87 and low octane gas

[churchx]

Hmm, i wonder if there won't be any issues with different legal requirements (eg. lights. Might differ EU vs US, and obviously different in RHD countries. IIRC there were some mods needed for eg. UK drivers driving over to rest of EU). Also route planning might need extra care. Ground clearance of twins won't allow to go everywhere, as offroading is not much an option. Going over badly maintained roads in Russia countryside might be a challenge . And i don't want to think of how much shipping car over sea costs

[jonboy99]

Originally Posted by alf

Also, I decided to reveal a bit more about the mysterious trip.


The idea is to take BRZ around the world. The route is, LA, hopefully Japan, South Korea, China, Mongolia, Russia, Poland, Germany and Alps, France/Spain/UK and again ship it to USA and drive back home.

Seems like China, Mongolia and Russia might be your only problem areas, unlikely to be a problem with getting high grade fuel elsewhere. Obviously you'll need to avoid the Muslim terrorist no-go areas in the UK that Mr President has thankfully warned us about.

Have you watched 'The long way round'? Not sure if the roads they chose through Russia and Mongolia were deliberately challenging, but no way on earth would I want to take a BRZ over some of those.

[alf]

Originally Posted by churchx

Hmm, i wonder if there won't be any issues with different legal requirements (eg. lights. Might differ EU vs US, and obviously different in RHD countries. IIRC there were some mods needed for eg. UK drivers driving over to rest of EU). Also route planning might need extra care. Ground clearance of twins won't allow to go everywhere, as offroading is not much an option. Going over badly maintained roads in Russia countryside might be a challenge . And i don't want to think of how much shipping car over sea costs

It is not an easy project but quite doable, and there are individuals who did before. My friend visited Mongolia a few times. I know people from USA who drove around the world: https://theworldbyroad.com/expeditio...r-and-the-gobi

Paperwork for getting a transit permit is not that difficult. In China they actually issue temporary plates. The most time consuming is shipping but quite reasonable cost wise (unless you send it by air).

[alf]

Originally Posted by jonboy99

Seems like China, Mongolia and Russia might be your only problem areas, unlikely to be a problem with getting high grade fuel elsewhere. Obviously you'll need to avoid the Muslim terrorist no-go areas in the UK that Mr President has thankfully warned us about.

Have you watched 'The long way round'? Not sure if the roads they chose through Russia and Mongolia were deliberately challenging, but no way on earth would I want to take a BRZ over some of those.

The geo political situation might indeed get worse. I do not plan to drive via middle east, although I was told it is safer than what you can see at TV.


I have not watched 'The long way round' yet, but studied some other resources, and the initial feasibility assessment is quite positive. The tentative timeframe is last spring 2019 and I want to make the final decision before end of this year. It is still an early research, and the topic of fuel came up.

[churchx]

alf: from what i've seen so far, things for around the world trips are much simpler for bikers and or offroad cars. I don't think their experience might be very applicable to far from "go anywhere" tarmac sport coupes. Going in "normal cars" .. you don't have large crew in landrovers and Oliver opel for looser, like TopGear had in those "specials" where they drove in non-offroaders at undeveloped wilderness and bad roads, to get you through pinch, if whatever happens/you get stuck, don't you?

[alf]

Originally Posted by churchx

alf: from what i've seen so far, things for around the world trips are much simpler for bikers and or offroad cars. I don't think their experience might be very applicable to far from "go anywhere" tarmac sport coupes. Going in "normal cars" .. you don't have large crew in landrovers and Oliver opel for looser, like TopGear had in those "specials" where they drove in non-offroaders at undeveloped wilderness and bad roads, to get you through pinch, if whatever happens/you get stuck, don't you?

I already took my BRZ to High Sierra off road sections and went thru quite difficult terrain including hanging on 3 wheels. LSD does the trick. I would not dare go there in regular FWD or RWD car. Also for the off-roadish section in Asia, I do plan to raise the car 1" or so and drop it once I am in Europe. I know one owner who did it and it looks quite cool.


In fact this is the point of the trip, take a smallish sport coupe around the world. I do accept an ultimate risk of loosing car (and I will strip it from all my performance/timeattack mods for the trip) and potential evacuation. But again, the world is more friendly than we think, especially when you travel alone.



Andy

[Tor]

Originally Posted by alf

But again, the world is more friendly than we think, especially when you travel alone.

Sounds like a fanstastic trip!

The media likes to blow everything out of proportions to sell advertisement. It's probably be more dangerous to drive through Queens than the Middleast.

Lift kit and off road tires and I wouldn't worry too much about driving pretty much anywhere.

