OT Petrol for 2 stroke garden equipment?

[Broadback]

I have decided to change to premium petrol for my car. Is this OK for 2 stroke garden equipment, or should I always make sure I use the standard petrol?

[Huge]

Premium's fine.

[Roger Mills]

Even premium fuel is unleaded these days. Your garden equipment may not have liked leaded petrol, but there's no danger of that - and premium will be fine.

Why are you using premium petrol in your car? If it's designed to work ok on standard unleaded, there's no particular advantage in using premium.

[David]

Which? did a report a few years back which claimed to prove that as long as your car had an ECU which could tune/detune the engine to match the fuel used, you could get as good or better bangs per buck from Premium as you could from Regular. That is, if you up the efficiency of the engine by using better fuel then you get a better MPG. This does, of course, depend on your mix of driving conditions and style. Also on the current difference in price between the two grades.

I was always a little sceptical, and anyway my car has adequate power running on Regular. I don't track the MPG anyway - however it might be interesting to try running the diesel camper on Premium diesel as I do track the MPG on that.

I just tried to locate this but only found one from 2008 was a reference to Which Car which said the so called "Super Fuels" were a waste of money.

So, purely for interest, why are you changing to Premium?

Also noted that their costings of the benefits of paying more for a diesel car in terms of saving fuel costs in the long term were based on diesel costing significantly more than petrol. So well out of date now and also doesn't include the latest high efficiency supercharged small petrol engines.

For your original question - it will do it no harm, but as my late father used to say "It's like feeding strawberries to a donkey".

I presume you want to use the same petrol can to carry as a spare in the car and also use to top up the fuel bottle of 2 stroke mix for the garden machinery?

Otherwise, why would you?

Cheers

Dave R

[Davey]

In my engineering experience, that is basically correct. The advantage of using a premium fuel, in a well-sorted engine, is that it can release more power from the engine than Regular petrol, if the ECU can work with it. So it's useful for racing drivers or those with a lead foot, but will do nothing to increase the MPG of Joe Public. Depending on the camshaft profiles etc, there may be no advantage at all. It might have extra additives, and therefore run a cleaner engine, but in general there is a greater difference between the fuel mixes of any one supplier for summer and winter, than between the mixes of two different suppliers during the same season. I have a simple spreadsheet that tracks my mpg. It is also useful as a way to record prices. I just fill in a few blanks from each petrol receipt, and it calculates the rest.

[Lee]

The engine in our pretty bog standard (petrol) car has two separate knock sensors and variable valve timing, it does indeed return better MPG on "premium" fuel than it does on "supermarket value" fuel. When we lasted used "cheap" fuel the difference was in the order or

27MPG for "supermarket" fuel and 33MPG for the "performance" stuff. Averaged over a full tank on each. Given that, we didn't bother again and just run the "premium" stuff.

Of course, driving style has far more bearing and I guess if we tried again, the result may be different.

[Tim Streater]

Woss wrong with supermarket fuel? We never buy anything else (diesel C4).

[Charles Hope]

and where do you think the supermarkets get their fuel? some backstreet arab trader?

[Lee]

Petrol is governed by Government standards, of course, but the fuel supplied is going to be the minimum required to meet that standard and won't have any of the additives* which "branded" fuel may contain.

*Or, indeed in the case of diesel, having more additives than may be helpful for modern CRd engines...

[Broadback]

I am a fan of Honest John. He maintains that supermarket fuel is exactly the same as its equivalent from elsewhere. Is is subject to stringent test by the authorities. He also reckons that premium is well worth the money, both for its effect on the engine and consumption

[Davey]

Just google:

"where do superarkets get their petrol?"

and read as much discussion as you want to.

[Charles Hope]

I tried BP premium Diesel (or what ever its real name is) for 3 tank fulls. Absolutely no difference in fuel consumption.

[Lee]

I have an acquaintance (brother of work colleague) who is a tanker driver. What he says pretty much sums up what is said elsewhere, there is a base quality fuel which is the same for everyone. The difference being different blends and additives for "premium" applications.

Apart from documented cases involving biodiesel, "supermarket" fuel shouldn't in itself cause any problems. Unless there are problems on site, but any garage could have that.

[Huge]

I think he's an arse.

But even arses are right sometimes.

But not always.

[Caecilius]

It probably makes no difference, but I believe that most 95 octane regular unleaded petrol in the UK contains 5% (or is it 10%?) ethanol. I think most super unleadeds are ethanol free.

Ethanol has a lower energy than petrol, which probably makes no difference in a mower, and it can absorb a bit of water.

[Charles Hope]

I wouldn't know - I buy diesel

[Charles Hope]

nothing to do with "supermarket fuel" then - you put the wrong octane stuff in.

[harry]

[Charles Hope]

I know Sainsbury's diesel has addatives. If you must use a cheap supermarket don't assume all others are the same.

[harry]