Regular and Premium Fuel

[Homer Simpson]

What happens if you use regular fuel besides premium?

I'm gonna have to drive my car this week and no one down here in Newnan have Premium!

I hear something about how it retards your timing or something, but does it hurt you'r motor at all???

I have ZERO bars of gas left and my ride was left inside the garage all weekend. SUCKS!

[Atlblkz06]

It depends on the following:

Compression of the motor
Type of driving (Cruise or hard acceleration)
Ambient temp/IAT
How good your cooling system is - prevention of hot spots
How smart is your computer? Can it adjust?

What does the manual say? Mine says something like "the motor will self-destruct if I don't use premium."

However others will say "Premium is recommended but the car will run with reduced performance on 87 octane gasoline".

I believe the CR on your car is 11(.1):1. That pretty much says to me that you're totally stuck with Premium ONLY. I wouldnt try regular.

I too had to think about this one though. Why not just dump a can of Octane Booster in there if you have to fill up with 89? I'm sure they'll sell em at the gas stations, or you can just take one with you. Saying it to cover my ass: DON'T STORE a can of this stuff in the car for obvious reasons.

[Atlblkz06]

Forgot to answer the question: Your engine will pre-detonate and many many bad things will happen. The engine will learn and retard timing but it learns the hard way - it'll suffer though quite a few knocks before "learning".

[Barefoot]

it'll suffer though quite a few knocks before "learning".a few knocks is an understatement.

[Cool Cat Racing]

The problem is that you can only retard the timing so far. Your S2K will run on regular but I'd keep your foot out of it and try to keep the load as little as possible. You will get some detonation under load but the computer will add more gas and retard the timing to compensate.

[UpSideDownDesi]

you'll have a bad case of spark knock. I have seen s2k run on regular, doesn't sound or feel good. Octane boosters don't help much either, imposible make up 60octane points (10points = 1 octane rating so you'll be dumping 10+cans in the tank). You can bump it up by putting in a gallon or 2 of Toluene ($6 per gallon), but that will only bring you up to 89 octane rating. If it takes to drive a bit out of your way to get premium then go for it or have a friend get you some.

[BlkCD5]

in peachtree city last time i checked, all they had was premium.

[eYezs1ck]

unless your tryna get rid of your s2k anytime soon, id stick with premium

[Homer Simpson]

lol! thanks for the reply guys, i guess regular is out of the question, but my dad just told me that they have premium now!

[.blank cd]

87 is not gonna kill you. 87 isnt even 87 anymore with the ethanol blends. closer to 89

[Atlblkz06]

87 is 87 AFTER the ethanol blend. They make money by mixing in ethanol because it act like an octane booster. Sad isnt it?

[seniosoul]

87 is not gonna kill you. 87 isnt even 87 anymore with the ethanol blends. closer to 89
i heard ethonol burned fast...and i also heard we won the war in iraq...so Wtf is really going on.

[Kaiser]

Ethanol burns fast. Burning fast has nothing to do with AKI (Anti Knock Indexing). Octane Rating is an AKI. Ethanol is incredibly knock-resistant for such a fast-burning fuel.

Koenigsegg made a version of their CCX with an E85 engine that gained almost 100 horses over the identical gas engine. Ethanol is not to be feared, Ethanol is racegas of the future.

[superboost]

Ethanol burns fast. Burning fast has nothing to do with AKI (Anti Knock Indexing). Octane Rating is an AKI. Ethanol is incredibly knock-resistant for such a fast-burning fuel.

Koenigsegg made a version of their CCX with an E85 engine that gained almost 100 horses over the identical gas engine. Ethanol is not to be feared, Ethanol is racegas of the future.


I wouldn't call it that. While yes it does have some nice knock resistant properties, it does burn quite a bit leaner. In other words, you have to be mapped for it to take advantage of it. My car tends to knock *more* with ethanol, but only due to the extra lean mixture that it causes. If you look at the article with the koenigsegg closely, you'll also note that in order to generate the extra HP, they gave it hardened pistons, increased supercharge boost pressure, changed the ECU programming for a richer mixture and gave it larger injectors. No huge changes, but ethanol isn't perfect. I hate that stuff. Makes me break spark plugs.

Also, my car is not stock. I'm running megasquirt-n-spark with coil packs, LC1 wideband tied in to run closed loop, 9.8:1 compression and around 20lbs turbo boost. So a lean mixture breaks things. I don't like going through plugs twice a month because "they" keep playing with the type of fuel coming out of the pumps.

[EJ25RUN]

your c/r is too high to run anything else.

[DecoyOctopus]

i seen a guy fill his s2000 up today with regular...i wonder how hes doing now

[superboost]

i seen a guy fill his s2000 up today with regular...i wonder how hes doing now

probably walking

[DecoyOctopus]

hahah damn i was watching him fill up and thinkin about this thread.

[Theycall_Metue]

yea im suppose to pump super... but only can find regular... it'll jerk on 1st gear and kinda lagg on 2nd-5ft when hitting the gas, when sitting at the red light or stop sign the rpm drops hella low. put in a bottle of octane boost and the lagging stop:cheers:

[Crazy Asian]

I wonder if I can stick reg. in a 2001 Honda Prelude

[DC2NR]

I wonder if I can stick reg. in a 2001 Honda Prelude

You can. Read your cars manual and it'll give you all the info you need. I looked at my girlfriends manual and you can run regular fuel. It'll just compensate for the low octane and you lose a little power and possibly gas mileage.