End of 93 Octane???

[brianl703]

My mom used to put 89 in her car. She started using 87 instead when I told her that's all it needs.

I think a lot of people have the impression that using higher octane than called for in the owner's manual is good for their car.

 

[Volvohead]

It can be worse than a waste of money. Some vehicles will actually malfunction on higher than specified octane fuels.

FoMoCo had some TSBs out about this a number of years ago. Going over 87 would cause drivability problems on some of their vehicles. But all of them were more mundane family models of relatively average performance.

A high compression, turbo or supercharged engine typically will do better on a higher octane fuel, and not just in horsepower. Many of these higher performance engines requiring 91 or 93 will run on 87, but with severely retarded timing and significantly lower MPG. Later model BMWs are notorious for this behavior.

 

[UncleS2]

I'll hate to see that- my 97 DOHC Neon just *loves* Chevron 93!

 

[blupupher]

Man, I don't remember the last time I saw 93, only 87, 89, and 91 around here.

 

[OriginHacker21]

Same here... Never seen anything other than 87, 89, and 91 here in California. Where I lived in Iowa we only had 87 and 89 (ethanol).

 

[Volvohead]

Until a couple of weeks ago, we had Sunoco 94, but that's now down to 93. All the rest of the "Supers" here are still 93, including my favorite, Amoco Ultimate 93.

 

[sprintman]

Why would the U.S be going down in octane when we are going up? Shell introduced 100 RON (Optimax Extreme) a few mths back with others to follow I here. Many cars sold here mandate 98 RON. I don't get this one

 

[wantin150]

quote:

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Originally posted by GeaugaFletcher:
Time to break out the old saw:

"Using a higher octane rating than the automaker specifies for your car is a complete waste of money."

This has been said many times and is in fact true!

quote:

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You really think I want to put 91 octane when I can run 93?

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Just because your car redlines at 8250 doesn't necessarily mean that it requires high octane. What does the owner's manual say? Why do you (in particular) buy the octane rating that you do?

My mother-in-law put only 91 in her 2002 Explorer saying, "Only the best for my truck". I couldn't bring myself to tell her that it was unnecessary and a waste of money. To put it simply, it designed such that detonation/pre-ignition are not a problem with 87 octane.

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Premium fuel only and 93 is what's available. 91 octane reduces my MPG. You show me other cars which can run that high an RPM which require regular (87) fuel and I'll back off.

 

[doctorr]

SprintGuy-
Our "93" is your "98 RON".

Your stations advertise the Research octane rating, US/Canada use the average of the RON and the "Motor" octane tests.

The difference is usually about 5 "octane numbers".
.
.
.
doc

 

[Kestas]

Michigan has 87/89/93 octane.

 

[OriginHacker21]

quote:

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Originally posted by wantin150:
Premium fuel only and 93 is what's available. 91 octane reduces my MPG. You show me other cars which can run that high an RPM which require regular (87) fuel and I'll back off.

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You can run cars requiring 91 octane on 87 as long as you are really easy on the gas and don't rev the RPMs really high. You will notice a serious decrease in power and MPG.

My car is not specific on the octane and even says my engine will ping lightly with 87. When using 91 Octane I feel more power and get around 2MPG better. But if I do a highway trip averaging 70mph @ 2,600 RPM I see no difference between 91 and 87 octane. The difference between 91/87 I see is when I am racing in high RPM band and going up big hills with a high engine load vs easy driving and flat highway trips.

 

[BUBBA0420]

I wouldn't put 87 in my weed whacker. Even in
my wifes 2003 Corolla which specifies 87 will
get better mileage and run smoother on 89

 

[G-MAN]

Chrysler actually specs 89 octane for the 3.5 in my 300M. I think it's the only owners manual I've ever seen where this "mid grade" octane is recommended (although it does say 87 is acceptable).

 

[williar]

This 91-octane mandate seems bogus to me. Can anyone verify such a nonsensical law?

 

[Alcibiades]

Both my Cr-v and my Corolla get better mpg and run smoother with 93. That boost in itself is not enough to justify the cost, but I also figure that if they run smoother, the engine is less stressed, and more likely to last longer. (Not that longevity should be a problem with those motors anyway, but still....)

So my question is what products are out there that will boost octane safely if used regularly.

Advanced Auto has a shelf full of various products that claim to do that, but I've always been wary of such things that are clearly advertized for 20 year old boys to think that it will be cool to have "superfuel" to go rent video games.

 

[GoldenRod]

My buddy that lives over in Missouri, says they have 93 over there.

 

[Racerjk]

I sure hope that doesn't happen!!!! Dang!

 

[Auto-Union]

You can use lower octane if you don't fully "charge" the combustion chamber....compression ratio is relative to the amount of air+fuel introduced. That's why detonation is only at full charge, not constantly.
Right now, Sunoco eliminated 94 and has 93/91/89/87 because they have 4 not 3 pumps. They should make one of them E85. I run 87.

 

[Patman]

quote:

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Originally posted by JonS:

quote:

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Originally posted by Patman:
If it's true then I'm glad I had my Corvette dyno tuned on 91 octane! (even though we've got 94 octane here, I run 91 since I prefer to use a non ethanol enhanced fuel)

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We can't use the non-ethanol stuff in our cars in MN. Only for boats, bikes and off road use. Can you?

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Yes, the only ethanol enhanced fuel sold up here is at Sunoco and at Husky. The rest are all non ethanol enhanced. But the non ethanol fuels are no higher than 91, while Husky sells 92 and Sunoco sells 94.

 

[shanneba]

blupupher,

You should be able to find 93 octane in Katy,
any Chevron or Shell will have 93