Now that oil has been beat to death here what brand and octane do you use and why?

 

For the average OEM vehicle -

A common understanding is that adding a higher octane fuel to a vehicle's engine will increase its performance and/or lessen its fuel consumption. This may be false under most conditions — while engines perform best when using fuel with the octane rating for which they were designed and any increase in performance by using a fuel with a different octane rating is minimal or even imaginary.
Unless there are carbon hot spots, fuel injector clogging or other conditions that may cause a lean situation that can cause knocking that are more common in high mileage vehicles, which would cause modern cars to retard timing thus leading to a loss of both responsiveness and fuel economy.

High Performance vehicles, vehicles w/higher compression numbers and even tuned vehicles (@WOT/TOW) are designed to run higher octane petrol or can make good use of it in certain situations.

For the average Joe , there isn't enough benefit (if any) to warrant the cost IMO.

 

I use the cheapest 87 octane I can find, as long as it's a major station, in my stock 4.2 - it doesn't run any better on high priced stuff. I'm out in San Diego for the winter and I've been using Arco and Costco, occasionally Valero. Back in Joplin, I usually use Murphy (Walmart) or Conoco/66.

 

Now somebody tell me how altitude affects octane? Because here in the mountain west the lowest octane on the pumps is 85 and that is because of altitude. I live at 5580 feet.

 

In higher-altitude areas, a typical combustion engine draws in less air per cycle due to the reduced density of the atmosphere. This directly translates to reduced absolute compression in the cylinder, therefore deterring knock.

 

I only buy a Brand Name regular unleaded fuel such as SHELL,MOBIL, Exxon............you don't need higher octane with these engines..........

 

My preferred brand is Chevron but I also use Mobil and Shell. I stay away from the cheap stuff. Only bargain gas I use is Albertsons. The other bargain gases dont give me good fuel economy.

 

I prefer chevron or exxon 93 octane, the absolute lowest octane I run is 91 (due to forced induction)

 

I usually go with 87 from BP or Sheetz-I would do shell other than its 25 minutes out of my way and very few shell stations in my area. right now I have 93 performance tune loaded, so im gonna see if gas milage is any better-have heard it is a little better

 

It'll be to much fun to keep your foot out of it

 

Never have had anything but 87 in my 4.2's tank. I'd sure like to see what higher octane might do for me? Is this a bad ideaa to put higher octance in a 87-only engine?

 

I am running an Edge on Level III. So I use either Sunoco 91 octane or Shell 93 octane...

 

if you have a tuner you can put whatever you want in it but it doesnt make all that big of a difference..

 

Muddy, the best mileage my truck ever got was on 85 octane up in the Colorado mountains. Go figure.

Raptor, go ahead and try it, you won't hurt anything, but it's a waste of money unless you have a high octane tune. It probably won't run noticeably better or get noticeably better gas mileage.

 

sunoco or citgo-highest btu rated fuels on the east coast