Race Gas
 

So I went to newport beach to buy race gas today. That's right 100 octane!! :icon17:

Well $108:owned: later the pump automatically stops, so I top it off just to be sure.
Get in my car, drive away and my gas measurement didn't go all the way up. The last light didn't light up. Weird, but anyway I gotta say, I can really tell the difference in Race Gas. Not like a performance boost, but just snappier and the throttle seemed a lot more responsive. Love it! Between the $100 oil changes and the $100 gas fill-ups, I'm gonna have to get a second job :ugh2:

Last time I bought race gas, I paid about $2 a gallon. Yeah, it was a looooong time ago.

Well the ECU does adjust certain things based on the quality of the gas so I suppose it is possible to see certain subtle difference when race gas is put in. Seems like a waste of money to me, but hey--why not!

lol, daily driving with race gas, hey if I could afford it I'd do it.

Ya I just wanted to try it out once, but now that I feel the difference, I might never go back to 91 :)

ewww 91, we don't use that sh!t on the east coast

I know but that's all we can get here in CA, besides the occasional station that carries 100.

100 octane race gas is oxygenated, so yes it should perform better but octane proper only plays a small role.

I did the 100 oct once or twice in my bike but that only took $25 too fill up at the time. I didn't really notice a difference other than my exhaust smell had a sweeter scent to it.

You have to re-tune the A/F ratio to get the best performance, so you need an ECU that will do this automatically. If your bike had a manual tune you could have adjusted that.

I have a PCIII installed with a custom tune on my current setup but for pump gas (93) so yeah, I didn't really expect much of a difference when I did it.

unless you have a custom tune for the race gas, you are just wasting your money...

I'm not fighting the fact that it's a bit expensive, I would just rather put a mix of 100 and 91 to blend to like maybe 94 or 95 so that it's a little easier on my engine, rather than running on 91 all the time. I know our cars can run on 91, I just would like to give my engine a little bit more to chew on ya know?

:iagree:

Update: I dont know if this is related at all or not, but the tapping noise that was coming from my injectors is now gone even after oil temps reach operating temp. Could this have anything to do with higher octane gas quieting the injectors?

:eekdance::confused::wtf2:

Unless you are running a higher compression pistion or have a shaved head, or hell even a tune requiring race gas, you are LOSING horsepower by running it, lower octane fuels burn hotter and burn faster creating more horsepower. Not only are you losing horsepower but since the fuel isn't burning as thoroughly you are leaving bigger carbon deposits that will eventually gum up your valves and leave wealths of carbon on your piston creating poor engine performance.

The only race fuel that may even be worth trying in a non modded Z would be Oxygenated race gas, but even then its only good for a couple horsepower and its 9-11 bucks a gallon.

or just get a chemical contact through your work or something and get a 50 gallon drum of propylene oxide. Its the oxygenating ingredient in race gace and it costs a hell of a lot especially if you can only get the lab samples those are 250 a gallon. bulk is far cheaper mix it in a 5% quantity with 93 and will be oxygenated much more than almost all race gasses.

That may be true, but you try running 87 in your 370z and tell me how your engine runs after 2 years. If the manual recommends 91 or above then why go low octane? Like I said before, it doesn't feel more powerful, it just like the throttle is a bit more responsive. Plus, I'm not going to do all Race gas. I'm mainly going to do a blend of 100 plus 91 just because I don't believe in the bare minimum for my Z! :tup:

^^well no ****.. haha but actually at my elevation I could run a lower octane and be just fine. Also our cars have a knock sensor so if you ran 85 you would be ok because the car will pull timing and not let the low octane fuel ruin the motor, it just wouldn't make a lot of power for that time.

If the mfg states that 91 is recommended than thats what I would run until other modifications requiring the race gas are made, but its your car, if you feel the race gas makes a difference that you like run it, just let me know how your engine is in two years :tup:

http://www.nissanusa.com/pdf/techpub...issan-370Z.pdf
Go to page 9-3 of the Owners manual and read up, I think you will be surprised by what you find about 85. Our cars would in fact not be okay, but you keep putting 85 in it :tiphat:

I have never ran 85 in my Z and never will, haha thats comical you would think that.

