High Octane Gas Availability in Stan Countries

[sinclairsin]

Hello all,

I have been planning a road trip across Europe and Central Asia for this year, and would be entering Kazakhstan late June, driving along the standard route through Uzbekistan to the Pamir Highway. The main concern is that my car requires 95 RON, or 91 Octane for USA readers. I've been using iOverlander and this forum to gauge the availability of this octane level, but it seems pretty sparse.

Does anyone have any insight into the availability of 95 gas along this route? The most concerning geographic areas are west of Bukhara and after Khorog on the Pamir Highway. I could likely survive a couple tanks of 91/92 octane (87 AKI), but I do not want to permanently damage my engine.

Thanks in advance

[dangerpuffin]

Your research seems about right, based on what I saw in 2018.

In Uzbekistan we only really saw 92, and only in big towns, that was a route via Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand.

For Tajikistan, other than in Dushanbe I don't think I saw 95, and certainly by Murghab fuel was just sold from big tanks of unknown octane. That said, due to altitude it's unlikely you'll experience much issue with pre-ignition due to low octane fuel.

Although, are you sure your car is so sensitive to fuel quality? You might need to rethink your choice of car. The Pamir highway is pretty rough going in places. I'm not saying you need a 4x4 or anything extreme, but it was the main place we had problems (constantly blocked air filters and then snapped a driveshaft). Something reliable and simple would be my pick.

Good luck with your trip!

[sinclairsin]

Hi Danger,

I hope it's changed a bit in Uzbekistan, I thought I had seen some spots in the east part of the country with 95. I had no idea about how altitude changes issues with pre-ignition. 2018 was quite a while ago though, so it's possible they have increased the availability of higher octane in certain areas.

It's kind of a final adventure with the car I love, definitely not simple but it has been reliable. I'm open to problems, those are what define adventures Just don't want to ruin the engine completely haha. I'll check into air filters for the trip.

P.S. I love puffins, saw many in my time in the Faroe Islands!

If anyone has more recent trip reports on octane availability since 2018, feel free to chime in.

[adi]

Kyrgystan has 92 and 95 available.
Jan 2024 prices

[sinclairsin]

Thanks Adi for the info on Kyrgystan. I see many options on iOverlander for 92 and 95 gas in the country. Looks like my main places of concern will be that portion of the Pamir, especially since Murghab might not even have 95.

[dangerpuffin]

This recent article gives some idea of recent production volumes of 95 octane fuel in Uzbekistan:
https://daryo.uz/en/2024/01/04/uzbekist ... 0-gasoline

So looks like 95 will still be rare, probably worth buying several jerry cans of high octane fuel in Kazakhstan, but you'll need to lookup how much fuel you can legally export/import - not that I ever remember our cans being checked other than when crossing from Russia back to the EU.

[sinclairsin]

Danger,

That is a very low amount of 95, thanks for sharing that article. I have a couple gas stations saved after Aktau that should have 95 gas, I guess I will have to do as you suggest. Honestly I might not find any 95 gas until I get to Bukhara from the western border, which is 1,000 km. Will be very interesting to say the least.

After I finish the trip I'll probably publish my google list of gas stations with 95 available, because even though you can find them through iOverlander, it's harder to sort through all the spots with just diesel and 87/92.

[Hugues]

A search on Google and check on ChatGPT shows we can buy octane boosters that we can add to petrol to increase octane level and reduce knocking. No experience with it myself but just checking if you have considered these for the places where 95 is unavailable.

[sinclairsin]

Hugues,

Octane boosters don't tend to boost the levels significantly to get the level up to 95, but they are a temporary fix. A "bandaid" that I will have on hand, but I don't want to end up relying on