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Originally posted by javaContour: Gasoline is probably the cheapest thing you will every buy for your car.
Assuming 15K miles/year at 25MPG, you will buy 600 gallons of fuel/year. If the cost difference between 87 and 93 is $0.20/gal, then you will "save" only $120 or about $10/month
For those of you who live in an area where the difference is only $0.10/gal, then you will save a whopping $5/month or $60/year.
Most of you don't have the time/resources Big Jim has to work on his car. (Like a Ford shop that he runs, not a knock on Big Jim, just the facts.) So your best bet is to run the fuel that Ford/SVT recommends.
TB
Who knows gasoline is the cheapest fluid to purchase at the Quicky Mart, in any grade  Your tag line touches on a very important point. The brand of gas may be every bit as critical as the octane rating. I only use name brand gas. Chevron is my usual but Unocal, Mobil, Texaco, and Shell are also used frequently. Non of the cheap stuff from Arco, Thrifty, UltraMar, or the like. It doesn't matter how high the octane is if it is contaminated or poorly blended. It only takes a small quantity of water or trash to do a lot of damage. In my mind a tank of Arco 91 octane is much worse than a tank of Chevron 87 octane.
Jim Johnson
98 SVT
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Originally posted by Big Jim:
Well I guess I'll jump in here with both feet. Again. I've posted about this before.
I use 87 octane in my 98 SVT E0.
With 136,000 miles on it it has had only about a dozen tanks of 91+ octane in it. I can find no difference in MPG or performance. And I often (if not nearly always) drive in a very spirited manner.
Have I ever heard any detonation? Yes, three times. All three times on hot winter days (we have some of those in Southern California). So that would have been with winter blend fuel. It was also only present at light to moderate throttle acceleration. It was very mild, what may be called a "trace ping". It went away with hard acceleration (richer fuel mixture) and at constant load and speed.
With that said, I also meticulously maintain the engine including the fuel system. The air filter is changed every 15,000 miles. The throttle body is cleaned often, at least every 10,000 miles. The oil is changed every 3,000 miles. Injector cleaner is added to the fuel with every throttle body cleaning. All this to minimize the carbon build up in the cylinders and ports and to keep the injectors free flowing. If I felt for a moment that I was harming the engine I would use higher octane fuel. Others may not be able to keep such a close eye and ear on their engine.
Octane is nothing more than a measure of the fuels ability to resist ping. It does not in and of itself create more power. Other things that inhanse power may make the slower burning higher octane fuel necessary. If you don't need the extra octane you are just paying extra for something you don't need.
So I'm not saying that this is for all SVT owners, but it works for me.  There is a article that was posted in the forums that would show you different.
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Originally posted by Big Jim: Originally posted by javaContour: [b]Gasoline is probably the cheapest thing you will every buy for your car. Assuming 15K miles/year at 25MPG, you will buy 600 gallons of fuel/year. If the cost difference between 87 and 93 is $0.20/gal, then you will "save" only $120 or about $10/month For those of you who live in an area where the difference is only $0.10/gal, then you will save a whopping $5/month or $60/year. Most of you don't have the time/resources Big Jim has to work on his car. (Like a Ford shop that he runs, not a knock on Big Jim, just the facts.) So your best bet is to run the fuel that Ford/SVT recommends. TB Who knows gasoline is the cheapest fluid to purchase at the Quicky Mart, in any grade I agree, but only to a point. Since most brands don't have local refineries, much of the gasoline everyone buys is essentially "plain label" gasoline. What makes it Chevron, or Texaco or Brand X is the additives. I would love to burn Chevron 100% of the time, but it is not sold in my market, so it's either Texaco, Shell, or QuikTrip in my market. And, I'm pretty sure most of those fuels come from the same two refineries in my local area. However, I suspect the add. packs are different. One thing to also remember, is now that the EPA is mandating different fuel blends, there is a few dozen different fuel formulations that are in use around the good 'ole USA. So if brand X works well in Southern Cali, it is probably not the same blend in St. Louis. But I do agree it is important to fuel at a station that appears to be well maintained, and does a high volume of business. This should minimize the possiblity that you get a bad tank of fuel, or more than your fair share of water in the tank you buy. HTH, TB
Tony Boner Personal: 98cdw27@charter.net Work: tony.boner@sun.com Saving the computer world from WinBloze as Unix/Solaris/Java Guru http://www.sun.com 1998 Contour SVT Pre-E1 618/6535 Born On Date: 4/30/1997 Now with Aussie Bar induced mild oversteer.
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Originally posted by Big Jim:
I use 87 octane in my 98 SVT E0. With no regard to what Ford bothered to print in your supplemental owner's manual, or on your fuel gauge face?? ..not noticing a difference in performance? Maybe your E0 doesn't have an SVT engine any more, I'd check under the hood if I were you...
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Originally posted by Pascal:
Maybe your E0 doesn't have an SVT engine any more, I'd check under the hood if I were you... I'd be willing to bet it doesn't... I noticed a significant difference between cheap 90/91 and Amoco 92 octane. More truthfully my car did as it detonates terribly on even cheap 90/91. (I had to fill up at a quiktrip by work one day out of necessity - NEVER again!) I'm sure the slightly higher CR and more agressive PCM didn't help. Now that I'm chipped I wouldn't dare think to run anything less and even need a "boost" in the hot summer heat. (1 bottle normally quells it, 2 bottles improves it a hair, and a gallon or so of Xylene makes it really fast!  ) I have nothing but bad words and thoughts (on this subject) for those who don't run the best premium they can find in their SVT. (cheap bastages) Atleast it's not my car though! :p
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Originally posted by DemonSVT:
[QUOTE]
I have nothing but bad words and thoughts (on this subject) for those who don't run the best premium they can find in their SVT. (cheap bastages) Atleast it's not my car though! :p Might as well bought a Zetec.
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I'm jealous of all you guys who even fantasize about using 87 octane. This past week, my car pinged like mad on Sunoco 94 on a long highway trip in 95 degF heat. Spark plugs were mad at me too. It was the first time I took a real long highway trip in bad heat. The 94 cleared it up on the to/from SZ, but it wasn't nearly as blistering hot then. I'll be packing the Xylene for the next trip out there in 3 weeks. Gotta hate having to take up a bunch of the cargo room for camping equipment with fuel additives. But if you saw my plugs, you'd know that gas was more important than the tent. I can sleep in the car if I have to, but I can't walk home from White Cloud, MI. EEC Tuner or twEECer, where are you???
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