Recommended Fuel Myths (All Engines)

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by armysig

Oyi....You might want to do some research on why Arizona has 91 octane fuel. I know the answer, but I want you to look it up. You'll get more out learning about it and why we have it here vs the east coast, south and some northern states.

Old CA would have us driving electric motorbikes if they had their way....

[c_LoW29]

Originally Posted by BATMANs

I run 91 octance california gas from COSTCO in both my blown cars (see below). No issues or blown engines.

ofcourse not they are already blown.....

[bhall82]

Originally Posted by Supercharged SS

Who buys an SS and then wants less performance out of it? If I wanted less than what I bought I would have bought the V6.

LMAO You have a point there!!

[E.T.]

Originally Posted by SlingShot

... Also it has been proven by the V6 guys, there is a slight performance gain using premium fuel although it may not be cost effective.

Yep, this has been well documented by Scrming. The LLT will keep advancing timing until it detects knock. It's been shown that when running with 87 octane, quite a bit of timing is pulled. Others have said their car runs smoother with higher octane. Personally, I've been using Shell Vpower and I don't have any complaints—car seems nice & happy.

Manual says "87 or higher". I opted for higher. It really amounts to only 3 or 4 bucks extra per fillup. We're already getting raped at the pumps, so an extra couple of bucks doesn't really worry me in the grand scheme of things

[sasquash1984]

I love seeing people fill their vettes with 87

[HumanWiki]

Most everywhere I've been, there's usually only a ~.10 diff in 91 and 93. I always use 93, even before I got the blower and supporting mods.

I'm not going to cheap out on the fuel for car. 0.10/g for even a full tank is nothing compared to the amount of $$ in my car.

Plus, knock on a blower engine isn't something I want to play around with by using lower.

[Cbrenthus]

Around here there is a 30 cent difference between 87 and 93. I've never seen 30 cents between 91 and 93, but maybe its that way in Arizona.

While yes, the SS will run on 87, it will reduce performance significantly. Also note that when reducing performance, usually mpg suffers too. So, you can actually spend more money on 87 than on 93.

Putting anything other than the recommended fuel in the car is just stupid and a waste. Let's say you burn 20 gallons a week, at a 30 cent difference. That's $6 a week for the proper fuel. that's an extra $312 dollars a year. You figure most people have payments, and when you plug that into the overall yearly expense, these cars probably cost everyone at least $4K-$5K a year, whats an extra $312?

The bottom line is, premium is recommended, so that is what I run. And, that is what everyone should run, and if you are that worried about a few extra dollars a fill up, then you bought the wrong car.

[TOMS1SS]

Originally Posted by Cbrenthus

Around here there is a 30 cent difference between 87 and 93. I've never seen 30 cents between 91 and 93, but maybe its that way in Arizona.

The 93 pumps are a rarity out here in Arizona. Every one I've encountered had at minimum a $.25 markup over 91.

[UT-Engineer]

Originally Posted by sasquash1984

I love seeing people fill their vettes with 87

[BenningJ]

Originally Posted by CamaroKid300

89 is cheaper than 87?

Wut?

Yeah 89 is cheaper than 87 here, and 91/93 is usually only 20 cents more than the 89. Right now, 89 is $3.42, 87 is $3.49, and 91/93 is $3.73.

If I am not mistaken we get a break on using Ethanol blended fuels because it requires corn and that is the main crop that we farm here in Iowa.

EDIT: Fixed fuel prices. Double-checked and I was a little off.

[14pilot]

Just love all the opinions vs. facts on fuel octane.

I most enjoy when someone posts that they can feel the seat of the pants difference between 91 and 93 octance fuel. Very amusing stuff right there...

To the uninformed that believe all the octane hype, more octane does not equal more power. It depends on a number of factors as to whether or not more octane helps or not. For instance, my ZX-14 Ninja made its highest dyno numbers on 87 octane fuel. Its an N/A motor. If you are boosted, or have raised stock compression, more octane really helps you run more ignition timing for more power.

Higher octane means that more knock retardant chemicals have been added to the fuel. These chemicals reduce knock and they can reduce power since for each gallon of gas, the retardants replace a certain volume of the gas. This lowers the amount of BTUs (heat energy) that can now come from the gas. You can make up for this and get ahead of this if you are tuned to take advantage of higher octane. If you are not tuned, then you lose power and decrease fuel mileage.

In Arizona, we only get 91 octane since all our fuel is surplus from the nearby California fuel market and they only get 91 due to their smog laws.

So are the ignition tables in a stock, non-tuned Camaro going to be able to use the 2 extra octane in 93 vs. 91, to run more timing and result in more power?

Can a dyno measure a difference between 91 and 93 on a stock engine and tune?

Stock engine/Stock tune mentioned here, so all you blown/turbo'd/Nitrous guys with tunes don't have to jump in here to explain how higher octane is a must for your applications.

[KILLER74Z28]

Originally Posted by HumanWiki

Most everywhere I've been, there's usually only a ~.10 diff in 91 and 93. I always use 93, even before I got the blower and supporting mods.

I'm not going to cheap out on the fuel for car. 0.10/g for even a full tank is nothing compared to the amount of $$ in my car.

Plus, knock on a blower engine isn't something I want to play around with by using lower.

Originally Posted by Cbrenthus

Around here there is a 30 cent difference between 87 and 93. I've never seen 30 cents between 91 and 93, but maybe its that way in Arizona.

While yes, the SS will run on 87, it will reduce performance significantly. Also note that when reducing performance, usually mpg suffers too. So, you can actually spend more money on 87 than on 93.

Putting anything other than the recommended fuel in the car is just stupid and a waste. Let's say you burn 20 gallons a week, at a 30 cent difference. That's $6 a week for the proper fuel. that's an extra $312 dollars a year. You figure most people have payments, and when you plug that into the overall yearly expense, these cars probably cost everyone at least $4K-$5K a year, whats an extra $312?

The bottom line is, premium is recommended, so that is what I run. And, that is what everyone should run, and if you are that worried about a few extra dollars a fill up, then you bought the wrong car.

X2

.30 between mid grade and premium……..ummm are you sure?

In my performance cars and trucks I’ll run 93 because it proven to run better and give you more HP/MPG. But in my daily driver I have no problem running 87…

[CamaroKid300]

I know for a fact, because I just filled up yesterday, that 87 here was $3.59, 91 was $3.79, and 93 was $3.99

Seems they went from the .10 between grades to .20 between them here. Those prices were from a shell station.

[SSBUSDRVR]

" For best performance, use premium unleaded gasoline with a posted octane rating of 93." Guess it's a good thing we only have 93.