Better fuel for your Bug

Chris · 2002-10-07T22:10:50+00:00

Hi all, after droppping my 1700cc in my 62 and had done a few thousand miles i started to get a ping and a miss. So we Jumped on the fone and spoke to our mechanic and he asked us what fuel are we running we said the lead replacement and he said use shell optimax it more expensive but it gives you better acceration and beeter milage and now my car is running smoothly, of course this is a rebuild motor so check yours out before putting optimx in it.😀

68AutoBug Beetle Restorer - Experience over 138\% - YIKES --

11,654 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 15 Oct 2002, 1:05 am

#7048

Yes , the US Gallon IS Smaller than the "normal" imperial Gallon... When is a gallon not a gallon?? When its 4 pints...imperial or US ??? Who knows...
I'm glad the litres and liters are the same... Well I hope they are..😀
Very interesting all the info on Premium Unleaded fuel... I tell everyone to use normal unleaded in their VWs... I prefer to use regular unleaded BOGAS in My Lancer , it has ethanol, made from wheat etc in it. The US government has made it compulsory - that all petrol sold in the US -Will have between 5 & 20% of ethenol made from sugar cane in it. I can't remember exactly the percentage. I do believe that Premium unleaded doesn't do any harm to engines, and does make some go much better. I haven't heard of Vortex fuel .... where is it from ??:o
I believe that LRP will disappear in the future... Very little is being sold.:P

- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---

68AutoBug Beetle Restorer - Experience over 138\% - YIKES --

11,654 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 15 Oct 2002, 1:20 am

#7051

I have been using Castrol Magnatech engine oil in MY 2001 Lancer [16v] and it quietens the tappets etc noticebly after changing the Valvoline oil that the local dealer uses. [free service for 3 years] I am thinking about using it My 68autobug instead of Valvoline XLD, when I finally get it on the road.:o My Son is trying 30 grade Oil at the moment in His 1600tp Baja and it seems to be running cooler. I think He uses Penrite Oil...:o He IS thinking of trying Castrol Magnatech next time...:o

- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---

bus914 Custom Title Time!

1,230 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 15 Oct 2002, 10:48 am

#7082

i've been using magnatec in my bus for over a year now (about 4 oil changes). no leaks no smoke, but no other noticable differences either. i guess the benefits or otherwise will become evident many years on.

[img]https://i4.ytimg.com/vi/KOKlJpsfCyk/default.jpg[/img] Click the thumbnail for video👍

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 15 Oct 2002, 11:38 am

#7088

Yeah Chris, I'm working on Thursday nights now so I haven't been able to get to Club Veedub meetings for ages. I miss 'em. I love sitting up the back and heckling the snake oil salesmen. The last one I remember was the one selling the in-line fuel cannister full of tin balls, which 'replaces' the lead in petrol !

I actually dropped my Kombi's compression down to 7.1 when I built it, and she runs beautifully on normal unleaded. It eats Hiaces and Urvans for breakfast. I tried one tank of LRP as an experiment, and noticed that the idle became unstable. Going back to ULP and the idle smoothed out again. I haven't tried Optimax yet but will do so if I can get it for under 95c a litre!

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 15 Oct 2002, 11:39 am

#7089

By the way, I do notice how much more it costs to fill the Kombi's 60-litre tank compared with my old Beetle's. When I first started uni back in '82, I could fill the Beetle's tank with a $10 note. I can't fill the Kombi for less than $50 nowadays!

Now as for gallons - Australia being a British colony used the British, or Imperial, gallon which was 277.4 cubic inches. It was made up of 4 Imperial quarts, or 8 Imperial pints, or 32 gills or 160 fluid ounces. The British parliament had standardised the gallon (and all other measurements too) with the Weights and Measures Act of 1824.

Now the US had been trading with Britain before then, when there were no defined measurement standards. Before 1824 the gallon was smaller, and when the Brits went to the larger standard 277.4 cubic inch gallon in 1824, the Yanks did not. They kept using the older and smaller 'Queen Anne' gallon of 231 cubic inches. The US gallon also divided into US pints and US quarts, but of course they are also smaller than UK pints and quarts.

In modern metric terms, a US gallon works out at 3.7854 litres, and an Imperial gallon is 4.546 litres.

Thank God for the metric system !

