I would like to know whats the differences in the high octain gas vs. regular? What is in them and why were they created? Dose the high octain work good for the V6 set up? Is there a site i can look at to learn more about what these different octains do?

 

Our octane numbers are an average of two methods of getting octane numbers....research octane, and method octane..... (R+M)/2

Octane is basically a fuel's resistance to detonation. Detonation is basically self ignition....it's an unscheduled combustion that takes place before the spark plug ignites.

Things that can bring on detonation are running too little octane fuel, boost like from a turbo or supercharger, higher compression in the motor, excess combustion chamber temperatures, too much ignition timing....

Higher octane gas doesn't do anything more than prevent detonation. But it's also harder to burn and burns more slowly. So basically, use the minimum octane number that you can. Running more than is necessary will not gain you power.

The pinging that you hear that's the sign of detonation....it's usually caused from when the fuel self-ignites, the flame front starts to propagate.....then the spark plug ignites, creating a second flame front with the remaining mixture. The two flame fronts collide and create tons of pressure, and the knocking/pinging you hear is the sound of that collision.

 

Basically everything that Nixon has said is a solid rule of thumb and words to live by. The lowest octane PUMPGAS is generally the most powerful and fastest burning fuel as long as your car's compresionratio is not causing knock.

However, with some racing fuels, they can actually burn at a LOWER combustion heat YET yeild a higher BTU of power output because of more volitile additives in the fuel making for more BTU's.

Here in So Calif we only have oxygenated fuels. The oxygenated additives cut down on the BTU's of the fuel. What they do is a gallon of gasoline will burn cleaner for the friggin ozone layer as opposed to a gallon of NON-oxygenated fuel, YET IT DOES NOT YEILD THE SAME BTU OUTPUT TO ACTUALLY PROPEL THE CAR SO YOU NEED (*** if I could sreem louder) MORE OF IT TO GO THE SAME DISTANCE. Good ol' Calif politics and the money lining their pockets.

My truck gets 9.6mpg on the hwy with 91oct oxygenated Calif fuels and it gets 12.9mpg on the hwy with non-oxygenated 91oct Arizona pumpgas!

 

I read a on another post that some of these gas stations are using 10% alchool. Is this the reason why we are suppose to go to the so called name brand gas stations like Exon/76/Mobil/Arco/Shell? What should I know about these gas stations in relationship to our cars?