Fuel types (and additives)

[EssexDave]

Had a look around and couldn't find a post that had many constructive suggestions on this, forgive me if I just overlooked it, but, picking up my bike on 9th april and was wondering on which fuel people have used and whether they have tested using higher quality fuel?
Eg. V-power, or just super unleaded.

If certain petrol stations had better quality fuel for the SV than others (remember seeing a post on a 206 website about different places doing better quality fuel for their cars)

Any tests been completed?

Also could anyone suggest good oil? I know to use semi-synthetic (i think 10W 40) and any fuel additives to keep the engine healthy for as long as possible.

Thanks for any responses,
Dave

[Lucas]

Silkolene Pro FST works nicely if you got Carburetor icing problem on cold days:thumright:, suppose to clean and maintain Carbs and engine too but IMO thats marketing ;)

I heard that high grade fuel like V-power has less water content when compared with standard so should be smoother etc. And I have noticed that during very cold days when I have been using V-power I had no problem with Carb icing at all! :D no need for FST!

Otherwise I didn't notice much difference in terms of performance, so I'll be back to standard fuel when weather warms up and save a few pennies :cool:

[Steve_God]

See this thread here (http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=65522)

Grinch did tests based on mileage with different fuels!

[Dangerous Dave]

Wouldn't both with the higher quality petrol on an SV, both my 750 and 650 run sweet on regular petrol. As for additives the only one to use is for the Curvy models and that is Silkolene Pro FST, I have a small Panda pop type bottle full of this under the seat to help with cold runing and carb icing.

Anything else is really a waste of money if you are after performance.

[Blue_SV650S]

The SV650 is sold globally, as such its needs to run on all sorts of quality of fuels. So the SV will run on anything down to 92 octane?

As such the tuning means no damage would be done to the engine down to that octane. As the SV is not fitted with a reactive ignition system, not performance gain can be made from running the higher octane fuels.

The only thing you will potentially get with the higher end fuels is better/more detergents, which make for a cleaner running engine and potentially increase efficiency due to this, so you could argue any noted (no placebo) performance increase could be real, but probably more due to the cleanliness of the engine increasing efficiency over utilising the octane ..

All UK fuel is reasonably high standard so will have detergent additives in it. Personally I wouldn?t pay the extra for super ..

So it is up to you, but basically you don?t NEED to use super for your bike to run properly and healthily :)

[flymo]

I even run my generator on V-Power :cool: to save holding different types of fuel in my van. You should see how bright my caravan lights go !

I'm planning to run a dyno session soon for my K3 so if I can engineer it without too much hassle I might try comparing fuels.

[Blue_SV650S]

I even run my generator on V-Power :cool: to save holding different types of fuel in my van. You should see how bright my caravan lights go !

I'm planning to run a dyno session soon for my K3 so if I can engineer it without too much hassle I might try comparing fuels.

I burnt all the valves out on one of my race engines after using what turned out to be poor quality V-power (well Optimax as it was called then).

Unfortunately that engine was/is so highly tuned, I HAVE to run high octane fuel else it'd go pop .. I now find it a real overhead trying to find/source a likely 'good' batch of super!! :shock:

Thankfully my SV doesn't NEED high octane, so I stick with the higher turnover standard unleaded and can be more certain my valves will have a nicer life 8)

[Alpinestarhero]

I have found with my restricted SV that V-power smoothens out the throttle response in a significantly noticable effect compared to standard shell fuel. Also, it cured carb-icing problems I was getting during the winter, and the engine warmed up quicker and settled to an idle sooner.

I have experianced some bad things with texaco fuel, but this may have just been the fuel I was using (near the end of the supply maybe?).

Use normal fuel all year round if your engine is fuel-injected :)

Matt

[EssexDave]

thanks for responses, normal fuel it is - as for additives i was talking about for a healthy engine rather than for performance gains :)

[sam_p2000]

I have treated every engine in every vehicle i have ever owned with slick 50 and maybe its just coinsidense but i have never had any siezures/sticking parts or wear issues even on my old 1984 fiesta! It certainly makes for quieter running valve gear anyhow as have noticed a difference after treatment on a couple of cars. as for fuel i use regular unleaded unless im going out for a real hack.