Hi friends,

If your beloved Mitsi's are running less than satisfactory fuel consumption, it could be due to the level of sulfur in th european petrol. Check this:

http://www.autozine.org/technical_school/engine/petrol1.htm

Actually, google the "gdi engine" for a search & u will find many related articles.

cheers

Interesting acticles about the GDI technology and the different from previous engines. I now understand why they make claims in being more fuel efficient and have more power. Like many of us Mitsi owners this has not really come true with our pocket books.

NZ fuel is probably much like the Euro standard, or worse. I have been experimenting with my 3.5l GDI Pajero to boost up the MPG as switching from a diesel was difficult with our limited household budget. I have started with the basics by making sure the engine is running best with new platimum plugs, semi-synthetic oil and a K&N air filter. It has also been important to run 96+oct fuel which was not widly known or practiced outside Japan. I am still monitoring the results and will post some figures as I get them.

I understand that a fuel additive can be used to help with combustion while keeping the injectors clean due to the high sulfur content. I havn't tried this yet but will do. I really don't want to try to many things at once or else I won't be sure what helps and what doesn't.

Cheers,

Jim
NZ

Hi Jim
I've done a bit of research on the sulphur in the NZ fuel. If you really want to be as pedantic as I've been look here it's the 2002-2003 petrol report, noting the sulphur levels. http://www.ess.govt.nz/rules/pdf/PetroFuel...22003Report.pdf

Then this one is a discussion paper on sulphur levels after 2006
http://www.med.govt.nz/ers/oil_pet/sulphur...cussion-03.html

BP does a low sulphur fuel, 98 octane, but whether it's really lower or not I'm not too sure, the refinery in NZ under went a big revamp a while back and most of the fuel is pretty good now anyway.

Thanks for the info, it was very informative. Like you I have been following the fuel changes in NZ because the facts are not very clear to the average consumer and I belive we are having seeing some problems with our vehicles that are not apparent unless you look closley at the fuel. I ditched my Landcruiser because of the introduced low sulfur fuel and now owning a GDI motor I was concerned about the common complaint of low fuel economy. I have been running premium fuel which from reading your links is better because of the higher octane and the lower sulfur. From Jan 2006 regular petrol is supposto be down to the premium levels of 150ppm sulfur. It will be intersting to see if it runs OK in the GDI.

Another pet project of mine is to distill some alcohol for running the vechile. Ethanol (alcohol + petrol) from my research would run very well in the GDI and very cheap to produce. I plan to start with a low % of alcohol of about 15% and work my way up from there. The alcohol is free from sulfur and has octane ratings of over 115 (although oct ratings are really only for petroloum levels). By mixing the two and altering the % I hope to blend a mix of about 104 octane of a cost less than 50 cents/litre. Apart from better running and economy it will reduce my dependance on buying fuel.

All our energy is going up (electrucity & fuels) and I cannot see it ever reducing to 90's prices. I'm surprised that NZ hasn't followed the lead of the States or Australia and started making Ethanol for the market. It would solve alot of our problems.

Jim