I also believe you failed to read where I clearly point out that the ECU will retard timing and pull power from the engine if it is running 85 octane fuel.. so why would I run it if I very well know it isn't going to create the most power in this car?

I think you are the one who needs to read up :tiphat:

I read page 9-3 and no where did it state that running a lower octane fuel would hurt the engine. Like I said previously it will not hurt the engine because the ECU won't let it hurt the engine.

I'm not in any way saying that I would run 85 octane in a Z or any high compression engine for that matter, but what I am saying is that if you accidently filled it up with a lower octane fuel your not going to cause damage.

Oh BTW, on page 9-3 it does state that you should not use gas containing lead in it, FYI most race gases have lead in them.

Can you reference where in the manual it says that Mr. Read's a lot? What page number?

This is page 9-3 of the manual, I think you are reading a different manual than me, or you can't comprehend English.

FUEL RECOMMENDATION
VQ37VHR engine
Use unleaded premium gasoline with an octane
rating of at least 91 AKI (Anti-Knock Index)
number (Research octane number 96).
If premium gasoline is not available, unleaded
regular gasoline with an octane rating of 87 AKI
number (Research octane number 91) may be
temporarily used, but only under the following
precautions:
. Have the fuel tank filled only partially with
unleaded regular gasoline, and fill up with
unleaded premium gasoline as soon as
possible.
. Avoid full throttle driving and abrupt acceleration.
However, for maximum vehicle performance,
the use of unleaded premium
gasoline is recommended.
CAUTION
. Using a fuel other than that specified
could adversely affect the emission
control system, and may also
affect warranty coverage.
. Under no circumstances should a
leaded gasoline be used, because
this will damage the three-way catalyst.
. Do not use E-85 fuel in your vehicle.
Your vehicle is not designed to run
on E-85 fuel. Using E-85 fuel can
damage the fuel system components
and is not covered by the
NISSAN vehicle limited warranty

Oh Btw the race gas I pumped was 100 unleaded :)

all i'm going to say on that is the owners manual isn't god and you won't go to hell for not doing as it commands, i'd never run crap fuel in my car but it would retard the timing if you ran 85. there is the touchy issue that you would have to have increased knock before the timing would be reduced which at higher rpm's might cause a little damage before the ecu retarded the timing a half second later, but it could also be argued that you could get an accesport and have one of the maps be tuned with less timing for 85 if you are really a cheap basterd. and don't forget his comment about his elevation he MIGHT be able to run 85 due to the reduced pressures.

:iagree: completely

Thanks man, you at least understood what I was saying. +1 :tup:

I understood completely what you were saying, but you were stating that our cars would be fine running 85, this I do not agree with. Thats all I was saying. Plus you never did reference where in the manual it states that timing will be retarted if you use low octane fuel.

Agreed...also, I would say a SC or Turbo kit running higher boost would see the benefits of race gas. Putting it an stock engine is a waste of money. In addition, you'll end up fouling out your O2 sensors faster.

The 91 is fine, the car will adjust timing if need be. Running race gas isn't getting you much if any power at all.

Well its cool of everyone to give their points of view. Like I said I was just trying it out, and I was surprisingly impressed. Most likely, I will prob just pump 91 merely for the fact that its cheaper.

I think you should just run race gas from here on out.

:iagree:^^

I sense a bit of sarcasm ;)

Every now and then ….why not. How much per gallon? My 101 octane source is about 30 miles away and $8.45 per gallon.

$8.99/gallon for 100 octane. Kinda expensive, but its Newport Beach, + its the closest to me.

psh toluene people i think i'm heading over to sherwin william's tomorrow to pick up a 5 gallon pal for $35 bucks. at one gallon to every 19 of 93 thats 100gallons of race gas $335 bucks. beat that.

HAHA 3.34 a gallon for 110 race gas FTMFW!

^ Any residue left? I mean...why doesn't everyone do this..there must be a reason.