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Premium or Midgrade

Putting anything higher than what's required is a total 100% waste of money. It doesn't make the car run better or anything.
 
just don't let happen when my mom drove my car before i got it. between her and my brother driving, they would switch the grade. My bro put 93, then my mom would get in and put 87. so one minute you got in the car and nothing and next you got in and the CEL was on.:confused:
 
I have never put anything less than 92.

Why would anyone want a performance reduction:shrug:
 
Matt R said:
Putting anything higher than what's required is a total 100% waste of money. It doesn't make the car run better or anything.
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not completely true. sometimes your car doesnt require any certain octane..but wont run w/out pinging on 87. so you have to run 89. your saving your engine by dong that,so i wouldnt call that a waste of money. .:shrug:
 
If you are pinching nickels, you can usually save a small amount by mixing your own highest and lowest octane to get a mid grade, that is pump some 93 then pump some 87.

for some reason it is usually cheaper that way if you do the math.

Mike
 
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Hmm. I have never heard of premium with a 92 rating. Here we have some gas stations (the ones that I go to) that have 93, and some other ones that have 91. I always put 93 in mine. I wonder what happens if you put 87 or 89 in an SVT. Since it is supposed to be premium only, I always follow that, however, I have heard that you can put 89 in it as long as you don't mix it with 93. I guess 93 (or premium only) has something to do with the compression ratio? Maybe?
 
starein2myeyes said:
I have heard that you can put 89 in it as long as you don't mix it with 93. I guess 93 (or premium only) has something to do with the compression ratio? Maybe?
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That makes no sense, it is perfectly safe to mix 89/93. In fact if you do it in equal parts, you'd get 91 :cool: . Most new cars that require premium now use 91 as the octane considered 'premium'.
-J
 
95pgt-t said:
not completely true. sometimes your car doesnt require any certain octane..but wont run w/out pinging on 87. so you have to run 89. your saving your engine by dong that,so i wouldnt call that a waste of money. .:shrug:
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Right. I didn't really make that clear in my post. Using higher than the minimum required to make your car run properly is a waste.
 
I just noticed a gas station near my house has "outblaze" gas at 7 bucks a gallon. Soon enough I am going to have to stop in and see what they claim it does.
 
starein2myeyes said:
Hmm. I have never heard of premium with a 92 rating. Here we have some gas stations (the ones that I go to) that have 93, and some other ones that have 91. I always put 93 in mine. I wonder what happens if you put 87 or 89 in an SVT. Since it is supposed to be premium only, I always follow that, however, I have heard that you can put 89 in it as long as you don't mix it with 93. I guess 93 (or premium only) has something to do with the compression ratio? Maybe?
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While mixing fuels isn't a big issue here, compression ratio is tied into the car's requirement for premium fuel. There's also the engine's ability to take advantage of additional spark advance that more standard programming doesn't incorporate. In the ideal, the computer will push the spark curve out to where trace knock is detected, then back off to a safe point, so the use of lower grade gasoline is not an issue. However, there's the argument that the knock sensor has to detect the knock first, which means that knock is happening, hence a less than ideal running condition, which is true. A little trace knock once in a blue moon isn't going to hurt anything, but it's not good in larger amounts.

Ford maintains that the engines can be safely run on 87, but be aware that you'll be dependent on your knock sensor at that octane to keep your engine safe. The engine also won't make all its beans -- a drop in horsepower will occur.

Running 93 is more of an exercise in getting overcharged than one in doing something good for your car. You should run premium, but 91 is all the car needs -- anything above that is superfluous, so it's up to you.
 
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Laura, I agree.
One thing you mentioned was the computer using the knock sensor. From what I believe I understand the Ford EEC-IV also 'learns' from the driver and condition, so if you run with higher octane and can utilize the higher timing curves w/o detonation, the car will have a more aggresive tune as a baseline. At least that's how I interpretted it :shrug: .
BTW, the station by me has 91 and 93 with a difference of 2 cents, so I use the 93. I miss the 94 available back in OH, even though the car doesn't need it.
-J
 
i use 92-93-94 just depends. but my friends and i who have "premium fuel only" cars (not just csvts) all swear that the car does infact seem to run better when 94 is put in. this could just be all in our heads since we know we put 94 in it but i dont know one person with a premium fuel required car who thinks that 94 dosent give at least some sort postive feel from the car. I know of a local sunoco that sells 94 for what most local gas stations charge for their 93 or 92 so if im near i fill up there. if nothing else it makes me feel like the car is happier
 
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