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http://my.news.yaho o .co m/ro n-difference-between-grades-183632461.html

What is RON and is there a difference between grades?

By Naveen Victo r | Mo to r Trader Malaysia Mo n, Sep 16, 2013

The massive 20 cent hike has made each and everyone of us just a little more concerned with how much of fuel we have to burn a day, but do we actually know what we are filling our tanks with? A number of years ago, we were enjoying RON97 at an incredible price of just RM1.80 per litre. Today RON97 costs nearly a ringgit more and well out of reach f or the average Joe's daily budget. When we f irst got word that a lower grade f uel would be of f ered along side RON97, many car nuts broke down in tears. We have been using RON 95 f or a f ew years now and things aren't as bad as initially expected. Engine perf ormance didn't take a major hit and our engines have been coping well since the switch. Now, rumour has it that the government might bring out a lower grade of f uel slotting in below RON95, called RON92. T hough many gear-heads out there won't be too happy with the move, but as my collegue Keegan Dorai pointed out in his earlier article, there are still a considerable number of of f erings in this country that are well able to accept RON92. But the question today is about RON itself , what is it and what's the dif f erence between 92, 95 and 97. RON is an abbreviation f or Research Octane Number. T he RON is determined by running the f uel in an engine with variable compression ratios and then comparing the results obtained with mixtures of isooctane and n-heptane. In simple terms, the number af ter the RON denotes how well the engine copes with compression without detonating prior to ignition. Ford's 1.0-litre EcoBoost engine has a high compression ratioDuring the f our stroke cycle of a conventional petrol engine, one of the stages involves the compression process. During this phase the air and petrol mixture is injected into the chamber and the cylinder compresses it bef ore ignition. Ignition is caused by a spark given out by the spark plug at the precise time f or complete combustion. During compression itself , there is a tremendous build up of heat. Lower RON f uels aren't able to withstand high compression and tend to detonate bef ore the actual spark causing 'knocking'. High compression engines require higher octane f uel or higher RON to stop engine 'knocking'. 'Knocking' causes adverse ef f ects to engine components including severely damaging the cylinder head. Many modern engines are equipped with knock sensors, which sense the detonation of f uel bef ore the actual spark and retard the timing to compensate f or it. Using lower RON f uels than stated by your manuf acturer can spell disaster f or your engine So besides the knocking ef f ect, is there a considerable dif f erence between 92, 95 and 97? T he answer can't be layed out in black and white. T his is because higher octane f uel provides a considerable advantage to high perf ormance and highly tuned vehicles. T his is due to perf ormance additives as well as higher compression. Vehicles such as the Mitsubishi Evolution 10 are high perf ormance turbocharged cars that run very high compression ratios to perf orm at the optimum level. T heref ore, cars like the Evo 10 can only run on a minimum of RON97 to produce the rated perf ormance f igures. Fo us commoners, when we switched f rom 97 to 95 there may have been a slight perf ormance drop, but was only noticeable during brisk acceleration and at high speeds. During city commutes, the dif f erence can barely be f elt. But if you do decide to jump to a lower grade f uel, check with your manuf acturer bef ore hand so you don't damage your engine. But f ret not, switching f rom RON95 to 92 is just a rumor at this point, if implemented it won't happen over night but then again many cars today are capable of running on as low a grade as RON91, so what are we worried about?