87 or 89 Octane

[Jaymatic]

I am currently running 87 Octane in my 3.8L. I didn't think anything of running 89 because the owners manual says to use 87, but on a website I was looking at a couple of months ago it said that using 89 Octane in the 3.8L Camaros/Firebirds can prove to produce better gas milleage. Is this really so? I don't feel like killing my wallet with 89 Octane if it isn't going to prove to be better with gas mileage or performance.

[FloydSummerOf68]

By killing your wallet are you referring to the extra 1.50 that you'd be spending to fill up?
If anything, 89 octane would not hurt performance or gas milage. Try it and see if you notice a difference in gas mileage. Drive a full tank of 87 and see what you get and drive a full tank of 89. Also try to keep your driving habits the same with both...dont do all freeway with one and city with the other. See what happens.

[Jaymatic]

with the 87, I drove "normally," no fast take-offs, no burnouts, and got almost 300 miles on a tank. I haven't filled with 89 yet though. I want to wait till it warms up so I won't be driving in cold weather, that way it is more accurate and closer to the same conditions on which I got almost 300 miles on the 87.

My town is a major business town in the area and close to the city, so the 87 is $1.60 per gallon and the 89 is $1.95 per gallon. (not really sure how much the gas is around you, but from what my friends at school are saying that is kind of high compared to what they pay back home) So it would cost me $5.25 more to fill my tank with 89, which doesn't sound bad but can add up when driving around alot.

[Jaymatic]

It is more of a curiosity factor than anything else, but if it is true then I would use the 89 from now on instead of the 87.

I forgot to mention that in the message I just posted right above this one. Could I have just edited the above message to add this in there instead of posting it as a new message? (I am a new member to this board)

[FloydSummerOf68]

Yes you could have just edited.
And yeah...thats wicked high dude.
87-1.58
89-1.68
93-1.78
Thats how much it is around here.
Heh sorry to rag on ya earlier...I wouldnt want to pay 5 bucks more a tank either [img]tongue.gif[/img]
I always use 93 because of the Hypertech Programming....but before that I used 89. It just made me feel better about myself :D


Edit-
PS: And we're glad to have you with us (heh..and word to the wise...if you even remotely think something has been talked about...use the search feature or peopel will jump on you like hungry dogs because they've answered the same questions so many times)

[Camaro_SLP]

Originally posted by Jaymatic:
87 is $1.60 per gallon and the 89 is $1.95 per gallon.

35 cent jump from 87 to 89? Are you sure that's not the price for 93 octane?

[FloydSummerOf68]

Yeah thats one thing I forgot to ask.
What in gods name is 93 up where you are???

[jdubs]

87 has cost as much as 2.10/gallon here in cali. i think i'm gonna switch from 87 to water.

[Phillip McCaffrey]

[img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

aitn nothin like salt water to clean out ur engine... [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[Jaymatic]

Yea I'm sure its the 89 price. It's like that around the city, especially when at a gas station that is right off the highway.

And thanks for the welcome. I'm glad to be part of the board.

[fre]

87 is 1.79 here, 93 is 1.99

but before the gas prices shot up, i went from running 87 everyday to one day filling up with 93 for the hell of it. i not only noticed performance increases around 4grand, i also saw better gas mileage. in order to have cigarette money i've been filling up with 89

[john00v6a4]

87 is 1.53 and 89 is 1.62 here in louisiana where i fill up. your getting raped on gas prices there

[Dekay]

Heh it's like $1.90 + for 93 octane and like $1.80 + for 89 octane around Boston.

I wish I had a hybrid or something that gets 100m miles/gallon or something insane like that. I'd save an enormous amount of money.

[lifeguardinme19]

I use 89 octane in all my vehicles, it makes a big difference. There is so much more low end torque that going up hills the car doesn't feel the need to shift out of overdrive like it did did when I used 87 octane. Up here in Maine it's only a 10 cent difference between 87 and 89 octane at the most. I get enough more mpg that it is actually cheaper for me to use the 89 octane

[Thontor]

since 89 is better than 87 according to most, isnt 93 even that much better than 89 then? or is the difference between 89 and 93 not enough to be worth the cost?

btw for my area, no matter what the cost, 89 is 10 cents more than 87, 93 is 10 cents more than that