Octane Ratings and the 4 Stroke Engine Cycle

I know it has been a while but better late than never. I recently had a conversation with someone who wanted to know why octane ratings were important and what they meant, I thought this would make a perfect video for ETCG and here we are. So in this video we go over the 4 parts of the 4 stroke cycle in a gasoline engine and how it is effected by octane. I like this video because it is a window into the direction I see these videos going in the future, more dynamic and more thought out. I hope you enjoy it and find it informative.

Special thanks to Ford Motor Company for the use of their animation in this video. I did add some stuff of my own by the way, thanks guys.

As always you can visit me at

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/

BTW Keep checking back with EricTheCarGuy.com, in the not too distant future I will be updating the site and making more in dept videos available for purchase. See my blog for details.

http://ericthecarguy.blogspot.com/

As always thanks for watching, be safe, and stay dirty.

ETCG

Category:

Autos & Vehicles

Tags:

• octane
• four stroke
• 4 stroke
• engine
• engine animation
• cars
• auto
• repair
• how-to
• do-it-yourself
• combustion
• gas
• engine cycle
• Thunderbird
• old cars
• education
• information

[R4nD0mus3rNam3]

Hi Eric, i have a 1991 ford aerostar and i been using 93 instead of 97. doing this damages my motor? will my MPG improve if i use 97?

hope you can awnser.

and thanks for your videos

[EricTheCarGuy]

@R4nD0mus3rNam3 Does it call for 97? I don't think it does honestly. Run what is called for by the manufacture and you should be just fine.

[R4nD0mus3rNam3]

@EricTheCarGuy thanks eric, i cheked the manual and the first thing i noticed is it said 87 but in my country there is only 93/95 and 97, then i cheked on the internet and lerned that there are diferent ways to grade the octanes. so the 87 of USA is equivalent to 95 in Chile

[EricTheCarGuy]

@R4nD0mus3rNam3 You are correct as the octane ratings in the US are done by API which is the American Petroleum Institute. Come to think of it I wish I had mentioned that in the video. Thanks for the comments.

[flchaptersdmf]

I've been told if you use 87...you should use 91 to clean the tank out?

[EricTheCarGuy]

@flchaptersdmf Nope, they just want to sell you expensive gas.

[daSpidy84]

as always, extremly helpful! constantly learning with your vids, you make things easy to understand, even for dummies like me, lol thanks!

[tubejim101]

@fladdy45 The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating.

[808mokunuibulli]

Hey eric been watching your videos for awhile now, and was wondering if you had a video for fuel injectors? I got civic swapped gsr and it seems to be running rich and thought maybe my injectors were dirty or just needed to be changed.

[fladdy45]

So, higher octane, higher compression ratio?