During my discussion with one of TPC's turbo kit developers for my Cayman, he said "Your 95 octane rating in KSA is equal to our 91 octane in the USA."

My questions are:
1) How true is that?
2) If so, what's the use of calling it 95 if it is in reality 91?

I feel very much disturbed by this if it turned to be a fact..!!! I mean if KSA is the main producer for petrol in the world, how come it has a low quality fuel like that?

 

Its not low quality, each country has different ways of measuring Octane.

check which yours uses. Google>?

 

our petrol is good grade leaving the refinery, but our problems are mainly in the Gas stations that have very poor tanks and so on. a fried of mien recently took it upon him self to check the knock level from 8 deferent fuel stations around Bahrain and the results were horrifying to say the least.

I suggest you PM member Cup Cake of Bahrain, he has a better understanding of the subject, and he sent a few samples to a lab in the states to know exactly what is going on.

 

It's two different measurement systems. Like measuring distances in meters or yards. 91 AKI is the same thing as 95 RON.

By the way the Cayman wants 93 AKI / 98 RON not 91. It will run in 95/91 but timing will be retarded and you'll get less power. I put a little 100 in there when I go to the track to get the blend up to 93-94 or so. You get the most power from the lowest octane that won't retard timing or cause detonation.

 

In other words, KSA uses 95 RON = 91 PON

1) What are the options to improve it?
2) Where do you buy it from?
3) How expensive?
4) How reliable is this additive?

 

California uses 91 as well :/

It's not an additive. Here we can get unleaded 100 octane from the pump from a small number of "76" stations. It costs between 650 and 10$ a gallon (vs $3-3.50 for 91) and is totally safe--it's street legal fuel. Race gas is usually sold at racetracks too. Just make sure you're putting in unleaded, the leaded race gas will clog up your O2 sensors. I don't know where you could get it but some local race forums might help you out...

 

you guys have access to E85 over there? it's 112-115 octane and usually around $0.30 cheaper a gallon than regular 87 octane here. i paid $2.12 /gallon to fill up a couple days ago

 

My firm has an account with a gas station near Dammam and the operators admit they mix 91 with 95, even mix in a bit of diesel! Easy money and who can tell?

I can't see why they would be alone in doing this especially as I've had dodgey fuel from many different gas stations. The worst was on the Riyadh highway where they had mixed just a bit too much diesel in and left me stranded.

The short answer is you never can tell what octane the fuel is in Saudi.

 

Obviously there is no easy solution... And sadly it seems our cars are having no better contaminated fuel than the food we have!

 

We have 98 here, its called ultra super which is 98 ron.