Octane Rating
Thread Starter
Pro
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 551
Likes: 4
From: San Antonio Texas
Octane Rating
I've always been a fan of 93octane, but I decided to put some 89 the other day. I have no idea whats going on but my 87 is running strong and has a nice deep mellow sound now. I almost forgot.. I'm getting better fuel mileage too. Whats going on?
Thanks,
Raul
Thanks,
Raul
Race Director
Joined: May 2001
Posts: 14,165
Likes: 9
Re: Octane Rating (rmedina)
Octane is basically a measure of how hard it is to detonate (and how violently) a fuel and hence resist pre-ignition that can be caused by advanced timing, high compression, high temperature, or any of the above.
Pound for pound there is more energy to be had out of lower octane fuel, it ignites more easily and burns more violently. So as such you want to run the lowest octane that you can without any pre-ignition issues. The lowest octane that you can run with your given compression and full timing advance will give you the best performance.
You might see if you can get a scan tool on the car and just make sure that you aren't getting knock counts or timing retard just to be safe. If you are not getting any of these, congrats.
BTW, I bet the car starts faster too doesn't it?
:cheers:
Pound for pound there is more energy to be had out of lower octane fuel, it ignites more easily and burns more violently. So as such you want to run the lowest octane that you can without any pre-ignition issues. The lowest octane that you can run with your given compression and full timing advance will give you the best performance.
You might see if you can get a scan tool on the car and just make sure that you aren't getting knock counts or timing retard just to be safe. If you are not getting any of these, congrats.
BTW, I bet the car starts faster too doesn't it?
:cheers:
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2002
Posts: 893
Likes: 0
From: Liberal Kansas
Re: Octane Rating (Nathan Plemons)
:iagree: Here is a link to an article that gives you lots of info about fuel and octane http://www.idavette.net/hib/fuel/index.htm
