87,89 or 93 octane? (6.0 engine)
 

The owners manual states that the Corvettes engine may use 87 octane fuel. However the vehicles accceleration may be slightly reduced and may have a slight spark knock. Does any one here use 87 octane fuel on a regular basis?

Paul

Very few - but there are a few that say they do. I wouldn't - even if the car were stock. It is designed for premium fuel. The money you save is not going to be much anyway.

To save $0.20 to $0.30 a gallon? On a $50,000 car, I don't think so.

First off, I cannot find 93 octane here very often. 91 is more the norm and sometimes I can find 92.

Second, I really cannot tell the difference when I do have to refill a time or two with 87 octane.

Third, it clearly is a car that can be driven with 87 octane on a daily basis.

I tend to leapfrog it...fill it with premium when I can and will refill with 87 when at 1/2 a tank.

I do ALL the time , don't start on me so quickly, because I get free gas from my work, so it costs me $0.00 per gallon which is a ton over 10 years !. Yes, I lose maybe 10 - 15 HP.

My wife and I use 87 octane regularly in both our vettes with no problems. The car's have more horsepower than either of us will ever use so I don't feel less horses is an issue. And I know my wife doesn't in hers. We use only Chevron for the additives buts that's it. Never heard a knock yet.

I have never run any octane lower then 93. Spent way to much on the car to be cheap on gas.

If you car is basically stock, even with headers, CAI and tune, you are doing your car no favor nor your pocket book, your only fooling yourself. More than half the places in the world there isn't even anything available more than 91. :cheers:

:bigears

I used it pretty consistently in my C5 for quite awhile without a problem whatsoever. However, with the C6 I finally decided that the additional cost would be worth the slight increase in horsepower and mileage and decided to use 91 since then.

Run 87 if you want. Cost savings are maybe $120 per yr if your running over 12,000 miles per year--HUGE savings- hahaha. You will lose a few (10-15) hp as the engine changes timing a bit...you will never notice the difference unless your on the throttle heavy all the time.

If you want max hp then run 91. Running above 91 octane does NOTHING in terms of performance as that (91) is what the car is tuned for.

Higher octane does NOT deliver more HP-it just allows for a more aggressive tune (or higher engine compression if your rebuilding)...and if you car has not been tuned for it ...your wasting money and not gaining a thing. Higher octane fuels are NOT more powerful and do NOT deliver more power if the engine is NOT tuned and designed for them.

With full respect to other members...those who run fully stock Vettes (non-Z06) and tell you they never run anything under 93/94 and get snoby about it simply DO NOT have a clue as to how an engine works nor how octane plays a part and I highly suggest you ignore their input on this specific topic (note that in some areas 91 is unavailable and 93 is standard--why I stress the snobby part of their opinion vs just what they run-in that case 93 would be appropriate but does NOT add HP/TQ beyond what 91 would deliver).

Constantly switching back and forth serves no purpose except to potentially constantly change your engines timing..why you would want to do that is beyond me-again, lack of engine knowledge by those doing so. So pick one-detune it and run 87 or run to factory specs and run 91 (or 93 if 91 is unavailable).

The highest Octane we have here in the State of Chaos is 91 octane. Where do they have 93 octane?:bigears

Mainly east coast. Why- it doesn't matter unless you have a C6 Z06 which is tuned from the factory for 93.

93 here because it's available and when we move back to CA, I'll run 91.

93 here. I don't even give it a second thought. :smash:

Thanks for the input.

Paul

Back before the supercharger when I had the basic mods you mentioned the tuner told me to run 93.

Up until a few years ago the Sunoco stations here sold ultra 94.

John is correct, if you do the math the savings is so small as to be silly. Use 93 or 91 if the higher octane isn't available in your state.

Only 87 for me. It's been 26,000 miles and runs like new. I don't race it and I see no reason to us anything else. It's interesting that when this subject comes up I only hear about higher octane ratings but never why it's used except the hp gain. If we don't care about the few extra hp why use 92?:cheers:

I use 93 octane BUT when I got the museum delivery on my 2010 coupe the people at the Corvette Museum made it a point to tell me that the Corvette was designed to be able to use 87 octane with no adverse effects. They said that the car's computer would automatically adjust the mixture and timing for whatever octane you happen to be using at the time.

So, long story short, use whatever octane you feel comfortable using, it will not hurt your car. :thumbs:
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