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I guess I should have first gone to my Owners Manual. Here is an excerpt that discusses fuel octane:
Use regular unleaded gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher.
It is recommended that the gasoline meet specifications
which have been developed by the American Automobile
Manufacturers Association (AAMA) and endorsed by the
Canadian Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association for
better vehicle performance and engine protection.
Gasolines meeting the AAMA specification could provide
improved driveability and emission control system
performance compared to other gasolines. For more
information, write to: American Automobile
Manufacturer’s Association, 7430 Second Ave, Suite 300,
Detroit MI 48202.
Be sure the posted octane is at least 87. If the octane is
less than 87, you may get a heavy knocking noise when
you drive. If it’s bad enough, it can damage your engine.
If you’re using fuel rated at 87 octane or higher and you
hear heavy knocking, your engine needs service. But
don’t worry if you hear a little pinging noise when
you’re accelerating or driving up a hill. That’s normal,
and you don’t have to buy a higher octane fuel to get rid
of pinging. It’s the heavy, constant knock that means
you have a problem.
As long as we're talking about gas, Top Tier Gasoline actually is better for engines since it contains more detergent additives than the required federal minimums. Nowadays most major name brands are Top Tier anyway, but plenty of off-brands, grocery store brands etc. aren't.
The extra detergents can help keep things from getting gummed up, especially if you still have the old central sequential fuel injection setup. The difference in price is usually pretty negligible too in my experience, but it might depend on location.
I got surprised the ongoing discussion. An 87 octane gasoline? In my country we have two grades: 95 and 98. That made me to look where the difference come from. So here I am with wide variety of the standards:
- RON (research octane number)
- MON (motor octane number)
- DON (road octane number)
LOL. Give me a break to sing Sting now: "I am alien, I am a legal alien, I am a polish man on BF".
In fact, I'd rather look for a quality gasoline. For a simple reason - the fuel pump is not protected by the fuel filter. I'd rather save myself off trouble with dropping the tank job and expenses for replacing the pump. Of course, it all depends on how You define the quality...
In fact, I'd rather look for a quality gasoline. For a simple reason - the fuel pump is not protected by the fuel filter. I'd rather save myself off trouble with dropping the tank job and expenses for replacing the pump. Of course, it all depends on how You define the quality...
The fuel pump does have that strainer on it, at least. It'll keep most of the debris out, anyway
I got surprised the ongoing discussion. An 87 octane gasoline? In my country we have two grades: 95 and 98. That made me to look where the difference come from. So here I am with wide variety of the standards:
- RON (research octane number)
- MON (motor octane number)
- DON (road octane number)
LOL. Give me a break to sing Sting now: "I am alien, I am a legal alien, I am a polish man on BF".
In fact, I'd rather look for a quality gasoline. For a simple reason - the fuel pump is not protected by the fuel filter. I'd rather save myself off trouble with dropping the tank job and expenses for replacing the pump. Of course, it all depends on how You define the quality...
In the US the "Octane Rating" at the pump will be the average of the RON and MON ratings.
In my owners manual for my 68 Mustang, "low" octane was considered to be 92.
Well, I put $20 bucks of 87 octane in my Blazer and sure enough, she is not running near as smoothly as she was with the 92 octane... It runs and all that but I definately can feel and hear a difference! I am going back to the premium
Well, I put $20 bucks of 87 octane in my Blazer and sure enough, she is not running near as smoothly as she was with the 92 octane... It runs and all that but I definately can feel and hear a difference! I am going back to the premium
Part of that is that the computer needs time to acclimatize to the new stuff. If you run 2-3 tanks through it and it's still hiccuping then maybe it's time to go back, but absent any significant malfunction I'd let it go for a while and see what happens since I'd rather keep the extra ~$5/tank or so (down here at least) in my pocket for other uses. Mine likes 87 just fine, but at 19 years and 162K miles I'm not all that special either.
Originally Posted by christine_208
Could there be a detectable difference between the winter and summer blends of gasoline?
Might depend on the locale? So far as I'm aware there's pretty much no difference between the seasonal offerings here in the Southeast at least, and though I haven't done any quantitative testing I've never noticed any difference that couldn't be attributed to ambient temp.
I've also run Top Tier gas in mine since about the time Top Tier became a thing and I've always run injector cleaner through every oil change, so maybe I'm just lucky to not have to deal with accumulated deposits etc.
