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Question: Premium (91) vs. Regular (87) for your VETTE!

psycho

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 27, 2004
Messages
52
Location
Overland Park, KS
Corvette
'10 Grand Sport Heritage Packag Convertible
The question is; with the gas prices to and over $3.00 per gallon. Are you using Premium or Regular? Below is a statement for the 2007 Chevrolet Corvette Owner's Manual (same statesment in previous manuals)!

Which is it for your Vette?

Premium for me!!!
;shrug
Gasoline Octane

If your vehicle has the 6.0L V8 engine (VIN Code U), use premium unleaded gasoline with a posted octane rating of 91 or higher. You may also use regular unleaded gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher, but your vehicle's acceleration may be slightly reduced, and you may notice a slight audible knocking noise, commonly referred to as spark knock. If the octane is less than 87, you may notice a heavy knocking noise when you drive. If this occurs, use a gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher as soon as possible. Otherwise, you might damage your engine. If you are using gasoline rated at 87 octane or higher and you hear heavy knocking, your engine needs service.
 
I run only premium. With what I paid for the car and what engine repairs cost, I want to avoid preventable detonation. Is it worth $4.00 per tankful to degrade performance and increase knocking? Not to me. Just my $0.02
 
The engine controls in all Vettes of recent manufacture and equipped with the base engine, have enough "range" in their electronic spark control that they can keep the engine out of detonaton, even when the engine is running on 87 octane.

In short: they do this with spark advance electronically-controlled by a feedback loop. The engine's knock sensor(s) senses any detonation and based on that data, the engine computer retards the spark until detonation stops.

The unfortunate byproducts of this are 1) reduced performance, 2) somewhat decreased fuel economy and 3) slightly increased load on the cooling system.

If you're willing to accept those byproducts, then there will be no "negatives" in using 87-octane gas, however, don't use fuel with less octane than that *unless* you're operating at high altitude (generally considered above 4000 ft.) such as in Denver. At higher altitudes you can get away with 85 octane. This is because the engine's tendancy to detonate decreased with altitude.
 
In south La the difference between reg and prem is 20-30 cents a gallon. Unless you drive 10s of thouands of miles a year the difference works out to less then 100 bucks. You drive a 45+K car surely the minor saving are not worth the loss of preformance and possible engine damage when you are using reg and want to exercise your right foot a little.
 
You didn't mention a mid-range 89 octane. Sometimes I'll top off with that (89) when I'm down to 1/2 tank (92) when the price get close to $3.00/gal. I've noticed no performance difference the several times I have done this.
 
Only Premium:rotfl
 
Owning a Corvette and owning a good pet are somewhat alike. If you can't afford to feed it right and take care of it, you probably shouldn't have it.

I know I've never owned a Corvette that I wanted to detune with regular gas.
 
Owning a Corvette and owning a good pet are somewhat alike. If you can't afford to feed it right and take care of it, you probably shouldn't have it.

I know I've never owned a Corvette that I wanted to detune with regular gas.

I second that. Nothing but 93 or greater if I can find it. More power for me. Speed costs money, so how fast do you want to go.?
 
A tank full of premium gas will most likely always be cheaper that buying a new engine or rebuilding one. An extra $3.60 per tank for premium Vs. regular. Assuming that premium is $0.20 more per gallon and your 18 gallon fuel tank is bone dry. If that $3.60 per tank is going to break you, you probably should look for a Prius. Not a difficult choice in my mind... Premium all the way, all of the time for my Corvette.
 
http://www.team.net/sol/tech/octane_b.html

http://www.gnttype.org/techarea/misc/octanebooster.html

http://www.elektro.com/~audi/audi/toluene.html

and before you ask...yes Ive run and continue to run octane boosters when I race,
yes Ive been useing it occasionally for over 12 years and with zero effects on engine or tunning problems
You may want to check with your sanctioning body to see if "fuel additives/boosters" are legal for your competition. Some are legal under the "substantially similar" rule in NHRA regs. It has'd to do with mixing ratios, I believe. (My mixing ratio is 2000:1 so I fall under the substantially similar rule.):beer
 
Premium v. Regular

My daily driver has been down recently, at the same time the gas prices peaked, so I have gone to regular (87 octane) for the last three tanks. I figured why burn premium when I'm stuck in commuter traffic, when the manual says I don't need it? I haven't noticed any problems or pinging, but like the passage says, I think there is just a slight decrease in accelleration, and my avg. fule mileage went from about 18.9 mi./gal. to around 18.5 mi./gal. I was actually surprised at what little difference it seemed to make. My Olds is now up and running, so my next tank for the C6 will be premium if its price is below $3/gal., or plus (89 octane) if its not. I'm glad to have a choice, and thanks to Hib for explaining how that is.
 
Only premium!

When I want the car to GO, I want the car to GO!!! Premium does that.
 

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