Outdoor Power Equipment (Lawn Mowers, Snow Blowers, Chain Saws and more) Discussions

Happy holidays every one! ... bought the toro 1028 OXE back in October, right after the very first early snow storm. Was not able to try it in snow... I added the startron stabilizer And filled up the tank with 93 octane. I tested the new baby, showed off without spinning augers... But now it's a long time unused. My question is: is it okay for the fuel to sit in the carb for such a long time? Thanks!

From page 15 of the 1028 owners manual, "Fill the fuel tank with fresh unleaded regular gasoline from a major name-brand service station (Figure 26)." Typically, regular unleaded gasoline has an octane rating of 87 depending on elevation. The detergent level is independent of octane level.

About the detergent level: I'm puzzeled, alot of people says its the same and that is the Law and allot of people say its 87 does have less of it. What I need, is some hard facts!

JoelKlein wrote:
The engine's knock (ping) sensor will monitor how the engine is running, yes. The ECU may try to advance the ignition timing, to produce more power. Higher octane gas will allow the timing to be advanced more, without knocking/pinging. If you run lower octane gas, the ECU will retard the timing to avoid knocking. You might see less power and reduced mileage. I had a car that recommended premium. When premium got to a level that I thought was unreasonable (~$1.80, as I recall. Clearly this was a number of years ago ), I switched back to regular. The engine automatically adjusted, and I could feel that it had a bit less pep, and my mileage dropped a little. But it was still cheaper.

But the engine cannot, so far as I know, change the compression ratio on the fly. The only ways to do that that I can think of would be to change the head, pistons, or maybe the crankshaft. But I don't think the compression ratio can change while you're using it.

There are only a few ways to increase compression ratios in an internal combustion engine.  One decrease the size of the combustion chamber by
1. either using a flat top or dome piston (in place of a dished piston), and or using a set of heads with a smaller combustion chamber.
2 using forced induction such as a turbo or supercharger.

Injectors, air cleaners and headers will do nothing to increase compression ratios.

Higher octane fuels can help hp when the if the  ecu can advance the timing by helping the engine not have pre-ignition or ping thus increasing hp a bit.

Most engines will not see any difference in performance or gas milage using high octane fuel.  In fact a low compression engine (8:1)will probably run worse on high octane gas.

So all I need is a forlmula to calculate the added engine HP and how often the engine Actuly take advantage of it... Otherwise I'm like writing a 5 line paragraph on a big 11x17 sheet! But what about the detergent factor? Any ideas ?

I use the 91 octane in all my small engines because the 87 and 89 here has 10% ethenal in it and the dealer told me that stuff goes bad faster than the regular gas without it. The 91 does not have ethenal in it as its for off road, collector cars, and stuff like that.

How does forced induction change an engine's compression ratio?  It doesn't impact the bore or stroke of the engine.

Forced induction basically compresses the air before it enters the cylinder.  Basically, you get more volume of air in the same space.

So back to snow blowers. What's the issue with 87 octane? What does it mean " major brand" gas ?

Just to make sure we differentiate.....  A car may or may not have computer adjusted timing, to maximize performance to the octane rating.  Now I seriously doubt my SB has a computer chip in it ... correct me if I'm wrong... so using the recommended octane is highly recommended.......