regular gas + octane booster= ? RON

Baconboy

I just checked the Google for myself. It seems like a tough question to answer, due to variability in additive types, the gas you start with, and the methods of test. Next time, I'll wait until I hear the detonation and then add it in order to determine if it is working.

MacLean

You have to remember that the dealership put regular gas in your car when you bought it. I doubt that regular gas will mess up the car. Now if you have a turbo charger or supercharger, then that is a different story & you better go premium. Getting the middle grade is a joke & a waste of money. The reason is that you really have no idea if it is 1% better than regular, or a couple % lower that premium. Everytime you change your oil drop in an octane booster when you fill up your car.

j23a45m

constant use of regular gas causes early knock sensor failure!

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Jordo!

Why would you assume the dealer fills it up with regular?

The car is tuned from Nissan to require 91 AKI, and unless you never put it under load, it's a bad idea to run a lower than recommended octane.

Octane boosters, at best, may add .5 AKI.

I don't know of any cars tuned to take advantage of midgrade. Might be worthwhile on an older motor tuned for regular that's prone to ping for one reason or another (e.g., carbon deposits on pistons creating hot spots).

What does changing the oil have to do with anything?

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MacLean

I've heard that whenever you decide to change your oil & you need to put gas in put an octane booster. Put an octane booster every time you fill up if you want. I'm just saying.

Jordo!

There is absolutely no logical reason for that. There is no direct relationship between the oil and the octane requirements for the motor.

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MyZ4U2C

Dealers are cheap and pinch every cent. Most dealers fill the vehicle with regular on new car fill ups and will even have the lot techs who fill it up watch the fill up till the gauge points to the F indicator and save a gallon or so....I would recommend a octane booster at purchase of a new car at least.

MacLean

+1..... Oh I completely agree with you. When I went to test drive the Nismo for the first time we had to stop & get some gas b/c it just got off of the truck a couple days ago. Well the sales guy only put 3-4 gallons of regular gas in it & was going to try to get reimbursed for it.

The higher the octane the slower it burns & the lower the octane the faster it burns.

Jordo!

Uh, a bottle of octane booster isn't going to do much, which is the whole point.

You're better off demanding to accompany them on the journey to the gas pump if you are that worried.

Or tell them not to bother filling it up -- you'll do that.

Failing that, if you are that concerned, drive around at fairly low revs, putting very little load on the engine (less load means less torque produced, means less likely to autoignite -- although it is certainly possible to knock even at idle), get through a 1/4 or 1/2 tank of gas and then top off with high test.

Or break out the siphon hose and start sucking

The message I'm getting from people on here is that they don't trust car dealers as far as they can throw them (fair enough) but they DO trust snake oil salesmen selling unregulated, mystery fuel additives (why?).

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MyZ4U2C

I was just ranting about the dealers filling up with regular so others would know and figured since you questioned the dealers method was a good post to quote....but if I ever do buy a new car I might demand premium if not a gas card lol

As far as the difference a booster makes I am not questioning other than if I know regular was used I hope it helps, recently got my Z shipped and the shipping company put over 100 unexplained miles on the car and I filled it up and added a booster... good news is car drives great

MacLean

+1....... I will agree that the SOB will put regular gas in the tanks instead of premium. What is this "snake oil salesmen selling unregulated, mystery fuel additives?" I have never heard this before & could someone please elaborate on this for me.

Jordo!

I'm being facetious -- I mean that the octane boosters are not regulated in any way shape or form, so use at own risk.

That said, I wouldn't count on them to do anything especially good OR bad (other than drain your wallet a bit).

Seriously, if anyone here buys their new Z and thinks the dealer topped it off with regular, the best thing you can do is drive around gently (i.e., no flooring it, no redlining it -- not a great idea if breaking in a new engine anyway...), burn through 1/4 to 1/2 a tank, and then top off with high octane.

Hell, if you can find it, some Sunocos have 100 AKI at the pump. Half a tank of that plus regular will get you where you need to be (although I believe fuel blending winds up being not quite that simple in terms of effective octane...).

That's a much better way to go than adding a couple bottle of octane booster, crossing your fingers, and driving however you would normally.

Oh, and lookie what I found... http://www.fueltechexperts.com/2008/...which-is-best/

Remarkably, a few of them added a point or two of RON (although, keep in mind that AKI is the average of RON+MON... actually, a good rule of thumb on RON to AKI conversions is RON*.95=~AKI value -- example, our car requires 96 RON or 91 AKI, 96*.95 = 91.2), most added less than a point.

Still not going to be very helpful on a tank of 87. Siphon or gently use up, top off with high test. Done.

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red6spd

Then your dealer is full of morons. The its not recommended to run Premium in these cara its a must. And I'm pretty sure it says in owners manual if u need to run reg get it out ASAP. Why this thread even exist boggles my mind. Don't people do research before buying a car?

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Red__Zed

Yeah, but those people don't wind up here.

37Z

That's what I have reviewed from my on-line research as well. That's why I am asking for other 370Z owners for there experience in adding octance booster to regular gas. Thus far frorm the responses, no one including myself, has added octane booster to regular gas.