Hi guys, just got my first RR 2006 HSE. Had it for 6 days in fact. NOT familiar with them at all. My first fill up I used 91 octane which is our highest in Idaho where I live. My question is about non ethanol fuel. We have that available here. I run it in my jeeps and other cars and always get more efficient mpg numbers with it. However, it's 89 octane. Yay or nay in the Range Rover? Thanks!

Last edited by Kinch on 13th Aug 2016 9:03pm. Edited 1 time in total

In the uk, our 'regular' fuel, is 94 octane. We can get a premium 98 fuel here too.
Maybe someone here, will know, if US spec cars, are set to run on Lower than 94

Wow! You have that high of an octane? Our max, at least where I live, is 91. I wonder if I could use Xylene to raise my octane. Xylene is pretty cheap.

We used to have BP Ultimate 102 at our local station but haven't seen it for a couple of years. Think the highest RON available here now is Shell V power 99
Paul Paul

2014 Range Rover vogue se 4.4sdv8 Loire Blue
1992 Range Rover Vogue LSE 4.2 Ardennes green

Does UK gasoline have any ethanol in it?

Don't confuse US octane ratings with European ratings, they are measured differently.
US use the AKI rating (Anti Knock Index) and UK and Europe use RON (Research Octane Number).

The Anti Knock Index is partial derived from the RON as it's RON+MON/2 (MON = Motor Octane Number).

95 RON (UK Standard Unleaded) is roughly equal to 91 AKI
97/98 RON (UK Premium or Super Unleaded) is roughly equal to 92-93 AKI

Note with UK fuels they are guaranteed to be the quoted RON rating at the pump and as such they are manufactured higher than quoted. E.g. according to info from Shell, V-power (98 RON at the pump) is manufacturer to 98.6 RON at the refinery.

Whatever area market you're in, petrol L322's have Knock sensors fitted. The engine management will adapt to the fuel you use and run to knock limits by advancing or retarding the ignition timing accordingly. As such if you use poor fuels with low knock limits, power will be reduced but it'll still run.
Generally petrol forced induction models will benefit more from the use of higher octane rated fuels than N/A engines.

The owners manual should give you the recommended AKI or RON fuel rating to use for your market.

Yes UK fuel has Ethanol. Currently 4.75% maximum but that is likely to rise to 10% by 2020.

Thanks for all that interesting information. What do you think about running non ethanol 89 Octane? I get better mpg with it in all my other vehicles. Thank you

that explains to me! I thought it had to be similar.

It's certainly worth trying if you find it's better than other types in your other motors.
89 AKI (AKI also known as PON or Posted Octane Number) is equivalent to about 92 RON which I believe is the standard fuel used in the likes of Greece. No doubt it'll run OK on it as US market L322's should be mapped to take into account the local fuel ratings anyway.

Over here I steer clear or 'supermarket' fuels and usually only fill up with Shell, Standard Unleaded in the Range Rover and V-power in other motors that need it and can take advantage of it. It has always been consistently good for me for power and economy compared to others I've tried.

You obviously know your stuff. How about this? Can't you raise the octane of gasoline with the common chemical xylol? Isn't that what petroleum companies use to raise octane? I read that somewhere. What if you raised the octane of your fuel using xylol? Is there a formula for that just curious. Not necessarily going to try it unless someone tells me it's common practice.

I think most of the world uses RON.

In Australia, we have:

E10 - 10% ethanol unleaded 94 RON (everywhere in this State as it's mandated but we can't supply enough ethanol for the whole country).
E85 - 15% ethanol unleaded - 105 RON (I've never seen it in any local service stations).
ULP - unleaded petrol 91 RON (not everywhere owing to the number of tanks a service station may have)
PULP - premium unleaded 95 RON (at most servos)
Ultra PULP - premium unleaded 98 RON (not as common as 95 and if it's sold, then the servo won't have 95. Most commonly seen at Mobil and Shell. I've never seen it at Caltex (Texaco in other countries?). Dunno about BP as there isn't one around here.

I use 95 RON in the L322, the turbo Forester, and my Yamaha XJR1300 - it's specified for all three. Ron B. VK2OTC
2003 L322 V8 Auto
2007 Yamaha XJR1300
Previous: 1983, 1986 RRC; 1995, 1996 P38A; 1995 Disco1; 1984 V8 County 110; Series IIA

I know a bit after researching info many years ago when running a high performance jap import that wouldn't run on anything else but high octane fuel but I'm certainly no expert.
Xylol or as I know it as Xylene, is a typical main component of a lot of off the shelf octane boosters. I've used octane boosters in the past on turbo track cars with higher than standard boost levels on hot days as an insurance policy against det/knock. Most off the shelf boosters only add a few tenths of a point to the octane so hardly worth bothering with (I just got a job lot cheap so used it). I've heard of people adding Xylene before but that was only for some competition use or for experimenting (although most competitions dictate what fuel you must use).
I wouldn't have thought there was any need for adding it for everyday use. Certainly a N/A or a Supercharged engine (which has a fixed boost level) fitted with knock sensors shouldn't require any octane booster using standard fuels available to the same market the vehicle was sold in. The manufacturer would have taken the fuels available into account or added a warning if it needed a certain level. I've have in the past and still have a car that have clear labels on the dash that say only use 97 or 98 RON fuels, even then you could probably get away with using lower but performance maybe reduced.
So in short don't bother with Xylol, try the fuel and see how it goes, it'll probably be fine.

As for using a fuel without Ethanol, well Ethanol also raises the octane. In fact pure Ethanol (E100) has an octane rating (AKI/PON) of about 110 but octane rating is not the the only factor you need to consider otherwise we all be using it! You need to take into account the calorific value of the fuel, in other words the amount of energy you can get from it when it's burnt.
Ethanol only has about 75% the calorific value of gasoline (similar to LPG). So to get the same power as gasoline you have to burn 25% more of it. That's why vehicles running E85 or greater need remapping or run with duel maps and an ethanol sensor to know when to switch between gasoline and ethanol maps. Running on Ethanol means the range will also be less, you need to burn more of it after all. There are other disadvantages to Ethanol too. It can eat through older fuel system lines (most cars from around 2000 onwards in Europe should be fine though). It has a cleaning ability meaning it drags any rubbish in the system out with it. It has less lubricating properties than gasoline and it readily mixes with water.
Ethanol certainly is going to become more readily available due to it's 'renewable' nature (Bio-ethanol) although it's not exactly as 'Eco' friendly as it's made out to be.
When you see the amount of rain forests that have been cut down or food crops swapped to bio-ethanol cash crops in South America to feed their own and the lucrative developed world nations in order to be 'green' it a makes you wonder how 'green' or 'eco' any of it is.
Sorry

Yes I prefer to run non ethanol. My vehicles get better mpg but of course the non ethanol is slightly more expensive so I don't know if it evens out or not. Just thought maybe if I could not use 89 reliably, maybe I could boost it sufficiently and cheaply. Next time I need fuel I'll tank up with the non ethanol and see how it goes.

I am in Sun Valley. I have a 2011 SC and only use 91 octane Non-ethanol. Its $3.29 here but car runs great.

I would only use the 91 non ethanol not the 89 but that me.