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my friend Jason has a 2008 Chevrolet Impala with the 3900 V6, my friend Trevor has the 2006 pontiac G6 with the 3500 V6, both told me “hey dan, i put some premium gas in it, and it felt like it was faster.” i explained to them the diffrences between 87 regular and 91-93 premium and what that actually means, but both of them told me “i swear i am getting more power on premium gas…
so with gas prices as cheep as they are i decided to try it myself, so i put in some premium gas, i had a quarter of a tank, and added 20 bucks, and with premium at $2.70 a gallon her in the mitton state i wasn’t losing much in my mind, the car drive as it usually does for about 5 minutes, then after that the car did feel a little more peppy, perhaps it was because the gas was a little more fresh than the gas in the tank, but i sit and think to myself, if the PCM somehow knew that there was a higher octane fuel it could adjust ignition timing to more advanced and you might be able to get more power, but i don’t know if my car is capable of that.
just something interesting to talk about i guess.
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Where I live 91RON is regular , and premium is two options of 95 and 98 PULP , I run my cars on 95 from BP . I’ve found the difference between 95&98 is minimal , but the difference between 91 & premium is like night and day .
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If it has a knock sensor, and they all do, then yeah, it will adjust the timing. There has to be a limit to this because over advanced timing puts too much stress on engine internals. So it is limited by the bean counters who keep track of warranty claims.
Now, if you have the money to buy engines (figure on going through a couple before you get the tuning perfected), have the ability to reprogram the timing and fuel maps and have access to high ethanol fuel, you can have a monster. There’s kids running around with 2.0 to 2.4 liter engines making 600 hp at the wheels.
came out of a corner today and scared myself, perhaps she does get more power on the premium juice… the car usually will churp or squeel the tires coming out of a corner with it floored, I simply gave it a little less than 1/4 throttle and the tires squawked, I am sure if I matted it, it would have smoked the tires.
scan tool data shows ignition timing advances of 19-21 degrees, sounds a little on the higher side to me…
@Commodore665
here in the states we have 87 regular, 89 mid grade, 91-93 premium (octane pending on station you get it from or even altitude of location.)
@barneyb
i want to get a turbo for this car so bad, but if i did i should probably get a re programmed PCM, larger fuel injectors, and a thicker radiator, then upgrade the trans with the HD transmission kit at least so i have a beefier Limited slip Differential, as i have already probably explained some people are getting 350HP with simple mods to the wheels, and in extreme cases i have seen 800HP too the wheels in these cars, that would be sick! i would HAVE to run premium then, or even install a system for E-85 so if i put some in it will adjust timing and boost levels depending on ethanol content of the fuel, that would be sweet!Somewhat relevant, I tuned my truck to take higher octane fuel but instead of a computer doing it, I had to do it manually. Increasing the initial timing by rotation of the distributer and making some carb adjustments allow me to use higher octane to it’s potential and get more power out of my engine, you know the old way of doing it B)
and that is whats cool about the older cars, someone who knows what they are doing can get a full advantage of any fuel they want to use…
[quote=”13aceofspades13″ post=121246]and that is whats cool about the older cars, someone who knows what they are doing can get a full advantage of any fuel they want to use…[/quote] Exactly! I also added an adjustable vacuum advance canister for further tunablility! If a gas station can’t supply me with the octane rating I need I can make my adjustments on the fly.
I wish I could do that, if I wanted to screw around I would adjust the car to run a tad rich, and advance the ignition and run it on premium, I bet I could gain 10HP doing that.
[quote=”13aceofspades13″ post=121249]I wish I could do that, if I wanted to screw around I would adjust the car to run a tad rich, and advance the ignition and run it on premium, I bet I could gain 10HP doing that.[/quote] You certainly gain a noticeable power increase, however, you need to be careful how rich you make the idle mixture as if the float level is too high or the idle mix is too rich you can bog from a stop when it’s hot out.
the richest I would run it would be 12.7-1 storchometric is 14.7-1, if I ran it richer it would decrease combustion chamber temps, this would allow further ignition advances or in the case of a turbo more boost, then the higher octane fuel, E-85 even would allow me to run even more boost, and of coarse naturally with that kind of octane its advisable at that point to advance ignition timing because naturally that fuel burns much slower than 87 octane gasoline.
[quote=”13aceofspades13″ post=121253]the richest I would run it would be 12.7-1 storchometric is 14.7-1, if I ran it richer it would decrease combustion chamber temps, this would allow further ignition advances or in the case of a turbo more boost, then the higher octane fuel, E-85 even would allow me to run even more boost, and of coarse naturally with that kind of octane its advisable at that point to advance ignition timing because naturally that fuel burns much slower than 87 octane gasoline.[/quote] Gotcha, with a turbo, you would need to run richer anyways as you well know because you are introducing more air hence the need for more fuel=more power. Ethanol is a great octane booster, the moonshiners used it for their cars themselves and NASCAR uses it in present day.
only bad side to E-85 is it requires twice as much alcohol to get the same effect as gasoline, therefore it can be consumed twice as fast in some cases, however unless you want to pay serious bucks for Leaded AV Gasoline and foul up your cat and O2 sensors E-85 is a wiser choice, or maybe just brew some 195 proof corn wiskey 😉
yea if I where to crank up the boost I would at least run 12-1 AF ratio to be safe, otherwise you can warp valves, blow head gaskets and burn holes in pistons.
[quote=”13aceofspades13″ post=121257]only bad side to E-85 is it requires twice as much alcohol to get the same effect as gasoline, therefore it can be consumed twice as fast in some cases, however unless you want to pay serious bucks for Leaded AV Gasoline and foul up your cat and O2 sensors E-85 is a wiser choice, or maybe just brew some 195 proof corn wiskey 😉
yea if I where to crank up the boost I would at least run 12-1 AF ratio to be safe, otherwise you can warp valves, blow head gaskets and burn holes in pistons.[/quote] True because ethanol is a faster burning fuel and is quite inefficient when compared to gasoline. From a mileage standpoint Ethanol is horrible but for power it is a great way to go!
Exactly, forced induction is an art with a gasoline engine, you DONT want to run lean lest your engine have a catastrophic failure!It’s interesting , if you run a car on a fuel it’s not designed for like putting premium in a car when regular will suffice , you’ll get some gains , but , if you run a car on regular when it’s better to have premium you may have some issues , a example is my other car ,a Alfa Romeo GTA V6 , it says on the fuel flap , use Premium fuels only 95RON or higher , now mistakenly a while ago one of my daughters put regular in , it didn’t harm the car , but it definitely didn’t like it either .
did some more research and from what I am reading a typical ignition advance for idle is about 12 degrees, my engine they say stock at a low end about 15 degrees at idle, a high side about 20-21, and ignition advances are on the high side my scan tool reads with engine temp at 200 degrees, intake air temp at 60 degrees, ignition timing advances of 19-21 degrees, so it is very possible the cars ignition system is adjusting for increased octane, therefore I am probably experiencing a increase in power B)
guess who will be using premium gas more often now… :woohoo:
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