Premium gas is worth it!!!

Most of the gas stations in my area only have 91 octane. I wish we had 93 octane.

 

I've owned a plane since 1980. We used to have fuel at 80 octane and well over 100... which was frequently stolen by stock car racers, for track racing. 80 octane was eliminated in the late 80's and since then, the only octane has been 100. If you want something more than 91 octane, use aircraft fuel... 100 octane. It costs much more than car gas, about a dollar more per gallon.

 

This has been discussed. buying premium gas does nothing but dirtys your engine(if its designed for 87) and robs your wallet. LOL.

 

But, if they want it, it can be found.

 

sorry, but higher octane gas should'nt burn more efficiently ?

 

i mean... gas is gas.. we aren't driving high class motors exactly. i don't see the point in using high price gas for an economical vehicle.

 

https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/gene...gular-gas.html

No not if the car is not designed for that octane level. If that were the case, than all cars would probably "suggest 91"

 

this has been discussed a thousand times. premium gas is more resistant to detonation i.e. takes more energy to ignite. the benefits come from adjusted timing and higher compression allowed by this. premium gas IS NOT magically better.

the manual says no less than 87 because you run the risk of detonation, the gas igniting itself prematurely in the stroke cycle due to heat and pressure. thats how people break engines.

using higher octane does nothing but burn a little dirtier in an engine designed for lower because not all of the moles may get a chance to burn, leaving carbon grime. nothing drastic im sure, but dirtier.

 

heres some reading i found on google published by the federal trade commission.

i didnt find anything about what i was saying about premium burning dirtier in regular engines, soo ill consider myself mistaken in that assumption.

i just wanted to find some facts after just talking about it.

The Low-Down on High Octane Gasoline

gasoline is a consumer product, and naming them "Regular & Premium" does have its advantages in marketing. i mean seriously, everyone selling gasoline is trying to make money, and making products more appealing just buy calling them premium makes alot of sense.

 

In a word, NO. Octane rating defines resistance to detonation. Because of computerized engine management, a modern engine that requires premium gas can run, albeit with less power, on regular, by reducing spark advance. The converse is not logically true for an engine designed to run on regular. But it's your money.

 

Do you guys read the posts in a thread before you contribute?

Here's the thread with my data: https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/1st-...n-advance.html

Generally speaking a lot of you are correct, a car designed for 87 octane isn't going to see any benefit from Premium. But this specific case is different.

 

I know this is for 1st gen Fit but I've been using 93 on my GE8 since a month ago. First i didn't feel much of gain (or any) in mpg or power but after putting intake and exhaust, it changed dramaticly. I was getting about 30 to 32 before and now I'm getting about 36 even though temp goes up to mid 90's these days (the guage says 39 avg but i don't believe that...). Anyhow, so seeing from what I have premium gas helps getting at least 10% in mpg in my opinion.

 

or maybe youre running lean, using less gas and causing temps to increase. boltons can throw off your A/FR

 

The L15A is a very sophisticated engine that has been chosen for a new racing class to replace the Formula Ford series..... It is a very durable easy to maintain and sophisticated multi valve 10.4:1 compression ratio high revving engine with the ability to alter cam timing and lift and adjust ignition timing and A/F ratios to increase efficiency when using higher octane fuel..... You can use the lowest recommended fuel fuel without harming the engine but no where in any of the literature is it said not to use higher octane fuel. If you have intake and exhaust modifications and use the majority of your power band in all of your gears at wide throttle openings on a regular basis in other than an urban setting it won't take long for you to realize the difference..... The addition of wheels and tires lighter than 27 lbs per axle along with exhaust and intake performance along with higher octane fuel makes the Fit perform much better for those that are capable of driving in a manner to exploit the differences...... Those that can't are better off just leaving their cars mechanically unchanged and not use fuel other than the lowest recommended 87 octane grade......

 

I used 93 octane for about 6 months with my fit and then switched to 87 octane to see if their was any difference on fuel efficiency. With a full tank I averaged 550km on a city/highway mix, regardless of the fuel used.

It wasn't a scientific study, that's for sure... but as far as I am concerned, the 6 months intervals were long enough to get "accurate" data.

 

I can't say with certainty that I am completely up to date on the thread, so -- fair enough. I went back and re-read it. I see there is still nothing in thread indicating better gas mileage with premium, except from Texas Coyote. His engine is boosted.
If you have numbers showing better MPGs using premium, I'd love to see them.

 

Daemione went out of his way to record ignition timing, temperatures and other information that showed there was differences between the way the ECU adjusted to different octane fuel but he didn't realize any appreciable changes in fuel mileage or power..... I drove my car for almost 3 years using 93 octane fuel before doing the boost thing and at first it was possible to consistently get better fuel mileage using premium because it wasn't always adulterated at that time with ethanol as is the situation nowadays.... I was able to consistently get over 37.5 mpg driving considerably faster than what a person interested in fuel mileage figures would drive and have seen over 39 mpg with over 1/2 of the miles on the tank driven at over 85 and 90 MPH..... People on other forums have had 2.5 MPG increases in fuel mileage but due to the difference in price not been able to justify the additional cost..... With a free flowing intake, cat back exhaust, bypassing the throttle body hot water line and driving with carefree abandon in a spirited manner I was able to easily justify to expense but not every one is in a situation that allows them to do that..... If you aren't using the upper RPM of the power band and feather footing the throttle the majority of the time you are behind the wheel there really isn't any reason to use other than 87 octane...... I have found that adding an octane booster to the fuel will show an even larger increase in ignition timing on a scan gauge, for what it's worth.

 

That's good info, Coyote...

I've been using mid-grade just seeing what was up. Have noticed a slight gain in mpgs but the engine for sure is running quieter and smoother.

I may get a PRM intake in the future--so we'll see

 

My response wasn't aimed at you - although looking back at it, it kinda looks that way. I quoted your response as being one of the ones people should have noticed . . .

But you're right, I don't know of any hard evidence demonstrating better mpg w/ premium. In my car, I haven't noticed a change either up or down since switching to premium, but my driving conditions are far too varied to try and use as an example.

Logically, I like to think that allowing the computer to fully advance ignition timing with premium fuel equates to a little more bang. Since the spark event is occurring sooner, a higher percentage of the fuel is igniting. And following that logic further, with more torque available in daily driving and cruise control situations, we would get better fuel efficiency since the engine is under slightly less load. But there are a good number of assumptions there . . . It's also possible that the advanced timing is only there to offset the slower burning characteristics of the high octane fuel, so we're only breaking even.

The next step is to find a good dynapack dyno and do some back to back runs on different grades of fuel. Then see what's what with the resulting torque curves.

 

Most top tier Premium gas has no ethanol or very little. Besides the knock sensors Honda developed a way to cool the pistons with oil to lower the chances of detonation. That is from there web site. Premium gas can work better in an Honda, but not required esp when new, That doesnt mean that it wont be need later. Cheap gas will cause problems as little as 1 tank. There is different ratings of same gasoline type. Premium gas is aviation base fuel and for smaller engines (lawnmower,chainsaws, etc) Premium gas has a shelf life of a year or more compared to 16 weeks for regular. I am still using premium gas out of sons race car 2 years old in my lawnmower.