Regular vs. Premium

[MattODoom]

is it possible to run 110 in my car?

Probably wont run good. Your car doesnt have the compression and spark necessary to combust 110.

[thursday12889]

oh alright then

[Derek]

i should try mid grade, i cant imagine it would matter on my little sixer tho lol

[thursday12889]

yeah i was at shell today and i decided to use v-power which is 93 octane, i don't know if it was mental but it felt like i had more throttle response and not the lag i used to have

[SS4Matt]

you will notice a few more miles per tank with shell power compared to most others. even when i drive like a jackass (leadfoot) i get about 20 miles more a tank...sometimes more!

[wasjo6431]

if its fuel injected or TPI iw ouldnt suggest it.
most injectors and heads on those cars arent seated for runing leaded fuel.
i run 110 mixxed with 93/94 all the time. i run 1 gallon 110 to every 3 gallons 93. roughly for city driving/highway at the track its mostly 110 im running. 1 gallon to every 1 gallon when i go to the track.

my car is made to run leaded fuel though and run regular unleaded.

my heads are made to run leaded.

[02hawk796]

Probably wont run good. Your car doesnt have the compression and spark necessary to combust 110.

If you have a half tank of 93 and add a half tank of unleaded 110, you'll have about 101 octane, and you can see how well it runs. You should have much better response with the higher octane. I just read somewhere that somebody said higher octane absolutely does not produce higher hp - WTF?
Anyway, if you start off with 3/4 tank of 93 and add 1/4 tank 110, you'll have about 97 octane rating, so you'll get an idea if your engine can "combust" that. You might well be running that 110 straight soon, and I'll tell you that is a blast. The way gas prices are now, 110 is your best buy in terms of economy (except for that heavy foot "problem").

[wezeles]

well depending on how high you go you will acctually loose fuel economy every engine has its sweet spot for what it runs... usually is going to boil down to the temp that day and your compression ratio... most v-6 engines run atleast 9.1 or higher so midgrade and premium will make them run a tad better... older small blocks can run as low as 8.1 and premium isnt going to do much for you, and the newer small blocks all run pretty high compression so higher grade gas is needed... although i cant think of many cars made in the past 10 years that even say to run regular in the owners manual... hell even my 96 geo metro recomended atleast midgrade for best results... that was a 45mpg car... but like the old track car we ran was about 12.1 compression it ran fine on premium... little sluggish but that was just around town... we go to the track and get some blue 110 115 octane and you could watch the gas gauge drop went from ahh 15-12mpg to 10-7mpg with higher octane but it ran great on it...

[81DaytonaPaceCar]

is it possible to run 110 in my car?

Absolutely. From a previous post:

However, there are some consequences here. The computer will retard timing to reduce pinging/knocking, but will do so at the reduction of horsepower.

Higher octane fuels do primariy two things:

1. Reduce the tolerance for knocking and pinging. Hiigher octane fuels will allow you to comfortably run a higher compression ratio due to the burn rate being more controlled (it's the pre-detonation or lack of a full burn that hurts you...higher octane reduces this tolerance).

2. Allow better fuel stability in high temperature operations. If you have an issue with vapor lock or fuel beginning to vaporize before reaching your intake/carb, try running a higher octane fuel.

Long story short, higher octane fuel does not create horsepower. But it does better preserve horsepower at higher temperature operations (i.e. hot engines bleed less HP with premium fuel).

You CAN run any octane fuel in just about any engine. But it will feel sluggish when you do it.

In the winter, for a LT1 or LS1, I'd guess you can probably run mid level without losing much. On a 95 degree summer day, run premium. If you're super or turbo charged (i.e. even more engine heat), run premium all the time, regardless of displacement or compression.

This is just a guess, but if it was me (and, yeah, I'm anal retentive), anything over 10:1 I'd run 93. Anything over 11.5:1, I would run 101+ to keep all that wonderful horsepower you spent all that money on.

I like throwing in a few gallons of 101 or 110 during really hot summer days. Makes a world of difference.

110 Turbo Blue is simply amazing stuff.

$4.79 a gallon, and worth every penny for motors that see higher compressions.

[phoenix_rising]

Okay its back to midgrade for me! Regular Gas Sucks!

[Orange Terror]

Absolutely. From a previous post:

However, there are some consequences here. The computer will retard timing to reduce pinging/knocking, but will do so at the reduction of horsepower.

Higher octane fuels do primariy two things:

1. Reduce the tolerance for knocking and pinging. Hiigher octane fuels will allow you to comfortably run a higher compression ratio due to the burn rate being more controlled (it's the pre-detonation or lack of a full burn that hurts you...higher octane reduces this tolerance).

2. Allow better fuel stability in high temperature operations. If you have an issue with vapor lock or fuel beginning to vaporize before reaching your intake/carb, try running a higher octane fuel.

Long story short, higher octane fuel does not create horsepower. But it does better preserve horsepower at higher temperature operations (i.e. hot engines bleed less HP with premium fuel).

You CAN run any octane fuel in just about any engine. But it will feel sluggish when you do it.

In the winter, for a LT1 or LS1, I'd guess you can probably run mid level without losing much. On a 95 degree summer day, run premium. If you're super or turbo charged (i.e. even more engine heat), run premium all the time, regardless of displacement or compression.

This is just a guess, but if it was me (and, yeah, I'm anal retentive), anything over 10:1 I'd run 93. Anything over 11.5:1, I would run 101+ to keep all that wonderful horsepower you spent all that money on.

I like throwing in a few gallons of 101 or 110 during really hot summer days. Makes a world of difference.

110 Turbo Blue is simply amazing stuff.

$4.79 a gallon, and worth every penny for motors that see higher compressions.

I feel the need to add/interject, maybe object a little.

Higher Octane burns slower.

The reason higher octane helps higher compression is because the heat in the engine causes the fuel air mixture to detonate on the compression stroke before the spark plug actually fires. This is not good because it puts force against the piston-rod-crank that is going up. By running higher octane it takes longer to ignite. By the time pre-ignition/detonation would happen, its to late, the spark plug has already fired. This is just giving a little why to your results.

I don't believe that running 101 or 110 octane will cause the computer to retard the timing, it shouldn't have to. If anything it should be able to advance the curve more. However I have not tried 101 or 110 in my car so I'm not sure, that would just be what would make sense to me.

[01WU8]

I really did not see much of a difference when I ran Torco at the track. Does it take a bit to be recognized? I genereally run 92/93 octane....

[WMCC Gary]

You should be buying that like it's going out of style.

I DID! Me and a buddy bought about 80 gallons. Was $2.58 gallon is now $4.99 a gallon. Somebody screwed up on friday when they changed the price. The manager fixed it on monday. I am really suprised there was any left.

[Orange Terror]

I DID! Me and a buddy bought about 80 gallons. Was $2.58 gallon is now $4.99 a gallon. Somebody screwed up on friday when they changed the price. The manager fixed it on monday. I am really suprised there was any left.

You get it at 84th street & 131?

[WMCC Gary]

I got it at the Meijer at 131 & Broadway in Three Rivers.