this post was submitted on 13 Oct 2023
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Lower octane gas definitely gives you less power. The owner's manual for my car gives two different horsepower ratings for different octane gasoline.
Probably a forced induction engine. Normal NA it makes no difference as long as it's not a high compression engine. Octane rating is how much heat and pressure the gas can handle before auto igniting. So higher octane means an engine with a turbo can run higher boost on higher octane which makes more power. It's a waste of money for most people to buy more expensive fuel. Though some fuel can be just shit and full of water at those sketchy stations.
Exactly. I tried top tier gas (91 octane) and noticed no difference in gas mileage. I live at high elevation and have the option of 85 octane and do notice the engine rides a little rougher than with 87, but fuel economy is pretty much the same (like within 2%?).
Just get whatever your car's manual states. Some cars need higher octane, most don't.
You guys are confusing top tier gas vs higher octane. Or this thread has just been interchanging them and not being consistent. Two terms are being used. Top tiered as name brand vs higher octane. Both discussions are happening at the same time.
I mean the octane tiers at the pump, or what is usually marketed as regular, premium, etc. There are at least two other terms used to describe gas tiers:
AFAIK, all three terms are independent of each other, so you can have tier 3 gas with or without detergents, in any octane tier you need.
I agree but in this thread people are interchanging high octane vs top tier.
Fair. Thanks for the correction, I'll try to be more precise going forward.
It isn't just you, I was more throwing this out there in general. I posted in another part of the thread too.
That sounds right, my car is a turbo charged 4 cylinder. TIL, thank you!
It can still be optional to run higher octane. Older Volvo 5 cylinders could run 87 with no problem because they only ran 9lbs of boost (only certain models). Most modern turboed engines usually can optionally run more boost if you put in higher octane. The issue is they rely on detection of early detonation when running worse fuel. Which scares me because of it fails engine goes boom very fast.
Use the octane that is recommended for your vehicle.
Lower octane is not lower tiered. Lower tiered is buying gas at Kroger or Costco vs Shell
Ironically Costco is a certified Top Tier brand.
https://www.toptiergas.com/gasoline-brands/
That's interesting to know.
Project Farm did a scientific comparison and while the higher octane fuel does give a bit more power and efficiency it doesn't generally result in much difference. Like less than 5%.