Octane of Gasoline, What Is It? How It Works?

H. Gutti

Joined: 11-07-2012
Posts: 56
Location: USA

Written on: 04-05-2013 01:29pm Title: Octane of Gasoline, What Is It? How It Works?

The gasoline octane is not related to the increased power of the engine but is a unit measurement of the antiknock power of the gasoline in question.

There is a widespread belief that higher octane gas is able to deliver higher performance, more power, and less abuse to the vehicle engine. This is completely false.

In contrast to what many drivers believe that it is true, the level of octane in gasoline does not indicate the purity or quality, nor the force that fuel can deliver. The octane rating is the unit of measurement to indicate the level of the antiknock power of fuel; in other words, the higher the octane rating, the less explosive the gasoline will be.

This gradation in octanes is used to identify the different levels of anti-knocking of the fuel, thus being able to select the appropriate level of compression that the engine pistons of our vehicle are capable of reaching.

Thus, if a high-compression engine is fed with low-octane gasoline, the mixture will ignite spontaneously due to the heat generated in the compression itself and before the piston reaches the upper dead point of its travel, or rather, it will explode before the piston has reached its highest level of compression and before the exact moment of the spark plug ignition. The result will be an inefficient ignition of the engine, higher fuel consumption, loss of power, and the odious "tinkling".

When you feed a low-compression engine with high-octane gasoline, what you will get is incomplete combustion due to a deficit of the temperature reached by the mixture during the compression stage, so that, in the end, the engine will be eliminating gasified gasoline and uncombusted, along with exhaust gases.

A bit of general automotive knowledge is not bad for this spring Friday

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TacoMAN

Joined: 06-04-2012
Posts: 39
Age: 43
Location: San Francisco, CA

Written on: 04-05-2013 04:23pm Title: Octane of Gasoline, What Is It? How It Works?

Glad to know this, I have to admit that I am one of those who thought that the greater octane rating in gasoline means a better quality

Jeepeto

Joined: 05-30-2012
Posts: 13
Age: 45
Location: Baltimore, MD

Written on: 04-05-2013 10:28pm Title: Octane of Gasoline, What Is It? How It Works?

One of my workmates has a Honda Civic, and he puts premium gas in it because he says he likes to take care of his "nice" car. What a dick, I'll share this post with him.

Looking for some affordable car for my son!

Mojave

Joined: 12-14-2011
Posts: 25
Age: 40
Location: Atlanta, GA

Written on: 04-06-2013 07:19pm Title: Octane of Gasoline, What Is It? How It Works?

Great to know this, I'm happy my car uses 87 octane, thanks John!

Peace, Love, United, Respect... that's my religion ;-J

PLUR

Joined: 12-05-2011
Posts: 36
Age: 44
Location: NYC

Written on: 04-09-2013 12:20am Title: Octane of Gasoline, What Is It? How It Works?

I would never buy a car that uses the premium octane, gas is so expensive these days, and the is most probably that next year is going to be even more expensive.