Regular unleaded vs Premium gas

[tokuzumi]

Depends on cost/gallon. With my Escalade, I'll usually put in 25-27 gallons at a fill up. That can be $80+ at a time. I'll never buy the cheap stuff (87), but if premium (93) is a little more than I want to pay, it's 89 octane. For the wife's A3, I put premium when I'm the one filling it up. It's a turbo 4, so it definitely benefits when the premium is coursing through the fuel system.

Sponsored

 

[delhi]

I'm from EU. Our premium fuel on good brand petrol stations is better quality as indicated by different independent investigations. We generally have "cheap" 95 with some additives and more expensive 98 with many additives. Thought is that if you want better fuel quality you get "free" octane as well. This way petrol stations don't need to have even more pumps. Generally there are 4 hoses (95, 98, Diesel, Diesel Premium) + one distributor for LPG. On some stations we have 100 octane fuel (no one really uses it).

Same here in UK.. 93 octane is seen as low... I use momentum 99.

Now thinking 93 would be just fine

 

[EcoVert]

I only use 93 octane

 

[Kong76]

Been running Chevron 91 but the bastards love to Jack the price up for no reason. Tried 76 a few times and the car seemed to like it. I'll go back to 87 see if it matters.

 

[Devil5oh]

I have always filled up with premium gas in my car even before I got the whipple installed. Not sure why anyone would ever put 87 octane in a performance v8 car but to each their own.

 

[Smokey613]

I have always filled up with premium gas in my car even before I got the whipple installed. Not sure why anyone would ever put 87 octane in a performance v8 car but to each their own.

I was of the same opinion on using 87 octane, but thought I would give it a try and see what the results were. I found out that 95% of our driving did not benefit from 91+ octane and the extra $0.50 a gallon was probably not worth it. The Mustang actually idles smoother on 87 than it did on 93. It also seems less “jerky” when using Sport mode on 87 than it did on 93. You can feel it pull timing in the upper rpm range though on the 87 octane, especially at 6K and up. On 93 it never felt like it backed off and pulled very strong in the upper range. It’s just an extra 6-7 dollars a fill up is hard to get past.
Having written this I probably will switch back to 93, I may not do many WOT passes but it’s good to know I have full potential when I want it. Besides, I love irritating the tree huggers and we plan to switch back to a larger vehicle this spring so may as well have fun while we have the Mustang.

 

[mustang5o]

93 is pretty convenient locally. Unfortunately the track I go to sometimes only has 91 nearby. I guess I could figure out the ratio to mix their 100 octane with 91. If I keep it until the warranty is gone I'll get it on E85 then.

 

[stangman638]

I swear these cars were made for e85..... After using it, its hard to go back, I wish ford would put out a stang e85 ready from the factory together with a calibration.

 

[TexasRebel]

I'd be hard pressed to run leaded gas unless the engine was build before unleaded, and did not have proper valve guides and seats. Good riddance to the days of lead fouled plugs and valves.

Lead fouled? Lean out the mixture and heat that sucker up! Could you just imagine the compression ratios (efficiency) that would be possible with today's technology and TEL?

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Same here in UK.. 93 octane is seen as low... I use momentum 99.

Now thinking 93 would be just fine

I believe UK uses a different measurement. The US numbers are the average of Research and Motor octane values.

 

[Loki-GT]

I look at it this way, they had to increase sensors in the '18, the compression went up to 12:1, I don't care that they recommend 87 octane, it literally is the lowest swill the car will run. I didn't buy a performance car to cheap out on the gas with the hopes that "it should work fine" knowing the engineering it took to make it work. I only buy BP or Shell 93 until I run an E85 tune in which case it will be the best E85 I can find in my area, currently Shell E85.

 

[mustang5o]

I swear these cars were made for e85..... After using it, its hard to go back, I wish ford would put out a stang e85 ready from the factory together with a calibration.

I would ruin their EPA ratings with the MPG you get. A power pack tune option would be nice though. I mean, they have other flex fuel vehicles.

Those running E85, do you have other mods to support it or just tuning for E85 and that's it? I always heard you need to get better intake and long tubes.

 

[Devil5oh]

I look at it this way, they had to increase sensors in the '18, the compression went up to 12:1, I don't care that they recommend 87 octane, it literally is the lowest swill the car will run. I didn't buy a performance car to cheap out on the gas with the hopes that "it should work fine" knowing the engineering it took to make it work. I only buy BP or Shell 93 until I run an E85 tune in which case it will be the best E85 I can find in my area, currently Shell E85.

Exactly. Like I said above, I never understood why people spend $45000ish on a mustang GT which is a performance orientated vehicle just to cheap out on their gasoline they put in the car

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Exactly. Like I said above, I never understood why people spend $45000ish on a mustang GT which is a performance orientated vehicle just to cheap out on their gasoline they put in the car

I never understood why someone would spend $45000ish for a performance car and use less than half the performance 99.99 percent of the miles driven (i.e. everyone who doesn't keep the car at the drag strip and flatbed it back to the pits at the end of each run).

Actually I do understand but when in Rome...........

Sponsored