Question on gas grade

[greg409]

I'm in virgina. we have 89,92 Should i use 92 sometimes or everytime i fill up.Thanks for the feed-back guys!!!!

I think anything 92 or above is recommended.

Here around chicago, we have 87- 89- 93, I run 93


luck,greg

 

[wolf]

Fuel octane for GEMS engines

Hi guys, i have own my rover for 4 years now. I always put 87 in my tank. Should i try a higher grade sometimes? Can 87 grade affect my rover. I was just wondering because i saw on the forum were some guys are using a higher grade on their rovers.I have 124,000 now and it rides pretty good so far with the 87 grade. Starts up fine everytime i fire it up in morning. I want to know will the higher grade give me better performance,and longer life on my engine. One more thing. I will be replaceing my rad and need to get my a/c condensers fans replace to. Does anyone no were i can get reasonable fans for a good price. Atlantic British is about 300.00 a fan. Why are they so munch a peice? Any feed-back guys Thanks!!!!! 99 disco 1 SD 124,000

Hi Taytum;

If you go to RPI (UK) engineering's site they will give you the chemical/mechanical reasons for not running your 4.00 Liter Rover engine on anything but the highest grade. The reasons are simple enough for an engineer and read like voodoo for us lesser mere mortal types - but here goes anyway: owing to an extremely rigorous and tyrannical fuel mapping in your ECU - the normal mid-range rpms fueling is 'weak' which, coupled with low-octane fuel, can lead to extreme internal engine temperatures. These extreme temps, in turn, can lead to the uneven expansion of your cast cylinder sleeves versus the aluminum block that surrounds them, when this happens you can get seperation of the sleeve from the block and a dropping of that sleeve - so that you get coolenat leakage via the cylinder(s) in question and/or actual mechanical interference with your crank shaft. As you can imagine - this will lead to the premature demise of your engine (definetly not a good thing)! Many folks argue back - "well, why would Land Rover do such a silly thing (i.e., create such a weak fuel mapping in the mid-range via their tyranical ecu's)?" And the answer is straight-forward enough: they marketted Disco's into a lot of Third world back-waters where they knew that fuel grades (if you could even buy gasoline instead of diesel) would be as substandard as the fuel was in general. So, in order to overcome this problem and to reduce the need for optimal service on the engine in the backwoods of, say Kenya, they used an enormously powerful ecu (Mark Adams, one of England's leading wizards with engine computers claims that GEMS [which is not made by Lucas or Rover even though they both put their name on your ECU box] is the most advanced ECU out there - even today) and its equally powerful programming to force all manner of nasty and sub-standard variables in fuel into very tight parameters for steady engine operation. This also explains why - that when you remove the original GEMS chipping from your ECU and go for advanced chipping (such as Tornado Systems two chip system) you may well uncover other engine problems that GEMS was able to suppress/compensate for via its powerful programming. However, having stated all of this - and recognizing that the trade-off for absolute engine serviceability in the Third World may well translate into much shorter overall engine life - the Land Rover engine and fuel mapping system work supremely well with the highest grade fuels (I run mine on Chevron 94 and I will not even contemplate running it on 87 at any time unless I was desperate with no other fuel available). If you make certain that your engine is never treated to a serious overheat, internally in the cylinders or via cooling system failure, it should last you a good long time; the trouble is, of course, that not many of thses engines have been treated well or as they were designed for optimal service life.

Wolf

 

[Disco Mike]

I'm in virgina. we have 89,92 Should i use 92 sometimes or everytime i fill up.Thanks for the feed-back guys!!!!

What did we all just say???????????????????????????
I can't believe you had to come back and ask.

 

[greg409]

Hi Taytum;

If you go to RPI (UK) engineering's site they will give you the chemical/mechanical reasons for not running your 4.00 Liter Rover engine on anything but the highest grade. The reasons are simple enough for an engineer and read like voodoo for us lesser mere mortal types - but here goes anyway:

Wolf

Very nice!

(and I envy your typing skills)


luck,greg

 

[Taytum98]

Hi Taytum;

If you go to RPI (UK) engineering's site they will give you the chemical/mechanical reasons for not running your 4.00 Liter Rover engine on anything but the highest grade. The reasons are simple enough for an engineer and read like voodoo for us lesser mere mortal types - but here goes anyway: owing to an extremely rigorous and tyrannical fuel mapping in your ECU - the normal mid-range rpms fueling is 'weak' which, coupled with low-octane fuel, can lead to extreme internal engine temperatures. These extreme temps, in turn, can lead to the uneven expansion of your cast cylinder sleeves versus the aluminum block that surrounds them, when this happens you can get seperation of the sleeve from the block and a dropping of that sleeve - so that you get coolenat leakage via the cylinder(s) in question and/or actual mechanical interference with your crank shaft. As you can imagine - this will lead to the premature demise of your engine (definetly not a good thing)! Many folks argue back - "well, why would Land Rover do such a silly thing (i.e., create such a weak fuel mapping in the mid-range via their tyranical ecu's)?" And the answer is straight-forward enough: they marketted Disco's into a lot of Third world back-waters where they knew that fuel grades (if you could even buy gasoline instead of diesel) would be as substandard as the fuel was in general. So, in order to overcome this problem and to reduce the need for optimal service on the engine in the backwoods of, say Kenya, they used an enormously powerful ecu (Mark Adams, one of England's leading wizards with engine computers claims that GEMS [which is not made by Lucas or Rover even though they both put their name on your ECU box] is the most advanced ECU out there - even today) and its equally powerful programming to force all manner of nasty and sub-standard variables in fuel into very tight parameters for steady engine operation. This also explains why - that when you remove the original GEMS chipping from your ECU and go for advanced chipping (such as Tornado Systems two chip system) you may well uncover other engine problems that GEMS was able to suppress/compensate for via its powerful programming. However, having stated all of this - and recognizing that the trade-off for absolute engine serviceability in the Third World may well translate into much shorter overall engine life - the Land Rover engine and fuel mapping system work supremely well with the highest grade fuels (I run mine on Chevron 94 and I will not even contemplate running it on 87 at any time unless I was desperate with no other fuel available). If you make certain that your engine is never treated to a serious overheat, internally in the cylinders or via cooling system failure, it should last you a good long time; the trouble is, of course, that not many of thses engines have been treated well or as they were designed for optimal service life.

Wolf

Hi Wolf, I read all you guys post. Thanks for the feed-back!!!! 99 disco 1 SD

 

[Taytum98]

Hi Wolf, I read all you guys post. Thanks for the feed-back!!!! 99 disco 1 SD

Taytum98