Premium Gas?

[sleepyalero]

Question is, could i run premium in my car with out a tune? would i see a minor improvement in power? or... does the car need tuned for it?

if no tuning is needed to run it, would a tune give me the full potentional of said gas?

[JLw7123]

Most boosted cars and sports cars run on premium. I ran premium in my alero for a little bit when gas was cheaper. I felt no difference. Maybe mfuller will chime in because on built engines it might help. Sleepy you live in the Midwest have u thought of doing the zero 85 conversation. I am pretty sure you can have different fuel maps on your tuner.

Without tuning, you will see no difference except for a lighter wallet.
You can tune in a few extra degrees of timing; that coupled with premium may net you a few horses, but nothing that you'll notice.
Premium is not needed until you do a cam, higher compression, and/or forced induction/nitrous. Of course, tuning is a requirement at that point.

[[ion] C2]

Higher octane fuel is not a performance booster, it's a SUPPORTING mod. It's used because you have to use it, not because it does anything on its own. It has a higher resistance to combust.

[JLw7123]

Is 93 the highest octane you can get. Does Canada have higher octanes like 95 or 98.

[[ion] C2]

I get 100 unleaded from certain Speedway stations and 110 leaded from Sunoco.

[RalphP]

The Alero motor, due to federal regs, is supposed to run on 89 octane gasoline.

Now, just as a mind exercise, if GM tuned it for, say, 91 octane, but used the knock sensors to detune to enable running on 89 (the reason why you can run on 87!), then yes, a higher octane gas would yield better gas mileage and performance (because the car wouldn't be running with pulled timing and not quite as rich).

It's also why you should be running 89 octane in your car.

RwP

[sleepyalero]

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

e85 would be cool but with how far a e85 station is (about 30 miles) it would be kinda pointless to fill up then waste about a gallon of gas on the way back.

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)

[[ion] C2]

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

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

yeah but there's no point.

Originally Posted by sleepyalero

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'll get lower mileage and lower peformance, theoretically

[xXManwhoreXx]

The e85 station is just down the road from me sucka!

[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

[03glgold]

because the higher octane fuel is harder to burn so it has to be compressed more in some way in order for it to burn fully

[sleepyalero]

Oh okay. Well darn. So 100% no point to swap to the higher octane yet then?

Higher octane fuel, which is better at resisting pre-ignition, burns more slowly.
So you may get an incomplete burn and see fuel economy fall (albeit marginally).
If you can run 87 octane without knock, that's what you should use.
If you aren't getting pre-ignition/knocking, higher octane fuel is just a waste of money.

[a.graham52]

i ran 89 in my my alero and i noticed the idle quality increased and it did tend to have a bit more throttle response. but its marginal. i agree with mfuller, if you can get no knock out of 89, no point in going higher... unless you tune if for higher.

otherwise just put some higher octane fuel in and let us know what happens!.

[guiguilandry]

In canada, Well in Quebec, regular is 87, plus is 89 and premium is 91....

only a couple specific Petro-Canada gas station offer 94...
at the moment
the 87 is 1,38/liter... 5.22/gal
the 89 is 1,42/liter... 5.37/gal
the 91 is 1,46/liter... 5.52/gal
the 94 is 1.52/liter... 5.75/gal

and one us gallon gives 3.78liter...
do the math, we are getting raped with these prices overhere...

[guiguilandry]

it cost me 65$ to fill my sunfire and 80$ to fill my baja... both needs to run on premium 91...

[sleepyalero]

I might throw it in, but whatever regular is here price wise... It's 3.59$ a gal ATM, premium is always 20c more a gallon. So it's 3.79 a gal right now for premium.

[a.graham52]

regular here is 3.719/gallon.

[JLw7123]

Originally Posted by a.graham52

regular here is 3.719/gallon.

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