Which Gas?
To the OP, when you say the 87 caused knock... Is this something you detected with a scan tool or through degraded performance? My understanding is the knock sensors should simply trigger "knock retard" when knock is detected. That would cause degraded performance. If a gasoline triggers perceptible knock, I would be concerned that low octane was not the only problem with it.
On the fuel issue, my car was tuned on 93 octane, so I prefer not to use 91, even if the car calls for it stock. Recently, I was extremely broke due to installing my Moser 9", and I needed some gas, and all I had was a gas jug used for my mower. It was clean fresh gas, just 87 octane. It drove completely fine for the few days until I filled up with 93, but in those few days, if I had to give it more gas than required for cruising you would sometimes hear some popping/hesitation
If you're that other kind of broke-dick ****** that races everywhere he goes so everyone can see what an awesomely bad dude he is, yeah, buy premium. You need all the help you can get, Bro'.
For the rest of us regular folk, if you have your owner's manual or can find one on the web, you'll see that it says there's absolutely nothing wrong with running 87, but for better performance you would want to use 91 or better. This is an old subject, and it's all be hashed out a bucket full of times. Try the search button.
If you use 91 you'll get better mileage but it costs more. If you use 87 you will get slightly less mileage but it costs less. In the end, it's a wash.
Last edited by Mr Incredible; Sep 28, 2011 at 12:57 PM.
The Best V8 Stories One Small Block at Time
I think Ill pay a fraction more at the pump so I don't have to worry about my engine pinging...
While you are playing devils advocate here, why do you need to DD a 350hp V8 car?
If you're the kind of driver that "needs" the small percentage of hp that 91 will give, then pay up and enjoy yourself. Revel in it while you can afford it. Smoke 'em while you got 'em. Buy 91 and mash that gas pedal.
Later on, when you have multiple cars, multiple kids, multiple bank loans, multiple ex-wives payments, car repairs, house repairs, 7 vehicles worth of insurance, retirement savings to make, food for the household, movies, cable, a phone for everyone over 10, tools, parts, and the occasional brewski...you'll appreciate every spare dime you can save. Each step along the way you'll give up something for something else. Constant mashing the gas and wearing away of those expensive tires is one of those things for most. Occasionally, smoking tires, two long an arcing black marks, the scream of the engine, and the thrill of it all will help retain your sanity.
Not everybody lives the same life. It's all good.
If you're the kind of driver that "needs" the small percentage of hp that 91 will give, then pay up and enjoy yourself. Revel in it while you can afford it. Smoke 'em while you got 'em. Buy 91 and mash that gas pedal.
Later on, when you have multiple cars, multiple kids, multiple bank loans, multiple ex-wives payments, car repairs, house repairs, 7 vehicles worth of insurance, retirement savings to make, food for the household, movies, cable, a phone for everyone over 10, tools, parts, and the occasional brewski...you'll appreciate every spare dime you can save. Each step along the way you'll give up something for something else. Constant mashing the gas and wearing away of those expensive tires is one of those things for most. Occasionally, smoking tires, two long an arcing black marks, the scream of the engine, and the thrill of it all will help retain your sanity.
Not everybody lives the same life. It's all good.
....multiple kids, multiple bank loans, multiple ex-wives payments, movies, cable, a phone for everyone over 10.....
By avoiding those items, I'm able to buy the premium for my LS1s.
But I put the cheap 87 in my Nova.... I mean why not, it's got 8.5:1 heads on it right now so more octane is not only a waste but it reduces performance.
91+ in all my toys. Wouldn't run anything else in the car or quad, and the truck gets 4-5MPG better and more power with it.
But I recently thought about it and realized that Premium is $0.12 more per gallon than medium so basically if you fill up 10 gallons you're only spending $1.20 more for premium so i'll try to remember that from now on and just get the 93

I actually bought my '02 LS1 as a beater to keep my '98 LS1 nice. But I think I might stop driving the '02 car in the winter too....only because I hate to see the salt continue tearing it apart. So yeah I'd be buying a beater for my beater.
I ran across this craigslist ad for a ws6 claiming to got tuned for 87 or 89.


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