Hey, I have a 2003 Heritage softail 100th anniversary. The bike is carbureted. I live here in Newfoundland and you cant always get supreme gas. I am planning a trip about 700km, through mostly rural communities. My question is when i cant get supreme gas ( 91 octane?) IS it ok to fill up on regular ( 87 octane?) and add some octane boos?


Thanks, ******

 

As long as your bike is stock should not be a problem. I go places every year where "supreme" is not available...use 87 with no problem. Your bike will be more prone to detonate or "ping", so keep the rpms up and don't lug the motor

 

You should be running the lowest grade fuel that will not cause the engine to ping. There is no benefit to running premium fuel if you can run a lower grade and the engine doesn't ping. Might make you feel better filling up with premium but the engine doesn't know the difference and, if it does, it will tell you by detonating.

If the bike does ping on the lower grade, you can do what you suggest and supplement the lower grade with octane boost.

 

Find out the facts on octane boost before you rely on it to stop detonation. Any octane boost i have ever found only moves up your octane rating like .08 of a point. Thats not gonna do anything for you. If i was you i would figure out if the bike will run on 87 with out detonating and have a good back up plan if it does. Put a few liters of 87 in, go for a rip it it starts to ping fill it with high grade. Trust me learning about what your engine needs for octane a long way from home is not a good time. I run a 2 stroke sled with 15:1 compression on spray in the backcountry of the BC rocky mountains, gotta have the right fuel or your in big trouble.

 

Octane boost is a scam for the most part. If you really want to raise octane acetone/toluene/xylene are all 110 octane,so a liter mixed in to your tank will show some octane enhancement but those little bottles just don't really help.
If you are staying in Canada for your ride shell gas,even regular won't ping. Chevron is great stuff once you get into British Columbia.
Here in Saskatchewan premium isn't polluted with ethanol so you will like that stuff.
Stick to name brand gas. Only go to husky if you really have too,there is just too much ethanol in their gas for my liking.
Safe travels

 

Torco and Lucas both make robust octane boosters. Not disagreeing that toluene or xylene are not effective but you have to be careful with them; the octane boost is pre-mixed, packaged and you can drop it in you saddle bag. I have never purchased toluene or xylene and dont' know what quanties are available.

You do have to be careful with what octane boost you buy. Some don't play well with O2 sensors (no worries with carbed bike) and some will react with ethanol creating a gel that will settle in the bottom of the tank and choke things up.

Do the due diligence and understand the differences between the available products and make an informed decision. But first, run the bike on 87 octane; may not have any issues.

 

Good call on the toluene or xylene ect. very good octane boosters but also very dangerous chemicals if handled improperly. Read MSDS's for these if your going to use them, they can cause major health issues. Another option would be carrying some VP 111 or another race gas to mix in with non ethanol blended gasolines.

 

all gas these days suck. I use octane boost almost every second fuel up.

 

My previous bike was a 2002 Night Train and it ran fine with no pinging . I ran mostly 87 octane but would add a little hightest occasionally . It was carbureted but my 2010 Heritage is fuel injected and it runs good on the same fuel. Of course my bikes are all stock and I don't run them hard , but don't lug them either.

 

Thanks for all the replys, The only mods engine wise i am running are python pipes. Not sure if that will make a difference!