Postie

Active Member
Feb 28, 2009
131
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Cold lake, Alberta
VetteCoins
500
Just curious guys, having always putting in the high test I found that different stations offer different quality and prices. Here in Alberta, I find Husky offers 94 at about a buck 8 or less, others offer different. Manny what would you consider the lowest to go for max performance.
Obviously everyone has different setups, Stock, Cam, Intakes, heads. So really what does everyone use?
 
well... the guys at pro-stock performance actually dynoed a bunch of engines and Husky 94 bet 'em all by a sizable margin actually... On a 600+ horse motor, Husky got up to 8-10 hp on the next player. Or so they say... :D (on an engine dyno, not a roller)
 
PLUS... I would push my car PAST a Shell station due to past issues.. They even issued a recall on Audi/VW engines (I was driving an Audi at the time) that Shell gas additives were the root cause of catalytic converter, turbo and sensor failure.... of course this was AFTER i spend $4k fixing my car.

Let's also just say that I'm in the "biz" and that my second preference is ususally petro can... very clean, lower octance but no false additives in order to get the octane rating. (not unlike the Shell slew water they call gasoline)
 
I run 91 from Esso. No issues there. The car would run fine on 87 but obviously power would suffer a bit as the engine has to retard the ignition a bit if I go full throttle and it senses detonation.

Everyone should note that octane rating is NOT an indication of how much power the fuel has. All gasoline has the same "power" or energy per liter. The reason why you run higher octane fuel is that octane is a measurement of the fuels resistance to detonation. High performance engines with higher compression ratios or boost squeeze the fuel more than a lower compression engine and therefore create more heat in the combustion chamber before the fuel is ignited by the spark. That is why you need a higher octane fuel so that the fuel does not ignite before the spark plug fires. That is what knock is and new engines adjust the timing if this occurs but power is then reduced.

Side note, I realize ethanol has less energy per liter than gasoline (approx 80%) and that premium normally does not contain ethanol. However! E85 (85% ethanol) has an octane rating of 100-105. This allows higher compression ratios or the ability to run higher boost than when running pure gasoline. More fuel and more air = more power.

On a side note, each oil company adds it's own additives to the fuels they sell. This has nothing to do with what I wrote above.
 
I run with 94 octane, car was tuned with it and use all the time.
If you have the car tuned the higher octane will allow for more timing advance with less detonation.
Other then that stock you could drive with low octane and take a hit on performance as the computer
will retard timing. If knocking is detected by the two sensors then the timing is yanked back very quickly
and then has a slow ramp back to normal if no others are detected.
 
Great info, I had no idea the schematics of the levels. I know when i was living in Germany many moons ago, and travels through europe with my 86 Firebird, the octane levels were a stagering 98. never saw that again.
For the small diff in price on a tank, i'll stick to the 94.
 
The person I bought my car from in the states would alternate between regular fuel and premium to save money. I never understood that considering that the difference between the two was only $0.10 a gallon.
 
where can you buy 94 Octane now, all i see is 91, i have been resorting to going to the airport and buying 104 Octane to mix with my premium to stop my car from having preignition .... but at 1.80/ltr it gets expensive and it's hard to find airports when you're travelling...really pee's me off that US premium is 94 octane and only .10c / gal more than reg, they sure put it to us canucks and we make it!
 
Most of the Petro-Canada stations that were converted over from Sunoco and allot of the newer stations have 94 octane gas.
If you go on the Petro-Canada website you can find the stations with 94 octane within 50 kms of your home.
I just checked it out and found 71 stations with 94 within 50 kms of my house. Good to know.:canada:
 
94 octane chevron pure gas in bc here.With a full tank i put in 3 ounces of acetone which aids in combustion. gets average of 1-2 miles per gallon better. I found this does work with a lot of trial and error along with good record keeping on my 2004 pontiac vibe purchased new. I put on 445,000 km before selling it last year and the acetone does help and never had one fuel system issue!!! great car!
 
What lead you to using acetone in your fuel tank? You have evidence that it works well but I would worry about it drying the seals in the fuel injectors. However, maybe you found a balance that does not dry rubber out but keeps any varnish from building up?
 
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