Mastery Cyclic Pickups?

[Embenny]

Well, them being Novaks at least makes the price make more sense. You're paying for a set of Novak something-or-others with a Mastery cover and makeup.

[Fiddy]

Most pickups from the better manufacturers will sound good. If you've chosen carefully based on the little graph (or on whether you feel like the "59" versus "62" spec will suit you better), you'll probably be satisfied! But you'd also have probably been satisfied if they sent you the other one by mistake and never told you, because most nice pickups will sound good.

Im willing to bet he could probably even send a GFS pickup made to look like one of his, and there would still be a lot of satisfied people.

I worked in the sales dept at a place that used to make tortillas, nacho chips, potato chips etc..

We had two brands of potato chips, and i always found funny, the one lead hand used to come up to ask the scheduler, if the potato chip run was to be bagged as the Premium or as the No Name.

[Norrin Radd]

Most pickups from the better manufacturers will sound good. If you've chosen carefully based on the little graph (or on whether you feel like the "59" versus "62" spec will suit you better), you'll probably be satisfied! But you'd also have probably been satisfied if they sent you the other one by mistake and never told you, because most nice pickups will sound good.

Im willing to bet he could probably even send a GFS pickup made to look like one of his, and there would still be a lot of satisfied people.

I worked in the sales dept at a place that used to make tortillas, nacho chips, potato chips etc..

We had two brands of potato chips, and i always found funny, the one lead hand used to come up to ask the scheduler, if the potato chip run was to be bagged as the Premium or as the No Name.

LOL! Now, lets have a discussion about premium gasoline...

[Larry Mal]

LOL! Now, lets have a discussion about premium gasoline...

Well, there is a point to higher octane gasoline, even if it's often mis-advertised as "Premium". The octane percentage refers to how much the gasoline can be compressed before it is ignited by the spark plug, that is, gasoline that is 93% octane can be compressed more than 87% octane gasoline (the other stuff in the gasoline can be the much less stable heptane, as I recall).

The point is that higher compression leads to more explosion and thus more drive force being delivered to the engine and the drive train. It can make your car go faster, if, if! Your car can compress that much.

Most vehicles can't, so if your car is a daily driver type car that only compresses to the level of where you would want gasoline to be compressed at 87% octane, then you aren't doing anything other than wasting money by adding higher octane gasoline. Your engine isn't compressing the fuel enough to deliver any of the potential benefits.

So whatever fuel the automaker says is appropriate for your vehicle is what you should use- they set the compression ratio, they know what is happening there. Using a higher octane gasoline, no matter if they call it "Premium" or advertise some other bullshit like "cleaning power" is just a waste of money.

Why do I mention this? So that someone can tell the Mastery people that customers can actually learn about a product, and that it's OK that they do so. It doesn't have to all be sold as unobtanium snake oil.

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-eff ... tion90.htm

[hulakatt]

LOL! Now, lets have a discussion about premium gasoline...

Well, there is a point to higher octane gasoline, even if it's often mis-advertised as "Premium". The octane percentage refers to how much the gasoline can be compressed before it is ignited by the spark plug, that is, gasoline that is 93% octane can be compressed more than 87% octane gasoline (the other stuff in the gasoline can be the much less stable heptane, as I recall).

The point is that higher compression leads to more explosion and thus more drive force being delivered to the engine and the drive train. It can make your car go faster, if, if! Your car can compress that much.

Most vehicles can't, so if your car is a daily driver type car that only compresses to the level of where you would want gasoline to be compressed at 87% octane, then you aren't doing anything other than wasting money by adding higher octane gasoline. Your engine isn't compressing the fuel enough to deliver any of the potential benefits.

So whatever fuel the automaker says is appropriate for your vehicle is what you should use- they set the compression ratio, they know what is happening there. Using a higher octane gasoline, no matter if they call it "Premium" or advertise some other bullshit like "cleaning power" is just a waste of money.

Why do I mention this? So that someone can tell the Mastery people that customers can actually learn about a product, and that it's OK that they do so. It doesn't have to all be sold as unobtanium snake oil.

https://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-eff ... tion90.htm

Thank you. Finally someone else that actually understands how combustion engines and their fuels work!

I've been running high compression engines for a few years now and the number of people who go out of their way to tell me that "Premium fuel is just a scam for suckers, lolz..." is stupidly high. I'm not after "premium", I'm after that sweet, sweet 93 octane rating.

[Larry Mal]

Thank you. Finally someone else that actually understands how combustion engines and their fuels work!

I've been running high compression engines for a few years now and the number of people who go out of their way to tell me that "Premium fuel is just a scam for suckers, lolz..." is stupidly high. I'm not after "premium", I'm after that sweet, sweet 93 octane rating.

No, high octane fuel exists for a reason. Most people don't know the reason.

That being said, though, my hope is that you and I and our deeper knowledge of the four stroke internal combustion engine becomes as irrelevant as the people that used to know how to make lamps burn with whale oil are now.

[JSett]

Wait, your 'premium' is 93? Our regular is 95 and premium 97+!

[øøøøøøø]

People who think 93 octane is a "waste of money" should probably never visit a race track, where octane ratings are usually in the 110-120 range.

Of course those engines often run 14:1 or 15:1 compression ratios (or higher). F1 engines can run a max of 17:1 compression ratio, if my memory is right, which is just insane.

