Just a note for rethand. The octane rating of a fuel, in this case gasoline has nothing to do with calorific values, or as you put it the heating value. The octane rating of a fuel is also known as it's anti-knock value. It is a messure of the fuels resistance to detonation under high pressure. This is why you need high octain fuels in high performance engines. The pressures (and therefore temps) in the cylinders are so high that regular low octain fuel would detonate before the spark, causing knocking, loss of power and possible engine damage.<br><br>The octane rating of a fuel is derived from a test engine running on a mix of isoheptane and isooctain. Isoheptane will detonate as soon as you look at it! Isooctain is added untill the engine runs without detonation. A gasoline with the same anti knock qualities is given the octain rating with is the ratio of isoheptane and isooctain of the comparison test fuel.<br><br>For your information... <p>Nigel Waterhouse<br><a href=mailto:n_a_waterhouse@hotmail.com>n_a_waterhouse@hotmail.com</a><br><a href= > </a><br>A licensed aircraft mechanic and graduate engineer. Attended university in England and graduated in 1996. Currenty,living in British Columbia,Canada, working as a design engineer responsible for aircraft mods and STC's.