Quote:
Originally Posted by alex.s
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The link below has some specific information about the effect of higher than required octane on HP. The tests even used a higher performance engine (Honda RC-51) that recommended high octane fuel - and it still made more power on 87. I do not recommend running a lower octane level than recommended, but it shows you that a moderately high performance engine like the Ninja, that recommends 87, will perform worse with anything higher.
http://www.rc51.org/fuel.htm - section 3 (below) - but read it all
"3.
In testing various grades of pump gas I consistently found that 87 octane fuel makes 1-2 more horsepower than those exact same bikes ran on Premium 93 octane. We tested five liter class motorcycles (97 CBR900RR, 02 Honda 919, 2000 RC51, 2000 GSXR750 & an 02 R1) & only the R1 seemed unaffected by the octane of the fuel. Now I am certainly not going to tell you to run less than the recommended octane (92) in your RC51 as the specific needs of the motor dictate that a higher octane fuel is needed, but
the results are blatant in that more octane does not mean more power.
It is only fair that I note that when testing the pump gas on some of the 600's (Yamaha R6 & the GSXR600) the inverse was true in that they did lose a little horsepower on the 87 octane vs the 93 octane. Most likely because of the higher compression ratios of the smaller motors, however the CBR600F4i gained a little horsepower."
The cycles that lost power recommended Premium, and most likely were detonating on 87. Any amount of detonation will kill power, and running just enough octane to get right up to the point of detonating yields the maximum power. Most likely that point is below 87 octane for a stock Ninja.
In addition, running gas without ethanol will also improve performance.
87 octane without ethanol will give you the best performance you can get from a stock Ninja.