oxygenated fuels pack a substrate containing oxygen into the fuel. This is not a performance enhancing measure but rather it is done to reduce the amount of carbon monoxide put out by an engine. I think there must be some performance benefit since nitrous oxide, methanol injection, and other chemical power adders (ahem.....hydrozine....ahem) all work of the principle of jamming more oxygen into the combustion chamber - but the real use is so that there are free oxygen molecules to bond with the carbon monoxide molecules post combustion.
On a standard engine the air fuel mixture creates a thin layer on the crown of the piston called the barrier layer which keeps the heat of combustion from destroying the piston. With detonation an uneven flame front is created with lateral explosion forces as well as vertical, and the barrier layer is consumed as part of the initial combustion process(instead of forming a carbon deposit on the crown from incomplete combsution - BTW this is also how a lean condition casuses a hole in the piston). Nowadays there are pistons which have a thermal barrier coating which make racing engines more resistant to detonation effects. This is formula 1 style technology although some trickle down is starting to happen (mahle and a few other piston suppliers have begun to make coated pistons).
Finally 94 octane or higher no lead gasoline isn't going to do much harm to a perfectly tuned stock engine, but it wont do much good for it either (there are some bikes that lose power running on higher octane). If the engine is out of tune, espically with regard to ignition timing that is a different story. That being said I wonder if there isn't some small benefit in running 94 in a roadrace engine which tends to see more high rpm low speed abuse than a street bike. Sure the back straight cools the engine down but I wonder what kind of heat builds in a roadrace engine through chicanes and other twsty sections of the track. For now I am going to chalk it up to all in your head but it would be worth investigating on a dyno.
On a standard engine the air fuel mixture creates a thin layer on the crown of the piston called the barrier layer which keeps the heat of combustion from destroying the piston. With detonation an uneven flame front is created with lateral explosion forces as well as vertical, and the barrier layer is consumed as part of the initial combustion process(instead of forming a carbon deposit on the crown from incomplete combsution - BTW this is also how a lean condition casuses a hole in the piston). Nowadays there are pistons which have a thermal barrier coating which make racing engines more resistant to detonation effects. This is formula 1 style technology although some trickle down is starting to happen (mahle and a few other piston suppliers have begun to make coated pistons).
Finally 94 octane or higher no lead gasoline isn't going to do much harm to a perfectly tuned stock engine, but it wont do much good for it either (there are some bikes that lose power running on higher octane). If the engine is out of tune, espically with regard to ignition timing that is a different story. That being said I wonder if there isn't some small benefit in running 94 in a roadrace engine which tends to see more high rpm low speed abuse than a street bike. Sure the back straight cools the engine down but I wonder what kind of heat builds in a roadrace engine through chicanes and other twsty sections of the track. For now I am going to chalk it up to all in your head but it would be worth investigating on a dyno.
