tommyboy Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 I wasn't sure if I should put this post in this section or the fuel delivery section, so I'll start it here. As the title states, I wanna know if I can use higher octane fuel in my car without hurting the engine somehow. The Gas City down the street from my house started selling 100 octane "racing fuel", But I don't know a lot about fuel octanes to know if I'll hurt the engine by running this for long periods of time. Here are the specs for my car: 1981 N/A L6 280ZX 2+2 All newly rebuilt original engine N42 non-EGR intake manifold K&N cold air intake 60mm throttle body If you guys could gimme any insight at all I'd appreciate it. Thankx! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PurePontiacKid Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 It matters more if the fuel is leaded or unleaded Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tommyboy Posted December 1, 2008 Author Share Posted December 1, 2008 So it's no big deal then? The 100 octane fuel is unleaded just like normal 91 octane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JMortensen Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 Use the lowest octane you can that doesn't ping. There is no benefit to using more octane than you need, it's more expensive, and it can actually hurt power output. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newby92 Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 It wont make any difference as long as it is still unleaded, but your just throwing your money away. The compression on these motors is so low that regular 87 octane is more than enough to keep it from detonating. The only reason to use higher octane is for higher compression, either a lot of boost or really high comp. pistons. Save your money good sir. Unless you are detonating on 93 octane there is no reason to run 100 octane. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rustyfriend Posted December 1, 2008 Share Posted December 1, 2008 Reading this short post clearly shows why I detonated my supercharged 2000 Malibu so quickly, haha... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sleepyspeed Posted December 4, 2008 Share Posted December 4, 2008 octane is the fuels burn speed rating. Higher octane burns slower, that is why you would use higher octane in a high compression motor, or boosted application. The slower burn speed curbs off detonation allowing you to run higher boost, or compression. As the others said only buy the grade of fuel needed to keep the engine from pinging under a load. If you can accomplish that with 87 octane than 100 octane would probably show a loss of performance, without bumping the timing up to accommodate for the slower burning fuel. So then your left with turning the timing back to what it was if you had to fill up somewhere else sometime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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