Please do make a thread or a blog about the trip somewhere. Better yet set up a youtube account and post regular videos.

[Kodename47]

@alf keep us in the loop. I'm not too far from the ports/train where you'd probably arrive in the UK. I would possibly be able to arrange something of a meet to celebrate getting this far and have a contact at Toyota UK that could be interested.....

[bcj]

Pub2Pub roadtrip

[alf]

Originally Posted by bcj

Pub2Pub roadtrip

Veeery sweet. Thx for the link. I plan to keep it low key though.



Do I see Vette and 944 here : https://pub2pubexpedition.com/other-trips ?

[alf]

Originally Posted by Kodename47

@alf keep us in the loop. I'm not too far from the ports/train where you'd probably arrive in the UK. I would possibly be able to arrange something of a meet to celebrate getting this far and have a contact at Toyota UK that could be interested.....

. I will definitely start a dedicated thread here with

[alf]

Originally Posted by Tor

Sounds like a fanstastic trip!

Lift kit and off road tires and I wouldn't worry too much about driving pretty much anywhere.

Please do make a thread or a blog about the trip somewhere. Better yet set up a youtube account and post regular videos.

Will do, although I plan to keep it low key. The goal is to just to drive around the world with a car with flat engine LOL



There are two things I worry about:
- I will get a spun bearing (yes, I do drive and race the car in very hot climate with no oil cooler)
- lack of 91+ fuel

[alf]

An update on testing low octane fuel

Before I share my initial 87 results, I need to mention that I realized having occasional knock with 91 itself. When I bought the car, I had a bad habit of accelerating on 6th gear from very low 2000-3000 RPM range on highway. A distinct "knocking" noise was coming from the engine, very brief though. Now I know it was a real knock, as I was able to correlate it with OFT realtime data. The condition is very easy to reproduce. BTW, I abandoned that habit early on.


Now real 87
Filled up a gas can 2 gallons of low quality 87, I took my BRZ to the highway to almost run out of gas, which is about 30miles after computer shows "--" or 56 miles after low gas warning kicks. I perfectly caught the moment when the car gave a first warning, like a slight engine interruption, pulled over and added precisely 2 gallons of 87. Hooked up OFT and started recording and monitoring real time data.


First observations is that there is no knock if engine works at steady RPM between 3000-4000. Works very smooth. However, the knock occurs, not always, occasionally when pushing an accelerator abruptly. The knock somewhat more pronounced, but not nearly as bad as pushing engine from 2500RPM with a decisive WOT input on 91 octane.

I also took a car to lower speed, more dynamic street driving - 30-50MPH with a few harder accelerations but delivered in a very smooth manner and never exceeded 5500RPM. There were not a single sign of knocking in the logs.


So the initial conclusion is, the knock is there, but by driving carefully and knowing how to prevent it, maybe I can get by.


The next test will be diving into why it knock even on 91. I need a better monitoring took though. OFT is very limiting. Thinking about building my own PICAN2 based devise.

[FRSBRZGT86FAN]

Originally Posted by alf

An update on testing low octane fuel

Before I share my initial 87 results, I need to mention that I realized having occasional knock with 91 itself. When I bought the car, I had a bad habit of accelerating on 6th gear from very low 2000-3000 RPM range on highway. A distinct "knocking" noise was coming from the engine, very brief though. Now I know it was a real knock, as I was able to correlate it with OFT realtime data. The condition is very easy to reproduce. BTW, I abandoned that habit early on.


Now real 87
Filled up a gas can 2 gallons of low quality 87, I took my BRZ to the highway to almost run out of gas, which is about 30miles after computer shows "--" or 56 miles after low gas warning kicks. I perfectly caught the moment when the car gave a first warning, like a slight engine interruption, pulled over and added precisely 2 gallons of 87. Hooked up OFT and started recording and monitoring real time data.


First observations is that there is no knock if engine works at steady RPM between 3000-4000. Works very smooth. However, the knock occurs, not always, occasionally when pushing an accelerator abruptly. The knock somewhat more pronounced, but not nearly as bad as pushing engine from 2500RPM with a decisive WOT input on 91 octane.

I also took a car to lower speed, more dynamic street driving - 30-50MPH with a few harder accelerations but delivered in a very smooth manner and never exceeded 5500RPM. There were not a single sign of knocking in the logs.


So the initial conclusion is, the knock is there, but by driving carefully and knowing how to prevent it, maybe I can get by.


The next test will be diving into why it knock even on 91. I need a better monitoring took though. OFT is very limiting. Thinking about building my own PICAN2 based devise.

Can you post your datalogs on datazap?