But as mentioned above, yes--whatever the manufacturer of the engine recommends is what you should use unless you've noticed a problem with knock, and in this case you've probably got carbon buildup or other bigger issues that are better-addressed another way.

In some very high-altitude regions, you can even find 85 octane fuel, and it's usually totally fine to run at high altitude in most passenger car combustion engines.

FWIW this has to be the most epic case of thread drift ever.

[hulakatt]

Thank you. Finally someone else that actually understands how combustion engines and their fuels work!

I've been running high compression engines for a few years now and the number of people who go out of their way to tell me that "Premium fuel is just a scam for suckers, lolz..." is stupidly high. I'm not after "premium", I'm after that sweet, sweet 93 octane rating.

No, high octane fuel exists for a reason. Most people don't know the reason.

That being said, though, my hope is that you and I and our deeper knowledge of the four stroke internal combustion engine becomes as irrelevant as the people that used to know how to make lamps burn with whale oil are now.

Honestly, I had really high hopes for the hydrogen powered cars like the Honda FCX Clarity but batteries seem to be winning the fight to replace the ICE. I'm not a big fan of batteries and all the damage they do long term but hydrogen cars biggest byproduct is water. I don't know offhand if it's potable or not but even still, a car that uses the most abundant element in the known universe to power itself and its waste is just water? C'mon! Fueling stations would only need a water source and a power source (like solar) and you have a supply of nearly endless fuel.

[ThePearDream]

I live in one of those high altitude regions (I'm around 6250ft myself). Our regular is 85, mid grade is 87. My car takes premium, which is 91.
The lower air density at high altitude results in richer fuel mixtures.

And that's all I have to say about Mastery's Cyclic Pickups.

[Larry Mal]

I think 91 was the percentage I was thinking of, not 93.

I don't buy high octane gas or bullshit pickups that don't even tell you what they are.

[Larry Mal]

But as mentioned above, yes--whatever the manufacturer of the engine recommends is what you should use unless you've noticed a problem with knock, and in this case you've probably got carbon buildup or other bigger issues that are better-addressed another way.

FWIW this has to be the most epic case of thread drift ever.

Well, I'm often responsible for thread drift, and in this case I can't see how I would stay on target with these pickups that don't have any information about them to actually discuss.

If your engine is knocking, then something is wrong with it, typically a cylinder might be overcompresssing or something. You would probably want to address that rather than use higher octane fuel, but it all depends on the situation, I guess.

To further skew this thread, compression leading to explosion is how diesel engines work, which is why they don't have spark plugs.

[Larry Mal]

People who think 93 octane is a "waste of money" should probably never visit a race track, where octane ratings are usually in the 110-120 range.

I'll also say I have never heard of octane being 110-120%, and I'm a little confused as to how the octane percentage can be higher than the amount of fluid volume, but I am not disagreeing. I'll look into it.

[øøøøøøø]

Honestly, I had really high hopes for the hydrogen powered cars like the Honda FCX Clarity but batteries seem to be winning the fight to replace the ICE. I'm not a big fan of batteries and all the damage they do long term but hydrogen cars biggest byproduct is water. I don't know offhand if it's potable or not but even still, a car that uses the most abundant element in the known universe to power itself and its waste is just water? C'mon! Fueling stations would only need a water source and a power source (like solar) and you have a supply of nearly endless fuel.

The biggest issue with hydrogen fuel cells, as I understand it, is that creating the hydrogen fuel is itself rather energy-intensive.

The most energy-efficient means of propelling passenger cars right now seems to be batteries, though (as you rightly mention) there are environmental, geopolitical and ethical concerns with the harvesting of the raw materials for currently-available battery tech.

The better news is that lots of attention is being paid to the next phase of battery development, transitioning us away from Li-ion. Graphene is a promising technology, though one of those that always seems to be "four years away."

Toyota is reportedly investing heavily in solid-state battery tech, which has been proven at small scale and would be an absolute game changer if it can be scaled up to storage capacities that would be practical in vehicles (and ultimately grid scale).

I think when (not if) battery technology progresses beyond the current Li-ion, we'll be grateful to have the battery EV infrastructure in place (as opposed to having to overcome the inertia needed to transition from a hypothetical wide adoption of hydrogen).

[øøøøøøø]

People who think 93 octane is a "waste of money" should probably never visit a race track, where octane ratings are usually in the 110-120 range.

I'll also say I have never heard of octane being 110-120%, and I'm a little confused as to how the octane percentage can be higher than the amount of fluid volume, but I am not disagreeing. I'll look into it.

I don't believe the rating is a percentage of the hydrocarbon octane, which is confusing. It's just a measure of resistance to detonation at high compression. Here is some 120+ octane fuel for use in drag racing engines that use nitrous oxide as a power adder.

Also, since we're talking about compression, combustion and dieseling now... one of the most fascinating things in automotive engineering to me is the top fuel drag racing hemi and its application.

It's expected to fail mid-run and transition from a conventional ICE to a diesel over the course of a 3-4 second run. The spark plugs (two per cylinder) are almost like arc welders they're so powerful, and they are totally consumed mid-run, but exhaust valve temperatures are so high that the engine continues dieseling. The only way to shut it off is to turn off the fuel flow.