[Edited on 15-10-2002 by Phil74Camper]

KOM123 Smiling Assassin

1,164 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 15 Oct 2002, 1:59 pm

#7097

Hmmm...my Kombi fills are more around the $40 mark, does that mean our '76 camper has a non-standard tank?

70AutoStik Insano Dub Head

730 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 16 Oct 2002, 1:23 am

#7202

Phil - You've been at uni since '82 - isn't it about time you graduated?

As for the Shell claims from Flat4 - can you get them in writing? Seems like some easy money from a legal suit there - could make a lot of aussies richer!

Phil74Camper Head in the Clouds

2,703 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 18 Oct 2002, 6:11 pm

#7553

(Chuckles) Oh I graduated all right, I just try not to act like it!

Nah I'm sure Kom's Kombi has a stock tank. I always seem to find I need to fill up on those days of the weeks when the price is higher, and thus pay more. If I'm lucky I can get a fill-up for $42-$45, but that doesn't seem very often.

Which day of the week is supposed to be cheapest in Sydney again? Is it Monday or Tuesday? If I can get Optimax for less than, say, 95c I will try it.

vanderaj Administrator a suffusion of yellow

3,130 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 18 Oct 2002, 7:56 pm

#7564

70AutoStik wrote:As for the Shell claims from Flat4 - can you get them in writing? Seems like some easy money from a legal suit there - could make a lot of aussies richer!

I keep fuel records for my Turbo Beetle which requires Premium or above. I always use Optimax - only one tank of Premium and two tanks of BP Ultimate. The premium I obtained in Orbost returned a country driving fuel economy of 8.03 litres per 100 km. The next tank was Optimax (which was under almost the same conditions) and I achieved 7.34 litres per 100 km.

Two tanks is not statistically significant, but I'm sold. Also, I achieve some of the best fuel economy figures of newbeetle.org's 1.8t fleet, even though I am a self-confessed lead foot. In over 40 tanks, I've yet to go above 9.3 l/100 km, which is way better than the 11 or 12 l/100 km some of them get.

Andrew

Quickbug Officially Full-On Dubber

363 posts · joined Sep 2002 · 18 Oct 2002, 8:18 pm

#7567

Fuel economy to me did not appear to be any better using vortex or optimax.... but then my engine is a preformance one so mayhaps stock engines are going to get the best results.

Edit---> Economy wise

[Edited on 18-10-2002 by Quickbug]

http://au.geocities.com/imgoindahell/Thumper.html

70AutoStik Insano Dub Head

730 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 18 Oct 2002, 11:12 pm

#7625

vanderaj wrote:I keep fuel records for my Turbo Beetle which requires Premium or above. I always use Optimax - only one tank of Premium and two tanks of BP Ultimate. The premium I obtained in Orbost returned a country driving fuel economy of 8.03 litres per 100 km. The next tank was Optimax (which was under almost the same conditions) and I achieved 7.34 litres per 100 km.

"self-confessed leadfoot" and, I believe, a rather high compression ratio - I know I often warn people against too high a CR, but in a case such as yours (where you can get and afford optimax,) you will move the burn rate back into a range that you can tune to optimum performance. I still contend that optimax will not provide significant performance in a stock engine.

Two tanks is not statistically significant, but I'm sold.

Yes, it's not statistically accurate; but it does suggest it helped in your circumstances - maybe you should mention what you're running. I'm not trying to start a fight; I just don't believe some marketing hype (and optimax isn't available here - we only recently got premium.) 🙂

vanderaj Administrator a suffusion of yellow

3,130 posts · joined Aug 2002 · 18 Oct 2002, 11:33 pm

#7632

70AutoStik wrote:
Yes, it's not statistically accurate; but it does suggest it helped in your circumstances - maybe you should mention what you're running.
Well, I have the 110 kW 1.8t AWW engine (the one with the K03/K04 turbo part, which is the detuned version of the 132 / 165 kW engine in the Audi A4 / S3 / TT). A simple chip gets me 132 kW, and chip + larger injectors + CAI + 0.8 bar FPR + bigger exhaust = 165 kW with no stress on the engine. Shame there's only 2 wheels to drive it through :-)

My engine's ECU has a complex fuel map, and all the bells and whistles for anti-pinging / emissions / VVT / etc, MAF (argh), O2 sensors, 20 V head, so it can definitely make use of better fuel when it sees it.

Andrew