Modern high octane fuels like V-Power OK?

[Steve Foster]

Anyone know anything about Shell V-power good or bad and its suitability for use in bevels? This line of inquiry started when I read a few articles from vintage car clubs about running unleaded petrol+LRP additives in older engines - they were pretty positive about the V-power+Valvemaster combination so I tried using this myself recently. Bike seems to like it.

Looked at http://www.shell.com.au/home/content/au ... /overview/
but there's not much specific info here.

In another forum hedton said "My friend rode a 350 Ducati with petrol from Shell called V-power. His Duke was wrecked 2 times before hi noticed that the rubber on the valve in the carb had melted. Hope that this hasn't happened to you."

What's the go? Are the cleaning components that are apparently "designed to prevent the build up of inlet valve deposits and to help remove those which may have been left behind by other fuels" of any real benefit?

Is there anything inherently wrong with using a high octane fuel anyway or is it just a waste in an old engine?

Shell also claims that V-Power has "Friction ModificationTechnology (FMT) ... to reduce friction between the cylinder and piston rings, a critical area of the engine where lubrication is difficult to achieve." Can't be a bad thing, can it?

Thanks
Steve

[rwhc80]

G'day Steve, I was running Shell Optimax in my bevel for a while until I heard a service guy in a bike shop telling a client to stay away from it, as it was the reason his bike kept burning plugs.due to the detergents. Funnily enough, I had the same problem with a set of those $30.00 Platinum fine point things ( Forgot the name ) I thought the plugs were useless but it was most likely the Optimax. Only got a 1000 kms out of them. Not sure if the V-max is the same formula, but enough people have now told me, buying 98-100 octane fuel for an old bevel is wasting money due to the low compression rating.

I have now been running 95 Octane BP mostly for the past 3 years with no issues. I just simply add some valve saver with each tank.

Cheers
Rick

[Steve Foster]

G'day Rick - thanks for the info. Yeah - the old things can't really make much use of the higher octane fuels in the way that newer engines with ignition maps and adjustable timing etc can. I'm interested in whether the other "advantages" provided by the additives are worthwhile but it sounds like that's debatable. Cheers, Steve.

[Peter Mille]

Bevels were designed to run on leaded 98 octane.....!!!
Anyway, I run my Mille ONLY on Shell V-Power with Millers VSP additive, bike runs great, no plug problems at all....!!