Is all petrol/gas the same?

[ExigeEvan]

I try to fill up on main brand fuel more often than not as I'm told the Direct Injection system on the Alfa appreciates the detergents. I'd rather do that consistently than be putting Red X in it occasionally.

I've always been told to avoid 'quiet' petrol stations as these are more likely to have had the fuel sit in the tank for longer and get water issues. There's not many quiet petrol stations these days though.

 

[et_]

It is both about right and a little more complicated than that.

"Octane" is the average of two numbers: RON and MON. RON is typically 8-10pt higher than MON and so the average is usually 4-5pt lower than RON.

It gets a little more complex because you could in theory have a RON fuel at 97 but with an Octane rating of 49, because the MON rating is 1. In practice we have minimum standards of MON as part of the certification process of fuels to certain RON ratings.

Octane is, in theory, a better rating as MON is more appropriate to real world conditions than RON and it's not unwise to have that number included. In practice it doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

87 Octane = 91 RON
91 Octane = 95 RON
93 Octane = 98 RON

Job jobbed.

If this is true, we must have some super awesome mega fuels here in sweden, because 95 octane is minimum sold on any gas station (and the one almost everyone uses). Then there is the premium 98 octane than the big companies like Shell, Statoil and OKQ8 sell. Some (read; Shell) also sell 99 octane fuel in pumps as well. And finally we have the 102 octane fuel, sold over disk in cans of 1 to 4 litre, But no one is stupid enough to put that in their regular daily drives, as it cost equivalent of almost £4 per litre!

And the amount of ethanol in the petrol fuel is regulated by law to no more than 10%. (increased from 5% just a few years ago)

 

[Famine]

If this is true, we must have some super awesome mega fuels here in sweden, because 95 octane is minimum sold on any gas station (and the one almost everyone uses). Then there is the premium 98 octane than the big companies like Shell, Statoil and OKQ8 sell. Some (read; Shell) also sell 99 octane fuel in pumps as well. And finally we have the 102 octane fuel, sold over disk in cans of 1 to 4 litre, But no one is stupid enough to put that in their regular daily drives, as it cost equivalent of almost £4 per litre!

And the amount of ethanol in the petrol fuel is regulated by law to no more than 10%. (increased from 5% just a few years ago)

And that's the same in the rest of Europe.

Remember that when a European says "octane" they mean "RON" and when an American says it they mean "PON" (or "AKI"). They aren't the same thing. Which is what my post explained.

 

[et_]

And that's the same in the rest of Europe.

Remember that when a European says "octane" they mean "RON" and when an American says it they mean "PON" (or "AKI"). They aren't the same thing. Which is what my post explained.

Right, I guess I misunderstood you then NVM!