RON 92 on an FD2

Here's a brief background story:

In Malaysia, there are currently 2 grades of petrol being sold at the pumps - RON 92 and RON 97. Then there is Shell VPower, which is for all intents and purposes RON 97 as well, but with some "special additives" that is supposed to enhance the performance of your car (maybe this will be the subject of a future evaluation).

The prices for RON 92 and RON 97 are RM1.88 and RM1.92 per liter, respectively, while a liter of Shell VPower will set you back by RM2.15. Now, even though Malaysia is itself an oil-producing country, our petrol follows the global pricing, so the prices are a result of being subsidized by the government.

Link: http://paultan.org/archives/2008/04/07/government-proposes-subsidised-ron95-and-unsubsidised-ron99/
Link: http://www.motortrader.com.my/NUS/articles/article_1352/page_m.asp

There is some recent news that the government is proposing to change to RON 95 (subsidized) and RON 99 (unsubsidized). Reasoning behind this is that "normal" cars can make do with RON 95, while the high-performance cars of the rich can use RON 99 (which they should not have trouble paying for). The thing is, most advanced cars these days seem to be engineered for lower RON fuel, and using higher then necessary RON will not result in any performance gains.

A quick glance at the owners' manual of my FD2 revealed that the K20Z2 motor is designed to run on RON 91. Hmm, this will make a good evaluation, then....

So, driving around until no bars left, I pulled into my favourite BHP station (where they have RON 92 at the pump and filled up to max.

There was no one around, no attendant, no other customer nearby. Wonder what they will be thinking if they see my filling up with RON 92? Will they think I am a miser / kedekut / kiam siap?

Anyway, since the price of RON 92 is now RM1.88 per liter, versus RM1.92 per liter for RON 97, the total cost of refueling is RM78.25 for 41.62 liters of fuel. If I had used RON 97 instead, it would have cost RM79.91, which is RM1.66 more. So, for the time being, difference in price is not significant.

Interestingly, if I were using Shell Vpower, at RM2.15 per liter, it would cost RM89.48, which is RM9.57 dearer than RON97 (or RM11.24 if compared to RON92).

Well, I got back into my car, turned on the ignition and strained hard to listen for any difference. I paused for a few seconds, trying to feel also if there was any roughness in the idling....

Nope, nothing spectacular. I will try to stand on the outside later to see if somehow all that soundproofing has maybe dampened the sound. OK, so I slip into D and went easy on the throttle. As I pulled out back on to the open road, I gradually increased to cruising speed with a light foot on the throttle. Hmm, no difference can be felt while cruising lightly.

OK, driving through my *secret area* for moderate high-speed testing, I brought her up to fifth gear, 3Krpm (you guys should know what that equates to). Listening for signs of knocking, sputtering, etc.. And...? Still nothing.

Right, since by then I have already cleared that zone, and am now at some traffic lights, I just tested on moderate 0-100kph sprint up to 3.5Krpm only. Too many people around, so don't want to look like kiasu driver, especially when next to me at the lights was a lorry. Performance is OK, since it was in the hot afternoon at around 1.00pm.

Recently also, I managed to do some impromptu testing to redline and also some high speed burst. Everything felt alright, once you put the psychological matter aside, there was no tell-tale signs to betray the nature of my fuel octane rating.

Some personal thoughts. Given that our FD2 is engineered to run on RON 91 fuel, there doesn't seem to be any significant difference when we use higher octane fuel. That is, we may be running in "RON 91 mode" all the time. I was hoping that we'd have some adaptive, artificial intelligence ECU which can "make the best with what it's given". I think that the ECU will only kick in if the RON is below the rated figure. Since there is nothing available here below RON 92, I can only think of an example where the Type R ECU may be responding to the RON 97 fuel that it gets over here.

Further actions:-
1. Finish off the RON92 in my tank, and see what's the fuel consumption like.
2. Continue using RON92 for at least another 2 refueling runs, to collect more data on long term performance.
3. If results are positive, try out other brands of RON 92 fuel, to see if there is consistency between brands. There is some thought that for RON 92, the petrol companies do not put in the beneficial additives (except for Caltex). So, in that case, I should fill up with Caltex Techron Silver next.

I guess that if we can live with RON 92, we can live with anything they throw at us. If they decide to introduce RON 95, that actually won't have any impact on us, just psychologically maybe....

Just checked out the manuals and found that the Vios takes RON 91 minimum as well. For the Myvi, it can make do with RON 90. Only my father's C200K needs RON 95 minimum....

So, from my initial experience, RON 92 from BHP appears to be a viable fuel choice for normal day-to-day driving, though I have no idea yet what will happen during our Teh Tarik session driving style, though....

Generic photo sourced from Paultan.org

[Update] Sigh, so the Government actually went ahead and replaced RON 92 with RON 95 effective 1 Sept 2009. Essentially, for most of us, in the end will pay more for nothing. From time to time, there will be some random spark ideas calling for the return of RON 92, but by then, the majority of the cars on the road would be new and therefore possibly require RON 95 minimum anyway....