Regular gas works OK, use it if you want. Some people are spreading way too much fear about this. As I've said before, for everyday driving 87 octane is fine. If I'm going to the track I'll have a full tank of 93.

 

if you run 87 the computer will not readjust to 91/93 till you FILL the tank with 91/93 but unless the tank was empty you will have a mixture of less than 91/93 and the computer will retird the timing.

 

I've always bought the cheapest grade of gas for every vehicle I own, my V-Rod included!

Here is the only differences in the grades:

1. Name
2. Price
3. Position on the pump

IMHO anyway...

 

In addition, we should all have two vettes; one to look at, polish,admire, but not drive. Use the other one for driving and having fun. Never wash or polish this one. Use only the cheapest oil, gas, etc. This way you will never feel guilty. You would also be helping the economy with two instead of one.

 

....and ignorance. But that's the nature of this forum at times..

 

10.7 to 1 compression ratio, cast pistons, and 87 octane. Me not think such a good idea. Especially after seeing cracked ring lands on cars where the programming was tinkered with putting the engine into spark knock. The LS7s that were cracking pistons when tinkering with the programming with a less than expert programmer... just more evidence detonation can be a death blow to a motor.

Sure the computer will compensate and it will still run decent. It will also run decent if you leave the oil in there for 15,000 miles or run the tires at 20 psi or drive it in the salt ...

Premium in a high compression engine has several advantages. Reduced detonation, cooler running, more power, better mpgs, less emissions, easier on the cats... I never knew the cooler running thing until I saw a recall for supercharged 3.8 motors. Supercharging is effectively higher compression. The recall was for an oil leak - valve covers- and it mentioned until the recall is performed the vehicle should be operated on premium only gas. The reason given was the regular gas mapping program in those vehicles retards timing, makes the combustion event later in the cycle, less complete combustion and increased exhaust temps with part of the combustion going out the exhaust valve - red hot manifolds + oil leak = bad things. Temp fix - premium gas.

So there's another little obscure reason to use premium, avoid a burn down if your valve covers are leaking.

Injector cleanliness has nothing to do with octane. It has everything to do with detergents added specific to the brand. Gas in the pipeline may be a commodity, but the detergents the individual brands add make a big difference. I run into Caddy owner's all the time that get a little frugal in their golden years and like to run Kroger 87 in their nice northstar engine. Works for about 6 months and then the injectors are gummed to heck and engine needs a serious top engine cleaning to get the pistons to stop hitting the heads. But, my manual says it will run on 87, they all say...

 

Good lord. That will be great for the economy & food prices.

 

Why spend 40K + for a sports car and then try so save a few cents on gas?

 

Alright folks- let's look at this a little differently-

With gas prices going up, many people who traditionally filled up with 91+ for whatever reason are going to be switching to 87. This means the 91 at the station is probably going to be older on average than it used to be.
Old, untreated gasoline could be a much bigger problem than anything.

I don't have a strong feeling on octane either way, by the way. If the machine was designed to run either, then run either. Just make sure you buy your gas from a place that sells a lot of gas. Neither the brand nor the sticker on the gas pump doesn't tell you everything you need to know about how "good" the gas is.

 

If you actually believe this, I have a nice bridge and some swamp land you might be interested in. Seriously, do you think the 93 octane pump actually has 87 octane in it?

 

If any station was caught putting 87 octane in the 93 octane pumps, they'd be fined very heavily. And they do randomly check the octane of gas stations just to be sure people aren't being ripped off.

 

It's kind of like spending $4,000 on a hand made Brioni suit, but then wanting to wash it at home to save all that money on dry cleaning bills. Put in the 93!!!

 

I use Mobil, Shell or Hess fuels... premium gasoline only, I think its worth the extra cost for fuel on a 60k car!

 

Open minded attitudes and educated discussion are Hallmarks of the Corvette Forum....

 

In So Cal we only go up to 91 now. So I have to put that in.

 

The real deal, you may choose to belive it or not, the lower octane will cause pre-ignition when you load the engine,also called knocking, the knock sensor on your block will detect this, and sends a signal to the ECM, then the timing is retarded to prevent engine damage,result= you loose power and performance, no injector gumming or anything else, the ECM will return the timing to normal once you go back to 91 oct or better, but it wont do it right away, it takes about two days worth of driving. The absolutly worst thing you can do, is the theory of on tank premium, on tank reg, it just drives the ECM crazy. The newer your car regardless of brand, the more sensitive the ECM in this matter, remember its trying to get the absolut best emisions and fuel economy while giving you the best performance.........Now you can go and use what ever fuel you like,is your car, but is senseless to buy a performance car that cost $50k to be a sheap skate on gas. Want to save money change your diet, don't make your car suffer.

 

No, what I said was, the only real difference is price...

Price vs. Mileage/Performance.. It's all relative. At the end of the day, any mileage/performance savings are negated by paying 10cent more per gallon for what is essentially the same thing.

To me, gas is gas. Cheaper the better! Never had any issues performance wise in anything I drive. I cannot justify paying more for a different grade of gas when (dollar for dollar) I've never seen any noticeable evidence that doing so has any advantage other than thinning the wallet a little quicker.
YMMV..

 

i noticed in your profile you do not have anything that needs to operate on premium fuel,maybe the HD V-Rod which i am not familiar with. when you have the latest corvette which has 10.9:1 CR you are better off with premium fuel

 

Not true. It appears you don't know what octane is.

 

Try more like 30 cents more than 87.