"Actually, higher octane gas produces less power with our cars. Higher octane means more resistance to ignition which means that it burns slower. Our cars have very conservative timing, so if you run higher octane than what's recommended, you are just spraying more unburned gas out of the engine to burn on the cat."


ummm ok, didn't knew that...(sorry steviebix)good to know, though my does needs premium since its turbo... right? there again, sorry, i did really thought it made a difference.

 

Yeah you need to use premium if you are boosted.

 

With a turbo, I'd run premium just to be safe ..... also, if you have E-Manage, you can advance the spark to actually take advantage of the longer burn time and make more power safely with the high octane gas.

 

yea, you need to use premium.

 

ok... that's where i've got my confusion, i thought it was the same w/ all cars... sorry once again.

 

It's possible to tunea turbo with such mild spark timing & mild boost, that it takes regular. Most times that's not what happens whensomeone installs a turbo onto an F-series engine.

 

True, possible, but I wouldn't try it until you've run calculations that show that the pressure isn't too high. The spark is already conservative unless it's been modified.

 

Yeah, but the original post wasn't about boosted engines. So for normal people ;-), it's a waste of money.

Even with a knock sensor, the system will not constantly hunt for the point of incipient knocking. If it can use the programmed spark map without knocking, then it won't try to advance the timing any further.

Think of it this way...
If your engine control system isn't programmed to take advantage of premium gas, it's not going to help. That includes most Hondas.

 

Agreed 1000000000000000000% ....... except ..... j/k