Octane, 82 gl 1100

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shierh

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Thought i could get away with 87 but herd it pining some yesterday under heavy load in the heat. had half tank to topped it off with 93 and cured issue.
will go back to 89 and see how it does.
 
Fuel quality seems to vary, I know the actual octane rating across the board is lower then the sticker on the pump..The GL can handle low octane fuel, the difference in cost isn't too much so I just use premium at 91 octane it is probably more like 89.
 
everybody thinks the oldwing motor have a sweet spot in rpm at 3000 rpm and above reality is ....its the cv carbs that have the sweet spot and really dont work good at low rpm ...cv carbs are inherently bad at low rpm and very late in reaction that causes pinging mostly ... i am starting to get a clear picture on this with the hooch build bike thats been produced by this forum and my hands and with its different carb set up ... so im sure under certain conditions and stock set up ...pinging will happen
 
Mine would ping in very hot weather, under a load certain conditions.
I always run the cheapest gas I can find.

I was chatting with a shop that makes head gaskets.
He said one cause of blown head gasket is pinging/detonation. I never knew that.
 
You can raise the octane by adding 10 to 15% diesel fuel.. my fnl was a gm mechanic and he gave me that advice.. the bike will run up to 20 % mix.. I have run this in my 76 cb 550/4 when I had it..
 
He said one cause of blown head gasket is pinging/detonation. I never knew that.
Click to expand...

Yep! Knocking and Pinging is the same as the combustion cycle of a diesel engine (same explosion in the cylinder too!) Problem is, the explosion is happening before the piston has even reached TDC. Primary reason we are told to NOT lug these engines, especially in hot weather!
 
[url=https://www.classicgoldwings.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=121971#p121971:147n0psf said:
Joep » Fri Jun 20, 2014 9:59 am[/url]":147n0psf]
You can raise the octane by adding 10 to 15% diesel fuel.. my fnl was a gm mechanic and he gave me that advice.. the bike will run up to 20 % mix.. I have run this in my 76 cb 550/4 when I had it..
Click to expand...
Great......now I gotta find another friggin bottle to put sneezle in to add along with the bottle of ATF? Dang...it just never ends.... :Awe:

:smilie_happy: :mrgreen:

My '81 pings when temps are up there, too, under a load, such as passing from a lower rpm in high gear. It is definitely worse with the 87 octane stuff, compared to the 89. Fuel prices here jumped 10 cents a freekin gallon over the weekend...I put some 87 in it Monday....big mistake. :Doh2:
I'm not 100% sure my vacuum advance set-up is working properly on mine, either, so that may have something to do with it, along with the rising ambient temps here. Mid 90s yesterday...come-on, WINTER! :smilie_happy:
 
I use regular ONLY all the time with no pinging. I do not lug the engine and downshift below 2500 RPM.


Out of curiosity, Dan or any of the other C5 conversion guys, do you have knocking and pinging under load with regular gas??
 
Ping was same as others. hit gas in 5th and herd it. Was wanting to keep this bike at the 87 level as both of my harleys are 91 only. both of them were dyno tuned and the timing is advanced as much as you can go so they will ping with anything less. the Heritage has a knock sensor through the spark plugs ( not sure how that works) but the xl1200 has no knock sensor so it is very prone to ping.
 
we here in Phoenix have the heat all the time and i drive mine like a V8,lug it from 1500 rpm all the time and run the cheapest gas i can get and never heard or seen at the plug any signs of a ping! I do run the carter/weber,stock muff's and run it between 60 and 80 mph for 160 mile round trip 5 day's a week now day's and with the 83 engine my avg is about 40mpg and my temp gauge is right up next to the hot zone all the time on the interstate. i just set the timing like the book said when i put the motor in. if you have a ping, i would step up the jet or take some timing out of it as you WILL break it if you let it ping in the heat. just my humble opinion
 
I always use the middle grade gas and have never experienced pinging in whatever stage of it's evolution my bike has been.

I know though that it was designed to operate on the lowest octane available in 1982, which at the time was 93 octane Leaded fuel.

So I often wonder if I should be using Lead substitute, I did a few years ago buy me a bottle but never used it, do ya'all think I ought to try it?

See what happens y'know?
 
Pinging is pre detonation of the fuel ( firing without spark prior to the ignition) similar to how a diesel works ( just compression and combustion chamber temperature), as Randy said slowing down the burn rate alleviates the problem. By using ATF this should have a similar effect, I can't confirm this as I haven't experimented with the lower octane fuel. Here in Oz I use a 95 octane rather than our regular unleaded of 91 and definitely not our 91 ethanol blend. I only use ATF about every 3rd tank as I don't like the smoke on start up ( I suppose I could try using less) and I haven't found an old 200ml container to carry on board the Rats Nest. We have a 98 octane available here but unless you are fuel injected it does nothing to improve performance or economy. In the States I was always using 89 or better as on our trip my brother and I shared the one pump and we always used the highest octane for his 2012 Road King.
 
Generally, (and I say generally) you don't have the choice here, most everywhere is 10% Ethanol, like it or not. But my bike runs good on the middle grade which is 91 octane, we have (generally again) 87, 91 & 93 unleaded with 10% ethanol.

So are you saying you bought the rats nest to the states, and didn't tell anyone???
 

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