
A flame starts at the spark plug and burns throughout the cylinder until all of the fuel in the cylinder is burned. How does the octane level affect my vehicle?Įngines are designed to burn fuel in a controlled combustion. The extremely unstable normal heptane (C7H16) molecule is the 0 octane reference fuel. This iso-octane has been assigned the reference value of 100 for testing purposes. Of the 18 isomers of normal octane (C8H18), octane gets its name from the 2,2,4-Trimethylpentane compound, which is highly resistant to auto-ignition. (R+M)/2 Method on the label refers to the octane testing method used, where R is Research Octane Number and M is Motor Octane Number. The large number on the yellow gasoline pump octane label is the minimum octane rating. Some companies have different names for these grades of gasoline, such as unleaded, super, or super premium, but they all refer to the octane rating.

Regular (the lowest octane fuel–generally 87).Retail gasoline stations in the United States sell three main grades of gasoline based on the octane level: The higher an octane number, the more stable the fuel.

The octane number is actually the simple average of two different octane rating methods- motor octane rating (MOR) and research octane rating (RON)-that differ primarily in the specifics of the operating conditions. These ratings are based on the pressure at which a fuel will spontaneously combust (auto-ignite) in a testing engine.

Octane ratings are measures of fuel stability. As a result, more people are curious about what octane is and what those octane rating numbers on gas pumps mean. The difference in prices between premium and lower octane grades has also increased. In recent years, car manufacturers have been requiring or recommending premium gasoline (a high-octane grade of fuel) for use in more of their vehicle models.
