premium gas

[DanThaMan]

our cars say use only premium gas on the gas door. Soooooo what where the octane levels of premium gas in the early nineties, they certainly weren't 93. I have ran 89 with no problems at all in my ka (thats all the gas station had way out in the boonies), I didn't like it but the car seemed fine with it. So finally my actual question is what is an acceptable octane rating to run in a KA24

[-RJ-]

whatever is cheap. I run 87 all day everyday with no problems. My gas door says premium recommended

[charat]

89 is fine.

[Hoffman5982]

I ran nothing but 87 in both of my KA's. I run 89 in my SR without any problems

[Dattebayo]

Your engine was made to use 91, it says so right in the user manual.

My Sentra gets terrible mileage when I don't put at least 91 in every time, you SR guys probably notice the same as well.

[laxands13]

i run 87 and havent had any problems, except the occasional shaking at idle lol

[S14Kouki10]

Nothing but the best goes in my car. 91oct

[Hoffman5982]

Nope. I've used 89 and 91, didn't really see any differences

[Lobo240sx]

Always use no less than 91 Octane in a Nissan. I used 87 in my KA24E with no problems. When I swapped the SR, I tried all of them in little amounts to "test the hype". 87,89,93. Got the tank to almost empty ,but not enough to hurt fuel pump. All I can say is 93 was best and no engine knock lol.

[OutToWinPAHC]

Nothing but the best goes in my car. 91oct

What about 93-94-99-104-108-114?

[OutToWinPAHC]

Stock motor, stock tune, no power adders you can use 87 all day (KA), boost higher octane to prevent detonation, tune also specifies octane I am tuned for 93.

Curious, open the owners manual

[DanThaMan]

duuh, I didn't even think of looking at the FSM but sure 'nuff http://www.nicoclub.com/FSM/240sx/91-94/GI.pdf there it is.

[homeslicej2]

^Yep, and in the US, we use the anti-knock index method of octane rating. It's what the (R+M)/2 refers to that you may see on a pump (RON+MON/2) gives you the anti-knock index of the fuel.

[breadbox]

well, supposedly the first run of KA24e's were higher comp.

Mine isnt as loves the 87, anything more on stock KA is a waste of money unless you are turbo or higher comp in general.

[supersayianjim]

i run 92 when i plan to boost and what not. But when iam just slow deiving around in vacuam i cheap out on it..

[pj]

ive used 87, 89 in any KA ive had and it does just fine...to tell the truth, ive ran 91-93 and i dont even tell the difference so i dont bother.
on the other hand a tight mopar 318 i used to run would ping like mad if i ran anything other than 90+ that was a pain at the pump...especially when it only got 10-12 mpg

[Dittoz7]

I usually see lower mileage when i use 93. so 86 all day...

[Raz007]

I'm the opposite. I see about 3 to 5 miles per gallon higher when I run 93 octane. Car runs like a** on 89.

[charat]

where the hell are all these people getting 87? the lowest i've ever seen is 89...

[AZhitman]

Mandatory reading: http://www.nicoclub.com/archives/gasoli ... myths.html

[DanThaMan]

Ah yea thats a good article, I read it a while back

...around here we have 87, 89, 91 and 93

[SX APPEAL]

Very good article. I don't like the use of the word "explosion" though with reference to the combustion of the air/fuel mixture, as this is not technically true. Ideally the air/fuel mix does not "explode," it burns in a controlled wave that starts at the spark plug and moves toward the piston -an incredibly quick burn (it happens 50 times a second at 6,000 rpm) but a "burn" nonetheless. The eggheads who design the engines call it "wave propagation" If the mixture "explodes" this is actually the detonation or knock we refer to.

[Lobo240sx]

It is a very good article. I know a lot of people are skeptical about which gas they should use. Out of my experiences with cars, the higher the octane the less knock occurs. Whether if the car was stock or modified. I started out with my Corolla bone stock which was manufactured to use 87. I used 87 and it ran like 5H!T. Detonation on throttle you can hear the ccccccccccclllllllLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL sound. After putting 93 in it went away. It really depends on the engine and how it was tuned. Where you got your gas from. I use Shell/Texaco only. No Valero, Racetrak crap. Citgo is ok.

Yeah they used the term "explosion" because that is what you see on the spark plug commercials lol.

[Gabes13]

87 worked fine in my single cam. I put in 104 one time; Worst $8/gallon spent in my life.

[alms24sebring]

You know I have always used 89 in my stock KA because I remember reading it on the gas door or something. I did fill it with 87 once on an empty tank accidently but didnt really feel any difference. I might start doing that because 89 is more than 20 cents more expensive per gallon.

Is it ok to use 87 on a stock KA? Does it change mpg? I get about 300 even on 15.0 gallons of 89 now.

I would be nervous to use 86 but 87 is a standard here with nothing lower (except diesel). Only 1 gas station, Sunoco, has 93. I never buy 7-11 or Racetrack gas. I think 93 gives you bad gas milage because there isnt enough compression to cumbust all the particles for the higher rating. Remember that fad about 'octane booster' in the bottle a few years ago?

btw homeslicej2, nice to see that avatar

[Yellow4g63]

Stock 240 on the stock ecu run 87. Headers and exhaust and you advance the timing run 91. I never heard any pinging from mine (95 240) but I don't think it would since it runs 11.1 @ wot.

[DanThaMan]

particles:

[homeslicej2]

btw homeslicej2, nice to see that avatar

yeah, i like em. Have since their first album with the original lead singer Jesse.

[Mazza]

I always use the Shell V power ever since I had to get shell gas on the way home from a road trip, It made the car feel new again.
I looked into it some more and In MI most stations (that I go to) Have Ethanol added in the winter. As far as I know the shell I go to does not.

So its always 93 from Shell...

[SX APPEAL]

Shell uses A LOT of detergents in their gasoline though, which is good for cleaning out your system every once in a while, but not that great for actual performance.