Polaris Pro Non-Ethanol Gasoline Question

[Seeker]

I have the opportunity to purchase 100 octane AV gas as well as non ethanol 91 octane gasoline about 40 miles from where I live. My sled is a bone stock 2012 Polaris Pro RMK, no mods, no turbo. I obviously want to get the most I can out of the stock motor & it seems that running the non ethanol gasoline might be the way to go. Some people say it will give you about 5 more hp...I don't really know, I just want the best set up for reliability and power.
My thought is if I purchase one of those 30 gallon gas caddys I can store the fuel right at my house and not have to make the 40 mile trip to the gas station every time I go riding.
I know that the AV gas contains lead & some say it is bad for the O2 sensor while others say it does not matter and it works great and is actually better for the sled.
So my question is should I run the AV gas or 91 or a mixture of the two? Keep in mind this is for a stock sled & I will be storing the fuel for ~6 weeks at at time.
Any help is appreciated.

 

[goforbroke]

91 non-ethanol will be great. AV gas on a stock sled will not help. Wish I had non-ethanol gas close to me.

 

[NapaMatt]

Use the Lucas Octane Booster 10020 ##

and 91 oct.

My .o2

i wouldn't waste money with AV Gas...

Not needed for a stock setup!!

 

[Bigrock33]

Use the Lucas Octane Booster 10020 ##

and 91 oct.

My .o2

i wouldn't waste money with AV Gas...

Not needed for a stock setup!!

For my info - Why use the octane booster - water in gas, keep octane up as pump gas varies?

 

[theshadowrider]

There is a lot of myths/misunderstanding regarding octane/avgas. By simply running avgas will not give you 5 more hp. Most of the time I think people come up with these theories by trying to validate their purchases. "See what you want to see." If you have not changed anything by simply running higher octane will not increase power, it will actually hurt performance. Don't believe me just try it and see for yourself. At one time I didn't believe it either so I filled up with 100% AVGAS. Avgas has a mon octane rating of around 105. Way more octane than I needed. Low end throttle response suffered.

"Octane is NOT a measure of power but of the fuels’ resistance to ignition from heat. A higher-octane fuel, under identical combustion chamber conditions, will burn slower." I think we get confused because you see a turbo or big bore that is super fast, climbing machine and you can smell some kind of special fuel they are running. You ask the owner and he tells you I am running "race gas" or "avgas" and then you think "I should run race gas so I can be fast like him." The reason you run higher octane fuels, that burn slower, is to help with detention that starts to happen when you run higher compression. If you are going to run avgas then put a higher compression head and then run avgas and after that you will get more hp out of your sled due to higher compression, and not the fuel.

FYI your sled doesn't have an O2 sensor. The sensor in your pipe is a temp sensor. The lead in avgas is an octane booster.(detonation reducer) It does not hurt your engine. Some say straight avgas seems to foul plugs sooner though. This is probably a lot longer answer than you are looking for but in short IMO run the right octane for your sled. Avgas on a stock won't help.

I know I am jumping all over the place just look at this post as an FYI. When you unplug your ethanol plug it richens your mapping because ethanol fuel runs hotter, more oxygen in fuel, verses non-ethanol. So running ethanol fuel with your ethanol plug unplugged, verses non ethanol fuel and plug, plugged in, will have a slight power difference due to fuel mapping.

So, what would I do? Is it worth it to buy a gas caddy and drive 40 miles, 80 miles round trip to buy 91 non ethanol fuel and store it that you are not 100% sure is ethanol free. IMO, not really. Side by side you will see little to no difference. Another point is some gas stations claim no-ethanol, but when tested with a hand test kit, they have some. Ethanol will work great and some run ethanol fuel and leave the mapping for non-ethanol with no problems. I would just run ethanol/ local fuel and then maybe at the end of the year fill it up with non-ethanol fuel for storage. Hope this helps.

 

[NapaMatt]

For my info - Why use the octane booster - water in gas, keep octane up as pump gas varies?

Well Pumping out of the pump you really don't know what your pumping..

Also for leaving ur sled for 6 weeks at a time.. Gas goes Bad with time..


Lucas Oct. Fuel Treatment will make sure that the gas will be "good" when ya want it


Also helps with moisture~~~

 

[Seeker]

Thank you for your help, this is exactly what I was looking for. I really didn't mean to say that my sled would have more HP simply by running higher octane fuel..instead I was meaning that maybe I could gain some HP by not using the ethanol plug. I have just heard some people say that by not running the ethanol plug and by using non-ethanol gas, I could gain 5 HP or so. But like you said, who knows if the gas is truly non ethanol......That is what it says, but who knows for sure.
What I was mainly getting at was if I could gain 5 hp and the sled would run reliably as good, it would be worth it to drive and get the better fuel.