Is there anybody that can test fuel to see its quality?
A friend has just had his big power Astra GSi melt its pistons and we think it could be caused by bad quality fuel. The owner does admit he accidentally put 95octane instead of the usual V-Power

Thanks

Tim

 

i dont know about fuel testing, but was it tuned/mapped on super-unleaded, and was he thrashing it on the 95ron when it went bang?

 

as above - if its been mapped on better fuel and he then pours in loads of normal fuel and he then boots it - that what will happen?

surely you have just answered your own question - its not the bad fuel its the fact the car was mapped for a higher octane fuel and he put one with less in - hence the meltdown.

 

I believe its on Phase 4 let management whatever that means in the vauxhall tuning world.
I think its down to incorrect fuel also but would be interesting to see

 

so its been heavily modified and he cheaped out on fuel

just tell him he is a muppet

 

melted pistons on just one tank full sounds extreme, maybe the car was running lean and the 95Ron just made it worse.

 

surely it depends on how hard he was booting it too?

 

the oil lab in blackburn do fuel testing

 

shame your so far away mate i do that but i live down south, keep a sample in a very clean jar mate and find somewhere up your end that does it, just a matter of checking the octane level but burning it off

 

tell him to get det. alert fitted and a decent AFR guage, and if in future he has to use 95Ron to get him by until he finds a petrol station with higher octane fuel he should be driving it on minimum revs.

 

it only takes a few seconds to destroy an engine if its detonating badly (no detonation is good BTW!) but i wonder if the knock sensor has been done away with or is not used in the current setup? that should of saved it by retarding the timing. on another note a friend of mine mapped his turboed car on optimax and if filled with normal fuel it would pink, he bought what he thought was optimax from shell one day and when he drove up the road the car was pinking badly on boost!? Can only think someone put the wrong stuff in the wrong tank

 

mine was mapped on super unleaded and on the rare occasion i have put 95ron in (due to there being hardly anywhere round here that sells super) i can tell straight away because it idles like sh1te. and my det alert will flash if i go on boost.

occasionally i have had sh1t quality "super unleaded" from the likes of Jet, and experience the same symptoms as if it is 95ron (in which case i keep the loud pedal to a minimum til i get some good stuff in)

you'd need to be 100% confident in the mapping, the build of the engine, IAT's, all the sensors blah blah to be able to blaim the fuel fully.