Octane question

[Fred]

My car is a 2000 V6 Firebird and I know ours are suppose to run on 87 octane. Where I live they have 86 at most stations instead of 87, but I was wondering if it would hurt the motor using 86 octane?

[Tech]

Re: Octane question

Just cause carbon to build up faster I doubt you will have any problems with timing

[UDLOSE98]

Re: Octane question

yea, that difference is so small, I wouldnt worry about it.

[Ace]

Re: Octane question

You know... Our cars have 2 knock censors. The cheaper and poorer quality the gas the more your engine pre detonates(knocks). When your 2 knock censors detects knock it will retard your timming resulting in power loss. So better gas means less knock and the less the timing is retarded and the more power your engine produces. If our engine didnt have knock censors it wouldnt matter but they do so it does.

[UDLOSE98]

Re: Octane question

You know... Our cars have 2 knock censors. The cheaper and poorer quality the gas the more your engine pre detonates(knocks). When your 2 knock censors detects knock it will retard your timming resulting in power loss. So better gas means less knock and the less the timing is retarded and the more power your engine produces. If our engine didnt have knock censors it wouldnt matter but they do so it does.

when you are talking about 1 pt difference...i dont know

it yowuld be interesting to scan that car for knock.

[Ace]

Re: Octane question

when you are talking about 1 pt difference...i dont know

it yowuld be interesting to scan that car for knock.

Im not talking just about the 1 octane differance. Im talking in general the higher the octane the less the knock and ill leave it to him on how high octane he chooses to go. I always use 92+ but i can afford it.

[matt3989]

Re: Octane question

the octane just effects the stability of the gas at higher temps (or higher compression), and I have heard of people advancing their timing by like 2 degrees while still running 87 oct. so if your still at the stock timing/compression you will probably be fine

or you might cuase your entire car to errupt into a firey ball

[Fred]

Re: Octane question

Yeah the engine is still stock except for a cold air induction, lid, 160 thermostat, headers, and a flowmaster. It's just my DD but I was just wondering if it would affect performance since its made to run on 87. Anyone know why there is anything lower than 87?

[FireBird_Fr3ak]

Re: Octane question

I use 92 but thats because i have ngk plugs for my nitrous set up, and i have a 18k mile engine. But ive heard its good to run a higher octane once in a while just to clean out carbon build up, is this true?

Yeah the engine is still stock except for a cold air induction, lid, 160 thermostat, headers, and a flowmaster. It's just my DD but I was just wondering if it would affect performance since its made to run on 87. Anyone know why there is anything lower than 87?

So the oil company can milk every cent out of us :) Thats the same as asking why the add the .9 after the gas price in small letters so you think its cheaper than it actually is.

[UDLOSE98]

Re: Octane question

I use 92 but thats because i have ngk plugs for my nitrous set up, and i have a 18k mile engine. But ive heard its good to run a higher octane once in a while just to clean out carbon build up, is this true?


So the oil company can milk every cent out of us :) Thats the same as asking why the add the .9 after the gas price in small letters so you think its cheaper than it actually is.

I wouldnt switch back and forth like that, it really ****s with your fuel trims.

[FireBird_Fr3ak]

Re: Octane question

I dont switch, i run 92 all the time, havnt since i did the swap, but someone told me its good to put octance booster in once in a while.

[BLLDOGG]

Re: Octane question

octane booster adds decimal points in your octane level. doesn't do jack.

[Moses]

Re: Octane question

I run BP's Ultimate 93 Octane. Any other 92-93 octane I've run in my car, has caused it to ping on start up if it sat awhile, and when it was still on 87 it'd ping until it warmed up. Since I've put the 93 Octane in, no problems with power loss or anything. Just a very small miss.

[auto666]

Re: Octane question

octane booster adds decimal points in your octane level. doesn't do jack.

decimal points? DECIMAL POINTS! OH MY GOD its not a sound system higher octane fuel(which is what happens when you add a booster) slows down the burn allowing the combustion to push through the entire travel of the piston creating more smoother power and increasing the fuel's ability to not detonate(caused by high compression ratio's) the only real draw back to octane booster is you can melt you'r cat because the fuel is still burning in the exhaust because it doesnt have the time to in the engine(your engine cant utilize it) or you can chemicaly melt you injectors if the octane is to high for them

[landj]

Re: Octane question

decimal points? DECIMAL POINTS! OH MY GOD its not a sound system higher octane fuel(which is what happens when you add a booster) slows down the burn allowing the combustion to push through the entire travel of the piston creating more smoother power and increasing the fuel's ability to not detonate(caused by high compression ratio's) the only real draw back to octane booster is you can melt you'r cat because the fuel is still burning in the exhaust because it doesnt have the time to in the engine(your engine cant utilize it) or you can chemicaly melt you injectors if the octane is to high for them

Are you confusing running rich with predetonation / postdetonation? I've never heard of what you just said about burning a cat from running a higher octane fuel. Where did you get that?