348 Recommended Octane

94 is more than adaquate for the 348.

regards, Jim

 

Please add "AKI" or "RON" to your octane numbers to clarify both the question and the recommendation.

They give the minimum octane rating in the OM (usually in RON units).

 

Stick with that my main man!

 

Syner-what?? hehe! Nah man,we have premium here,which is crap. Like i mentioned on here ages ago,i trucked the car to Townsville,for a week of cruising around,and when it got off the truck,my mate who lives there,says do you wanna try BP Ultimate! (98RON) I said yeah,cool. Put in around $30,mixed in with the premium that was in the tank already and we drove around the next day,with no improvement at all to performance. But after i put in the next $40 or so,BP went off! The car was so much more alive! It is way better fuel! Ive come to the point where,i should import some here for myself and mates! I miss Townsville (only Townsvilles' BP fuel) lol

 

Here in Portugal BP ultimate has 100 octanes...
But I usually put 95..
The weaker one.. Because a Ferrari mechanic said I should not put 98 or 100..
Do you agree with him?? Will it damage the engine if I use regulary the 98 or 100 oct?

Pedro Maia

 

What about if you add a little acetone to that 98 octane???

BT

 

Pedro,was that you smoking up your 348?? I downloaded the video! You are crazy! LOL Well,the sticker under the engine cover says "Ferrari recommends 95RON unleaded" There are a few variables man,but honestly,i dont think its a major issue using it brother. Ferrari makes a strong engine. I done just under 1000km in 7 days in Townsville,using the BP Ultimate fuel the whole time( i even filled the tank with BP before i loaded it back onto the truck to come home) and smoking alot of young punks at the lights. 1000km,and did not once hear the engine ping or knock. Engine coolant and oil temp never got any hotter than normal ect........ If i had it here,id use it all the time for sure. Unless someone has 100% evidence that higher octane fuel f*cked their engine?? Then id consider not using it!

 

My friend has a parts shop here and he sells 20L drums of Methal Benzine. Basically the same as acetone. Paint thinners lol He pumps that into his Nissan Skyline and he says its a WILD ride after that! I was thinking about some for my 348,but im not sure how the 15yr old injector orings/fuel pump/filters ect...... would cope with that toxic stuff! That may do more harm than good lol

 

Here in Portugal BP ultimate has 100 octanes...
But I usually put 95..
The weaker one.. Because a Ferrari mechanic said I should not put 98 or 100..
Do you agree with him?? Will it damage the engine if I use regulary the 98 or 100 oct?

Pedro Maia

 

The octane you need is mostly a function of compression ratio. Use what the owner's manual says to use. Going to a higher octane than the car was designed for is a waste of money and will not increase HP.

Ken

 

Well what ever octane you end up using it will be higher than what we have in California. The highest grade they sell here is 91, and my 348 runs just fine on it.

 

That's because 91 AKI is equivalent to about 96 RON

 

My car has the sticker under the engine cover. When the cover is open,its at the top left corner. 95RON is "premium" unleaded here. And then you get your Shell Optimax,BP Ultimate ect,Castrol Vortex......... that are around the 98-100RON apparently?? It may vary i reckon a little

 

Thats right. There was a thread here 3 months ago that was all about this topic and the US has a different fuel rating someone mentioned??

 

I think you are right. The highest rating i have seen in years is 93.

I used to be able to get 108 leaded fuel for my '65 corvette 327 c.i. with 11.5:1 comp. at a Union 76 station. Really woke up the engine. I have not seen anything like that in 7 or 8 years.

I think Ken is right. The octane you use has more to do with the engine comp. My 308 I think is 8.5:1 probably would run fine on 87 octane. I don't know what the 348 comp is, but I use 92 or 93 and runs just fine.

 

Modern cars can run lower octanes because the computers retard the timing to deal with them. Not sure which Ferraris can do this. But you WILL get more power using higher octane gas if that's what the car was designed for in the first place. The higher the octane, the "harder" it is to exploed the mixture so you don't get knock with high compression engines.

Ken

 

The 348 has a 10.4:1 compression ratio. Feed it the high octane stuff please sir

 

On another note,the 355 and the 360 had the compression ratio upped to 11:1. And the 430 has 11.3:1 Gotta love it!

 

In the US, and perhaps elsewhere, the Feds require that all cars run on the cheap stuff. What that means is that the electronics will adjust the spark lead to make sure that the motor doesn't get hurt. The effect of that is to lower the HP available. However, 99.9% of the people driving these cars will never notice the difference, because they don't drive for maximum performance 99% of the time.

Interestingly enough, the higher the RPM, the lower the need for higher octane. In fact, in the 70s, Honda had to find lower octane fuel for their high compression, high reving race bikes, because they couldn't get the lead to the proper point with the higher octane fuel. I suspect, but don't know that at high rpm, the Ferrari engines won't know the difference between the grades. The Octane rating is really a rating on the burn speed of the fuel, and once you understand that, then all else becomes simple. A lot of myths about Octane.

Art

 

I'd find out if your engine is equiped with anti-knock sensors. If so, you can ran the lowest octane available, but I'd made darn sure it had the sensors and that they were working. Best way to find out is your dealer.

Art