The higher the octane the slower its burns, its a more controlled burn.. and has a cooling effect.

You have a scientific procedure which renders RON " research octane number" or MON " Motor Octane Number"

Also all gasoline octane contains Heptane, which you can not compress with no knock. It is added to get the desired fire for the given compression ratio, makes it fire.

87 octane burns hotter than 93 octane.

If you don't have the compression or power adder, higher octane is just a waste of money, as you ca not burn all of the fuel up and thus just dumps it out the pipe.

 

My 240 says to use premium fuel, but I think it's lying to me.

 

Diesel fuel owns...pure carbon from the exhaust rocks, and yes, since they are a self sustaining compression ignition engine, they run just lean enough to sustain the rpm desired, as adding more fuel just increases the rpm...no throttle plate. Granted if we run too rich we melt pistons..oops. Good call Tony for summing up what I was about to type..hehe

 

holeshot engineering love's uneducated people who always think "more is better" when it comes to octane..
cracks me up when I see people dumping 5 gallons into their stock motored car.. i've tried to warn them, got nothing but dirty looks and, "what do you know, you drive a ford" comments from a few import owners.
remember MON and RON ratings are a little different.
I try to use VP Racing fuel mainly (running c-12 or c-16) great stuff, have to buy it in bulk to save $$$ though and they use MON numbers..
also, you guys haven't even touched on some of the fuels or additives that are out there that have an increased oxygen content (i think that is right).. costing upwards of 30-40 a gallon..
crazy what people will do to win...