places that sell racing gas, but that's about it other than our great California 91.

What then is the danger for some of these tunes done...say by overseas companies who tune for 91. What standard do they use, or do you tune for a general or sort of generic range and the DME retards the timing? What's the danger for detonation?

 

Found no fuel on my way home. The Ducati is close to empty...
Will be working from home pretty soon.

This reminds me of a scene out of Mad Max, hehe.