jcmseven
Veteran Member
My 825i Gator has 68 hours on it. I bought one (actually two) for my dad and they all have run great. I work mine pretty hard pulling trailers, plowing lots of snow in winter, hauling things, etc. (I even drove it to work one bad winter day last year). I noticed and mentioned in a post several months ago that JD puts racing fuel in their 825i tanks for shipment to dealers. I am by no means a petroleum engineer but was told that the reason was due to stability during shipment and of octane if the machine sits for a prolonged period of time before being sold. Don't know, but that sounds reasonable.
We have a local store that sells Sunoco 116 Blue "leaded" racing fuel. Leaded being the key word. It is freshly shipped to him in 55 gallon drums and he sells about 300 gallons monthly during summer racing season to local drag racers and usually has a drum or two sold over the winter. Two weeks ago, I bought five gallons at a total price of $38.50. He said he would sell it to me for "less than $6.00 per gallon" in the winter due to demand slowing from the local racers. I mixed it carefully with BP 93 octane unleaded fuel (my usual) 2 gallons to 3. I ran through my first tank just two days ago and felt that the engine ran better in general, and I do not think it was placebo. It started great and seemingly ran smoother both at idle and WOT. I did not perceive any more power, though I could convince myself the throttle response was a bit snappier. The only thing I could note objectively was the definite REDUCTION in the amount of fuel the Gator used. I generally get five-six hours of run-time out of the Gator running super unleaded; with the mix, it was almost eight hours before it went empty. With many possible variables at play, one cannot attribute this to the 40% addition of racing fuel, but could have been that in part. And, finally the smell of the exhaust (the best part)--like a NASCAR stock car!! That alone is worth doing it from time to time and paying the money to do so for me. My question is whether I risk doing any damage to my engine by running this mix. Since there are no emissions systems on the engine, does it hurt the little Chery engine to use this (does not seem so right now)? Second, these engines are not too high compression, so I wonder if early detonation is even a concern. I know that unleaded racing fuel is also available but it does not appear as though the octane is as high--and I know higher octane does not necessarily mean a better running engine. I do not plan to do this mix with each tank, but want to make as sure as I can that I do not damage the engine. There is not mention about it in the owners manual, nor have I been able to find any discussion of the topic in any of the Chery engine topics I have researched to suggest it is a bad idea. Thoughts??
John M
We have a local store that sells Sunoco 116 Blue "leaded" racing fuel. Leaded being the key word. It is freshly shipped to him in 55 gallon drums and he sells about 300 gallons monthly during summer racing season to local drag racers and usually has a drum or two sold over the winter. Two weeks ago, I bought five gallons at a total price of $38.50. He said he would sell it to me for "less than $6.00 per gallon" in the winter due to demand slowing from the local racers. I mixed it carefully with BP 93 octane unleaded fuel (my usual) 2 gallons to 3. I ran through my first tank just two days ago and felt that the engine ran better in general, and I do not think it was placebo. It started great and seemingly ran smoother both at idle and WOT. I did not perceive any more power, though I could convince myself the throttle response was a bit snappier. The only thing I could note objectively was the definite REDUCTION in the amount of fuel the Gator used. I generally get five-six hours of run-time out of the Gator running super unleaded; with the mix, it was almost eight hours before it went empty. With many possible variables at play, one cannot attribute this to the 40% addition of racing fuel, but could have been that in part. And, finally the smell of the exhaust (the best part)--like a NASCAR stock car!! That alone is worth doing it from time to time and paying the money to do so for me. My question is whether I risk doing any damage to my engine by running this mix. Since there are no emissions systems on the engine, does it hurt the little Chery engine to use this (does not seem so right now)? Second, these engines are not too high compression, so I wonder if early detonation is even a concern. I know that unleaded racing fuel is also available but it does not appear as though the octane is as high--and I know higher octane does not necessarily mean a better running engine. I do not plan to do this mix with each tank, but want to make as sure as I can that I do not damage the engine. There is not mention about it in the owners manual, nor have I been able to find any discussion of the topic in any of the Chery engine topics I have researched to suggest it is a bad idea. Thoughts??
John M
