Hey Hey~

I'm a bit of tree hugger and was just wondering about Mini emmisions. I had asked the dealer when I was ordering about it, and he said that higher octane fuel burns cleaner.

Anyone know if that's right? I know nothing of cars.

 

Many people believe that higher octane implies more power, cleaner burning, etc. In conventional cars, any fuel that does not cause pinging delivers full power, fuel economy, and minimum emissions (if we forget about oxygenated fuels). The MINI, like many modern cars, has a knock sensor that retards the timing when it detects pinging. When the timing is retarded, the power and fuel economy drop and the emissions probably increase slightly. I suspect that any fuel that meets the minimum octane specification probably minimizes the emissions as much as possible using octane enhancement alone.

 

I am not aware of any correlation between gasoline octane rating (resistance to pre-ignition) and reduced emissions. If you want a clean burning car, go with a PZEV rated car.

 

I'm not sure you picked the right car if you are a truely concerned enviromentalist, I would think a Prius would have been a better choice for about the same money. Of course you'ld have to live with no fun, but you'ld feel better leaving more 91-93 for the rest of us idiots.

 

The prices sticker that was on the window states the relative emmission output of the car. As I recall, the Mini is on the high side, compared to cars like those from Honda.

Amoco advertises that there premium fuel contains lower sulfer and thus produces less emmissions. Whether that is true or just advertising, you'll have to decide yourself.

 

Is Amoco making any claims of a specific emission that is reduced by their "lower sulfur" fuel? (Such as oxides of sulfur. Which by the way, are not measured in traditional emission compliance testing....) Other than oxides of sulfur, I doubt that any other emissions (oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide, etc.) are lowered by the low-sulfur gas that Amoco is selling.

 

pollution doesnt bother me much anymore.

sure, i'll kill a tree. thats why i run all my cars full rich!!!!

 

Here is what BP/Amoco's web site says about their low sulfur fuel.


http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?...tentId=7004875

Reducing the amount of sulfur in gasoline enables the catalytic converter to work more efficiently. And that results in lower nitrogen oxides, or NOx, emissions and reduced ozone pollution.
BP has reduced the sulfur content of its premium gasolines years ahead of the 30 ppm federal sulfur requirement. In BP's Clean cities that require reformulated gasoline or low sulfur gasoline, reducing these emissions beyond EPA or state requirements is the equivalent of eliminating the NOx emissions from 100,000 cars every summer day. This calculation is based upon actual sales of BP premium fuels for the 12-month period before BP introduced its low sulfur gasolines.

BP's new and improved fuel products that help reduce air pollutants are now available in more than 40 US 'Clean cities', including: Arlington, Asheville, Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Cedar Rapids, Charlotte, Chesapeake, Chicago, Cleveland, Denver, Des Moines, Detroit, Flint, Gary, Green Bay, Greensboro, Indianapolis, Lansing, Madison, Memphis, Milwaukee, Nashville, Norfolk, Omaha, Orlando, Peoria, Philadelphia, Portland, Quad Cities, Raleigh/Durham, Richmond, Rockford, Seattle, Sioux Falls, St. Louis, Minneapolis, St. Paul, Virginia Beach and Washington DC

 

In short, the MINI's engine runs most efficiently when it consumes premium gasoline.

Mileage/efficiency will suffer if lower octane fuels are substituted.

You have a better chance of achieving decent mileage with the Cooper.

 

Hmmm, the question I have is whether BP was comparing their Premium vs. brand X's regular (which would make BP's emission reductions look the best) or were they comparing their Premium to brand X's Premium. Any bets as to which was compared?

Seriously, I tend to doubt that switching to BP Premium is going to result in any significant reduction in emissions. On the BP website, they even acknowledge that Premium gas has the lowest sulfur content brand-to-brand. Since BMW (and presumably MINI as a division of BMW) uses Chevron gas to certify its cars for EPA compliance, I wonder what the sulfur content difference between Chevron and BP is. Probably not as much as BP would want you to believe. And in 2006, everyone must get to 30 ppm if they want to sell their gas in the U.S.

 

Gasoline is just about the worst fuel imaginable as far as "clean." All that black sludge that builds up in the oil, valvecover deposits etc is from burning gasoline. (OK, maybe wood and coal are worse:smile This is a result of gasoline being a heterogenous mixture of many types of molecules, and it not being possible to optimize burning conditions for all of them at the same time. That's why we need that catalyst oven after the fact to bake the remaining gas.

AFAIK, there is nothing inherently dirtier about regular, but if ignition timing needs to be retarded to run it, this would tend to increase HC and CO (less time to burn) and may decrease NOx (running cooler). However, I'm sure the emissions system in the Mini is programmed to cope with this, how well is anyone's guess.

Compressed natural gas (CNG is 125 octane:smile and Propane (LPG is 110 octane:smile fueled cars can go 50,000 miles between oil changes when using synthetic oil. The only reason you have to change it so frequently in a gasoline powered car is that's the only way to remove the suspended sludge. Rings and cylinders also last twice as long without the abrasive soot, and that gas washing the oil off of them. It's not uncommon to get >250,000 miles from a shortblock, and both types can pass modern emissions tailpipe standards without using catalytic converters!

The Mini window sticker shows it is on the more polluting end of the scale (it is actually on the end with a 1.0 rating), so it's no ULEV.