Ok... I'm with you so far. I'm not entirely sure why there's an emphasis on INCOMPLETE burning after the explosive part... the unburned mix goes BOOM and you've got knock.higgy wrote: Now as to whether high octane fuel burns slower than low octane fuels I offer up the following.
Knocking is caused by the rapid explosive and INCOMPLETE burning of vaporized fuel ahead of the normal flame front. High octane fuels have chemicals added to them to make the fuel vaporizing occur at a more uniform rate attempting to resist this explosion.
Now you're losing me. Replace combustion with autoignition and it would make more sense to me. Say it raises the time before autoignition occurs at this temp and pressure and I'd be right there with you.higgy wrote: In effect they raise the pressure at which this knocking occurs by raising the pressure at which combustion occurs.
And you've lost me. This is the root of the whole disagreement. You're tieing flame speed to resisting explosion. I'm not. It doesn't control knock by burning slower. It controls knock by not exploding as quickly. Which gives the mixture more time to burn rather than explode.higgy wrote: High octane fuels at ground level in low compression engines in effect will burn slower and incompletely simple because the pressure is not there in a low compression engine.
Which reminds me of something else. So far it seems this entire discussion has been tied to compression and pressure. Temperature matters too.