higher octane fuels burn if im not mistaken take more to ignite them so you can, in high compression instances, avoid detonation...they dont necessarily burn cleaner but like i said in higher compression cars it becomes more of necessity...there are motors making 500,600,700hp that could technically run on 87-91 octane which is pretty low for a high performance engine but if its set up right with a relatively low cr they can live.

lata
bill

 

[/B][/QUOTE]

Last time i checked.. thats not how friction works... Surface area is in 0 equasions for friction I've encountered...

 

You are right.. the higher the octane, the slower the combustion.. preventing combustion before it is intended.

 

87 octane gas is aweful gas and it will make a V8 camaro ping like crazy. From what I understand, 87 octane gas burns quicker. That quick burning causes it to detonate too fast when used in compressed engines and that causes pinging.

91 octane gas contains extra additives and cleaning agents to make it burn slower and that will take care of the ping and give you better gas mileage sometimes as a result.

Using an "octain booster" in 87 octane gas will just add the additives that are in 91+ gas, and basically give you roughly the same result as if you put in 91 octane gas.

It says right on the gas tank on the z28 "premium gas recommended".

 

If you add a bottle of octane booster to a tank of 87 you'll get 87.2 that's all. Put 2 bottles in and get some 87.4. When it says raises octane 2 points it means .2. It's a total waste of money.

 

\

Thanks al, perhaps he didn't take my reccomendation to do a search earlier in the thread.

 

Thats funny, my 00 SS runs on 87 all the time with no problems. I got my best of 30 MPG on 86 octane.

 

So you want a bozo button? Read your owners manual sometime. I know somewhere in there it says you can use 87 octane in the V6 models (camaro/firebird) but recommends 91 or 93 premium gas for all the V8 models. Not that I am a huge fan of GM but I tend to believe them over you.

You don't have to use premium gas if you don't want to but I will continue to do it. Now maybe we can let this thread die or get back on track with some usefull tips for the original poster.

My original advice still stands.

1). change oil every 3000 miles.

2). change trans fluid every 15,000 miles

3). use premium gas.

I stand by that 100% and there is no way you can show me anything that'll convince me that all three are not a good idea for a 1999 Pontiac Formula.

 

Is thats the same owners manual that recommends leaving your Dexcool in for 150k miles (fine if you want mud cooling your engine) and says your plugs are good for 100K miles (ya, they'll last that long, but you will lose power) and talks about changing oil when the computer turns on the oil change light (I'll stick with ever 3k miles)?

I've ran the higher octane. The car ran no different. You don't have to believe me, but unless you're afraid to find out you're wrong you could try it yourself.

Fuel grade still has no effect on carbon build up as previously stated.

WTF is a bozo button anyway?

 

I searched the threads and I found where it had mentioned the very small .2 octain increase, but where do you get your proof. I can tell you right now that I've put 87 in and it pings like crazy. It sounds like golf ***** bouncing around in the engine bay. I really dont know where you are coming up with this .2 increase. Who cares anyway. Fine, dont get the octain booster. It really doesnt matter at all to me what the guy uses because I'm sticking with premium gas. The guy getting 30 miles a gallon with 87 octain gas has a gem of a car because even my old camaro with a v6 pinged with 87. I had to use at least the middle grade.

It never hurts to change the oil at 3000 miles, that is probably your best bet. I personally have had bad luck with changing the transmission fluid all the time.

 

I don't need to see pictrures of lungs diagnosed with lung cancer to know that smoking is bad. I don't need to cut meself with a knife to know my blood is red (after it hits oxygen anyway). I don't need to jump into a lake in Michigan during February to know the water will be cold.

AND I DON"T NEED TO USE 87 OCTANE TO KNOW IT"S NOT AS GOOD FOR MY CAR AS PREMIUM.

Give it up. You wanna play it cheap at the pumps that is absolutely your right to do so. It's your car and your money. Unless you have documented concrete proof that 87 octane is as good or somehow better for my car then 93, I will continue to follow what almost every gearhead that I have talked to and GM recommends. Using premium gas in a V8 high performance sports car.

Oh and Bozo is a clown that had a long running kids tv show in Chicago from the 70's all the way to the 90's I believe. He's probably the third most famous clown next to Ronald and Crusty :-)

They always wore buttons with Bozos face on them. Kids sometimes would be givin a Bozo button when they won a game or completed a task. So it's a long standing joke in the midwest that when someone brags of an acomplishment or something they do that is less then impressive, you tell them:

"so do you want a Bozo button?"

That is what it means.

If your right then neither of us are doing harm to our cars/hurting performance. But if I am right then only one of us is. My budgets not tight enough to care about the extra $$ I spend at the pump so for me it's well worth it.

 

Last time i checked.. thats not how friction works... Surface area is in 0 equasions for friction I've encountered... [/B][/QUOTE]

That post was from another site, i didnt actually write that. I guess I should have put up a better disclaimer that I just agreed with some of what the guy said.

 

Ok, I found proof that you are right. Although the new products raise it by 10 points, rather than 2. Giving basically an increase of 1 octain total. I bought the stuff just for cleaning out the fuel injectors, rather than trying to get more octain anyway.

A: The term "points" is commonly used in the automotive industry when referring to the octane increase a product offers. This is different from the figures shown at your local gas pump, where the octane "rating" of a gasoline is measured in "numbers". This can sometimes create confusion as to how "points" translate to "numbers". The following calculation can be used to translate points to numbers:

1 octane point = 0.1 octane number

Increasing the octane of gasoline has several positive effects on automobile performance. A higher octane gasoline will allow a car to run smoother by reducing knocks and pings, which ultimately restores lost performance.

 

That post was from another site, i didnt actually write that. I guess I should have put up a better disclaimer that I just agreed with some of what the guy said. [/B][/QUOTE]

Sorry, I missed your disclaimer.

Eric

 

Yes, but only if your car pings with the lower octane do you see a benefit. If it does NOT ping on 87 there is no benefit to using it, and it doesn't cause more carbon build up as someone previously stated.

Car Craft and Hot Rod both had articles on this a while back. I'm not just making this up. They also did an article on Octane boosters. They took it to a lab and showed that they made little difference and a couple brands even lowered octane of the 93 octane fuel.