will my ze explode on 87 octane?

hgallegos915 · Post by **hgallegos915** » May 2nd, 2007, 11:12 pm

hmm the choices here are 85 - 87 and 91 ... Im not sure iof its 87 or 89 but still.. I know everyone else has it harder. Its 3.08 for meduim and its 1.18 for premium reg is 2.90 something which seems very attractive. lol

what do you guys suggest ?

Im not complainign im just wondering what will happen? what are the longterm short term effects.. i only put a quart of med grade for the next 2 days should be gone. I do not plan any heavy driving or racing btw.

if it matters altitude is at 3000 -4000 feet. hot dry weather. There is no such thing as 94 octane here in el paso

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » May 2nd, 2007, 11:36 pm

With that kind of elevation you have less oxygen to burn than the most of us. I wouldn't drive on less than premium, but I don't think it will kill the motor. Just create alot of carbon on the inside and may mess with the cat and O2s. However, I don't know if you'll get knock with octane that low. Probably not, but wouldn't chance the cost of a ZE for saving a few bucks at the pump.
I would say if you MUST, drive on mid-grade at least.

hgallegos915 · Post by **hgallegos915** » May 2nd, 2007, 11:42 pm

ok thanks

yeah this will be the on ly time (i hope!) that i have to do this. I only had 10 dllrs on my wallet and needed to squeese in 2 days.

lakersfan1 · Post by **lakersfan1** » May 2nd, 2007, 11:48 pm

I drive mine on the low octane on long distance trips, and mid grade daily. I never use the high grade. It doesn't make any noticable difference in power. We have knock sensors anyways, so even if it did create a problem, it wouldn't 'blow up' our engines.

As said, in high elevation cities, 87 octane is considered the midgrade because of the oxygen density in the air. All mountain areas have 95 octane low-grade, whereas low plains places like Illinois, Louisiana, Ohio, etc all have 87 low-grade.

mx3autozam · Post by **mx3autozam** » May 3rd, 2007, 2:37 am

just like what i told you on msn hector.

I've ran my ze on 87octane before, it fan perfect and felt like it ahd the same power as with 91octane. But i just don't like the idea of it so i stick with the 91. hell even 94 we have that up here, its kickass

XxantwawnxX · Post by **XxantwawnxX** » May 3rd, 2007, 10:56 am

lakersfan1 wrote:I drive mine on the low octane on long distance trips, and mid grade daily. I never use the high grade. It doesn't make any noticable difference in power. We have knock sensors anyways, so even if it did create a problem, it wouldn't 'blow up' our engines.

As said, in high elevation cities, 87 octane is considered the midgrade because of the oxygen density in the air. All mountain areas have 95 octane low-grade, whereas low plains places like Illinois, Louisiana, Ohio, etc all have 87 low-grade.

IM pretty sure the knock senosr stops working past 3000 rpm wot. Ive only ever put 91-93 in my car just for the knock issue. Even more so that im boosted now. But you would prolly be fine...use mid grade if you must.

Custom_V6_Limited_SE · Post by **Custom_V6_Limited_SE** » May 3rd, 2007, 11:01 am

I've NEVER purchased gas that was lower than 93 octane lol. I've also never used anything other than fully-synthetic Mobile 1 10w-30 (I even have a Mobile 1 oil filter). hehe I never do anything the cheap way.

PATDIESEL · Post by **PATDIESEL** » May 3rd, 2007, 11:30 am

Ditto Custom, and I never have had an issue with my engine in the 4-5 years I've had it. However, it seems that there is a fair number of people who use low octane gas without an issue. I would like the see if there is a carbon difference on the inside of the motor, but until we get a cheap MOCA member I'll never know...

lakersfan1 · Post by **lakersfan1** » May 3rd, 2007, 9:04 pm

When I dynoed my car, I did it on 89 octane ............ just to show that it's unneccesary. 179 flywheel HP with basicly an intake/exhaust and a rechipped ECU and only KL01 cams.

hgallegos915 · Post by **hgallegos915** » May 3rd, 2007, 9:20 pm

I got 2 records of my dyno, the first one is regular 85 gas and made 162 wph and 151 torque (around there) new dyno with larger exhaust and 91 octane was 165 whp and lost torque (exhaust) to 149. Ill use 91 still but i see no damage anymore using mid grade. Today it drove fine no knocking or anything.

hgallegos915 · Post by **hgallegos915** » May 3rd, 2007, 11:12 pm

hmm i had no power loss but i was carefully listening to my cars exhaust and i could hear a slight miss kinda like pprrrrr-prt-prrrrr prt-prrr. Strange.. i got an octane booster and the miss went away its smooth. This was again with no power loss. After the octane my exhaust smells more. Car runs fine tho.

rccardude04 · Post by **rccardude04** » May 3rd, 2007, 11:57 pm

If it did knock/ping/whatever, could you just retard the timing a bit?
I'm not suggesting this as an idea, just curious as to opinions as to whether or not it might work

-Eric

hgallegos915 · Post by **hgallegos915** » May 4th, 2007, 12:07 am

The ecu automatically retards it. Im sure if you have megasquirt you could do it so that it would run on regular. If you try to retard the timing(tried advancing it once) The ecu automatically resets it.