Premium Gas?

[DeeJayy]

Luckys, I'm paying 3.91 a gallon lol

[a.graham52]

Originally Posted by JLw7123

Really down here is Gorham I am paying 3.62 a gallon.

yeah over here its jacked up a bit. bangors cheaper then us. you go to bar harbor and it was like 3.75

[TheEdgeofSanity]

In our trucks we always run premium fuel when pulling heavy loads. We have a 22 ft. fiberglass boat and when pulling it with our suburban, there is a big difference in throttle response and torque when we run premium vs. regular gas.

When I had my alero, I would run midgrade because it was the same price as regular at the gas station near my house and I always found I got better fuel economy on the mid grade.

[sleepyalero]

Thanks for the insight guys, I guess it's not worth the extra 20 cents.

[Mike The Canadian]

If I run premium at all my car does better on gas mileage for a tank, sometimes maybe 2. After that it settles down to normal if I keep trying to do this...

So I'll toss in a tank of premium from time to time to screw with it lol

[RalphP]

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

lower milage and worse performance? how the hell does that work with higher octane fuel? lol

i can understand fuel mileage, but figure you jump up to a better fuel, then it would give you a cleaner faster burn off.


eric must be nice to bad you cant use it

Add to that ethanol isn't really a fuel, but an oxidizer.

It takes more E85 to equal the energy output of non-ethanol gasoline.

Now, if you were only running down the track, and didn't mind upsizing the injectors and the rest of the fuel system enough, then it's A Very Good Thing because of the horrendous amounts of advance you can get by with On the street, it sucks.

(As an example, one guy on the TBird forum I'm on switched to E85. Now, I run my Cougar with 19# injectors, and a 140 ... I forget if it's liters or gallons .. per hour pump. HE runs with 80# injectors and a 400 whatever per hour pump. And he's pushing 85% duty cycle. As he shows Camaros and Corvettes his tail lights on the 1/4 mile ... )

RwP

[RalphP]

Originally Posted by DeeJayy

Luckys, I'm paying 3.91 a gallon lol

Ouch.

For 87 octane, I've passed gas stations running it at 3.319/gallon here in Shreveport LA.

RwP

[AleroB888]

Originally Posted by RalphP

Add to that ethanol isn't really a fuel, but an oxidizer.

That doesn't sound right, how is ethanol not a fuel, and what would it be "oxidizing"? Did you mean used in oxygenated gasoline?

[falloutboy]

Ok, first I didnt wanna join in, but now I kinda feel like I have to.

Over here, we are forced now to run 95 E10. Thanks to environmentalists.
But by the time the change came it later turned out that I save gas by it. Its more costly (right know 1,56€ for a liter) now so I dont save money.

The car runs a bit smoother and I dont need to slam on the throttle so much which in end with the adaptive transmission controls and engine controls results in a better gas mileage.

But there would be more from it, if I could retune it to get better use out of gas. But thats out of reach

Btw the La1 and Alero runs fine with E85, although on colder weather cranking can be more of a hassle.

[sleepyalero]

some more good info.


runs fine with e85? idk i heard you need to tune and stuff for e85 for it to be safe

[falloutboy]

The problem with E85 isnt in the engine or combustion. The problem is more with rubber parts and gaskets.
as Ethanol is aggressive and hydroscopic.
eg. E10 has a tank life of 3 days before it starts to begin separating.

The issue with the high ethanol values and cold start cranking is due to the enrichment - which isnt enough to support a smooth cold start, hence multiple cranking.

To get it right, all I said is that the (european) Aleros run right with E85 fuels here. They are miles away from really benefiting from the fuel.

Ur where asking about higher grade fuel, which normally brings us to terms like RON and MON and knocking.
The ECM of the Alero can learn in some degrees what kind of fuel ur using, but more likely the way u drive (again thanks to electronic transmission) which may result in better mileage.
How far this learning and "sensing of fuel" goes, u have to ask the pros that know the programming of the ECU.
All that I can tell u is that, changing from 92RON to 95RON and from E5 to E10 here in Germany netted me with better mileage and a bit smoother operation.
for the records I get around 8L/100km on the Autobahn (cruise control 110kmh) and around 10L/100km for rush hour traffic in city.

as I bought the Alero years ago, I got about 12 in the city (rush hour) and 10 tops on the highway.

[guiguilandry]

Originally Posted by RalphP

Ouch.

For 87 octane, I've passed gas stations running it at 3.319/gallon here in Shreveport LA.

RwP

Damn, last time gas was this price here was 2004-05... !! here it's 5,52/gal for the 87....

[Alvarulanda]

I'm new to the forum people so bare with me. I have a 2001 oldsmobile alero v6 3400. I was using 89 for a while and change to 87 and saw no difference. But I really like the 3400 engine that I have, for some reading I can't find a reason to sell my car, it's a horse it is still going strong. I see that you guys fixed your alero and I was hoping if anyone could help me where should I start by modifying my alero so it can last a very long time. It's a really good car. Thank you guys.

