Modern Buddy

Just trying to see what folks have heard about fuel grades with their scooters. I have a Buddy 170i and have been told multiple things. First that I should stick with the standard, 87 grade. Then also that it helps engine-life to go with Supreme, 93. I've gone back and forth. Can anyone verify that it makes a difference at all? Or am I just wasting my time?

Thanks.

There are quite a few threads on this forum dealing with that very topic. (A topic, I might add, that has been pretty well beaten to death here). A quick search should provide you with tons of information.

Read this -

viewtopic.php?t=26705&highlight=fuel+recommendations

The required octane rating is dependent on compression ratio and ignition timing. Higher octane gas is no better "quality" than regular. Learn to read a spark plug to determine what octane you need.

...

I use 87 in my Stella 4 Stroke, because that's what it says in my manual. Seems to be working fine.

BuddyRaton wrote:WHY RED IS RED!!!!!

Because you just fuelled up with un-taxed diesel. If you manage to get it started, don't let the revenue men catch you!

In the cooler months, I run 89 in the high-compression scoots and 87 in the low-compression scoots. In the heat of Tucson summer, I change the 87 up with 89 in most of the bikes. The Riva 180 gets bumped from 89 to 91 due to its heat sensitivity (Yamaha put a cooling fan on the carb, for Pete's sake).

I use no ethanol, which in the past year started being easily available.

87 as prescribed.

bgwss wrote:I use no ethanol, which in the past year started being easily available.

+1. 90 percent of the time. I believe it's 91 octane here in Minnesota. Sometimes I don't have the range to make it to ethanol free.

I heard reported in the news that, with the recent decline in oil prices, ethanol is now more expensive than the gas itself. Anyone hear the same??

87 in Buddy and Ural, 91 in Vespa and Porsche. I wish I could get 92 or 93 for the Porsche but no way here in the People's Republic.

CEZ2011 wrote:87 as prescribed.

As prescribed by whom? Here are Genuine's recommendations.

viewtopic.php?t=26705&highlight=fuel+recommendations

To make things even murkier when it comes to octane ratings, there is more than one way to compute a fuel's octane rating.

The most common octane ratings we are likely to see are:

Research Octane Number (RON)

Motor Octane Number (MON)

Anti-Knock Index or (RON+MON)/2, which is usually shown on the pump as (R+M)/2. At one point this rating was also known as the CLC (Cost of Living Council) octane rating.

Depending where you live, you might find RON ratings at the pump (European Union) or the (R+M)/2 method (US / Canada).

I found out about all this stuff I didn't want to have to know when I first started driving VW vans and couldn't figure out why the owners manual indicated that I was supposed to be running a low compression engine on 91 octane fuel. Once I realized that Germany uses the RON method to compute octane ratings, it didn't take me too long to find a chart that let me know that 91 RON was the same thing as 87 octane when computed by the (R+M)/2 method.

And to stir up this can of worms a bit more...

what about fuel additives/octane boosters, carb/injector cleaners and such?

any use them? do they make a difference?

Seafoam from time to time cleared up some performance problems on my Buddy 50.