I cant understand why this "SA Tuning" thread has now evolved into a 2.5page Fuel Discussion.
Merlin wrote:Can I ask that all cars booked for tuning be fueled with 98 octane fuel, from either BP or Shell.
Please avoid Caltex, as I have had three cars for tuning this year that were fuelled with Vortex98 that were definitely not 98 octane. Noticeable knock was evident and the ECU was interpolating into the LOW octane fuel and spark maps.
When the cars were re-presented with true 98 then there was no knock issues.
Annie aka blinklight wrote:David was advising and relaying his personal recent personal experience with a specific brand of fuel
Merlin (Dave) is only suggesting you South Aussie's use either BP or Shell because he knows these two brands are available in SA and returned "no knock" results when he conducted tunes during his last SA Tuning visit.
Merlin is "NOT" suggesting you can't use another brand fuel, He's simply quoting that a particular brand that was used in the last tune visit, caused erratic Hi/Lo Fuel Map interpolating because he suspects the fuel may not have been the true 98 Octane as advertised.
This may not even be a Brand issue, rather a particular Service Station fuel tank storage issue.
I'm sure that Merlin has no issue if you use another brand of fuel providing you can be sure it's true 98 Octane, otherwise the Tune results "WILL NOT" return as well as expected, thus degrading the results of the Tune your paying for, which "CANNOT" be blamed on Merlin.
Merlin only suggests you use 98 Octane so as to attain the Highest Performance Value for your Lancer.
You can still use lower Octane fuel after the Tune with good Performance & Economy results, albeit, a slightly lesser benefit in return.
The One main reason why most members request a Merlin Tune is for Performance.
So why would you present your Lancer with a lesser octane rating than that which is the highest available at the Fuel Service Station.
As I mentioned in an earlier post:
You should all fill up on E85 and not tell Merlin
Then, the only knocks detected will be the one's in his head trying to work out why all the SA Lancers perform so well.