[falloutboy]

lets do the math
1,56€ is 2,04$ right now.
1 gallon has 3.785L
= 7,72$

Now only to find an old thread where I posted gas prices too to see how it changed.

uhh nice graph to compare

red: taxes
yellow: contribution margin
blue: gas buying-price

[03glgold]

Originally Posted by falloutboy

on the Autobahn (cruise control 110kmh)

you only go 69 mph on the autobahn

Originally Posted by Alvarulanda

I'm new to the forum people so bare with me. I have a 2001 oldsmobile alero v6 3400. I was using 89 for a while and change to 87 and saw no difference. But I really like the 3400 engine that I have, for some reading I can't find a reason to sell my car, it's a horse it is still going strong. I see that you guys fixed your alero and I was hoping if anyone could help me where should I start by modifying my alero so it can last a very long time. It's a really good car. Thank you guys.

start an introduction thread in this section and we will help you there
http://www.aleromod.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11

[falloutboy]

Originally Posted by 03glgold

you only go 69 mph on the autobahn

yes, as the speed limit is 100 km/h or for short stretches 120km/h
But most of the time i am stuck in traffic anyway and happy if i can move

But thats now going way out of topic.

[Nas Escobar]

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

thanks all, so i can put premium in my car and be okay as of now?

i know premium fuel is needed for performance cars, like my buddies gtp needs premium cause it has a s/c on it.


and to be clear i got mixed thoughts, premium gas will not give me any power what so ever if switched over to it? my thought is i would get better mileage and have "heard" that it will make the car perform a bit better (performance wise)

You can use any fuel that's higher than 87, so long it's not too rich as that will clog/burn the cat. That's what happens when you use race fuel.

The thing about "better mpg" is more or less depending on the car. I used to have a Jeep that beat MPG estimates because I ran it on 93. This of course was a ZJ jeep, which didn't have so many gadgets and gizmos in it.

In the case of the Alero, you MAY get an extra mile or 2 but nothing you will notice. All you will see is that you're spending more on fuel.

Fuel grade has more to do with compression ratio than anything else. It's like using Dexcool on a japcrap. Yeah, it may benefit said car by having less intervals to change the coolant, but you sometimes end up doing more damage in the long run (Only GM cars are really designed to run Dexcool, it's notorious for eating gaskets, hence why earlier GM cars would have that issue... among other cheap practices)

To answer your question... run it if you want. If you still have fuel in your tank, it will degrade the final rating.... 87 mixed with 93 will yield you somewhere between 89 and 91.... which BTW is how Sunoco gets the rating for 89 and 91. Not sure if other gas stations practice this, but they mix a certain amount of 89 and 93 octane to get the other ratings. But back on topic, run 93 if you want and compare MPG with a normal tank of 87. You may not notice much of a difference, mostly because the engine is still compressing at a stock level.

[sleepyalero]

right on thanks for that.

[MilzyZ34]

Originally Posted by Nas Escobar

You can use any fuel that's higher than 87, so long it's not too rich as that will clog/burn the cat. That's what happens when you use race fuel.

The thing about "better mpg" is more or less depending on the car. I used to have a Jeep that beat MPG estimates because I ran it on 93. This of course was a ZJ jeep, which didn't have so many gadgets and gizmos in it.

In the case of the Alero, you MAY get an extra mile or 2 but nothing you will notice. All you will see is that you're spending more on fuel.

Fuel grade has more to do with compression ratio than anything else. It's like using Dexcool on a japcrap. Yeah, it may benefit said car by having less intervals to change the coolant, but you sometimes end up doing more damage in the long run (Only GM cars are really designed to run Dexcool, it's notorious for eating gaskets, hence why earlier GM cars would have that issue... among other cheap practices)

To answer your question... run it if you want. If you still have fuel in your tank, it will degrade the final rating.... 87 mixed with 93 will yield you somewhere between 89 and 91.... which BTW is how Sunoco gets the rating for 89 and 91. Not sure if other gas stations practice this, but they mix a certain amount of 89 and 93 octane to get the other ratings. But back on topic, run 93 if you want and compare MPG with a normal tank of 87. You may not notice much of a difference, mostly because the engine is still compressing at a stock level.

race gas is leaded, which causes the O2 sensor to fail, which then makes the car run rich. Running race gas does not necessarily make the car run rich, good race gas is also oxygenated, which makes it actually lean out the air fuel ratio a little, so you have to run a richer commanded af to keep it running perfect. I highly recommend anyone who wants to use race gas on a daily driver car, just get unleaded race gas. VP Racing MS109 is really good. I run C16 in my race car because it's 118 octane, but i also don't keep o2 sensors in there for very long. unless you enjoy changing out O2 sensors often, stick to unleaded.

you can run dexcool on other cars, you just have to purge the system of any other type of coolant. When we do a flush here to get rid of the glycol coolant, we flush out the radiator, engine, heater core, and resevoir individually to get every drop of coolant out, then we refill with dexcool.

i think most cars here especially those with performance parts, would see a gain going to mid-grade octane fuels, but you may not see much of a gain going from mid-grade to 93. it all depends how much knock you currently have. Once you've got zero knock, you don't need higher octane. By the way, if you improve gas mileage by only 1mpg, guess what, you just paid for the difference between 87 and mid-grade. Anything more than 1mpg, and you're actually saving money.

[02AleroGLS]

Premium fuel cost here in Sherman,Texas is $3.63 per gallon. It cost a small fortune to fill up.