Don't waste your money on Premium gasoline
AAA, just finished a survey on gasoline the public uses. The result was 270 million drivers needlessly use premium fuel! What vehicles need to use premium? Those that have engines with turbo chargers ...
Forum Discussion
Long story-short.....use what's recommended by the manufacturer. That said, it won't HURT your engine to use a higher grade than recommended BUT it might hurt your engine to use a LESSER grade than recommended.
Octane rating, put simply, indicates how much the fuel can be compressed before it ignites from the heat generated from the action of compression itself. The higher the octane rating, the higher the compression or heat it can take before it spontaneously ignites. High compression engines are higher performing because of the increased power they generate when the explosion occurs inside the cylinder to drive the piston back down for the power stroke.
Compressing a gas or fuel causes it to heat up. The ideal situation in an internal combustion engine is that the fuel temperature inside the cylinder reaches a point just shy of its combustion point at the top of the compression stroke and then the spark plug ignites the fuel causing the piston to be forced back down from the explosion. This is all timed out perfectly by either the distributor/points...(on old models)...or by the ECM, (Electronic Computer Module)...to send the spark signal to the spark plug at this ideal time when the piston reaches top-dead-center on the compression stroke. If the engine is designed for higher performance, and is a higher compression engine, then a higher octane rating is required to make sure the ignition doesn't happen before it's supposed to. If it does, then you can and likely will end up with a burned piston, valves or head damage. That knocking you hear? That's pre-detonation, or essentially the compression itself is igniting the fuel BEFORE the spark plug ever fires. That puts extra heat inside the cylinder because the exhaust valve has not opened yet and it also causes internal engine stresses because the piston is mechanically on it's upward compression stroke and the pre-combustion is trying to force the piston back down before it has mechanically reached a point that it can make the revolution. Eventually....something's gotta give and sometimes it's the top of the piston, the valve, the head gasket, and/or a connecting rod......
Again...using a higher grade than recommended won't do anything except take more money out of your pocket to pay the higher cost of the fuel....BUT using a lower grade than recommended can very well cause damages to your engine and also..ultimately...take more money out of your pocket for repairs!
Octane rating, put simply, indicates how much the fuel can be compressed before it ignites from the heat generated from the action of compression itself. The higher the octane rating, the higher the compression or heat it can take before it spontaneously ignites. High compression engines are higher performing because of the increased power they generate when the explosion occurs inside the cylinder to drive the piston back down for the power stroke.
Compressing a gas or fuel causes it to heat up. The ideal situation in an internal combustion engine is that the fuel temperature inside the cylinder reaches a point just shy of its combustion point at the top of the compression stroke and then the spark plug ignites the fuel causing the piston to be forced back down from the explosion. This is all timed out perfectly by either the distributor/points...(on old models)...or by the ECM, (Electronic Computer Module)...to send the spark signal to the spark plug at this ideal time when the piston reaches top-dead-center on the compression stroke. If the engine is designed for higher performance, and is a higher compression engine, then a higher octane rating is required to make sure the ignition doesn't happen before it's supposed to. If it does, then you can and likely will end up with a burned piston, valves or head damage. That knocking you hear? That's pre-detonation, or essentially the compression itself is igniting the fuel BEFORE the spark plug ever fires. That puts extra heat inside the cylinder because the exhaust valve has not opened yet and it also causes internal engine stresses because the piston is mechanically on it's upward compression stroke and the pre-combustion is trying to force the piston back down before it has mechanically reached a point that it can make the revolution. Eventually....something's gotta give and sometimes it's the top of the piston, the valve, the head gasket, and/or a connecting rod......
Again...using a higher grade than recommended won't do anything except take more money out of your pocket to pay the higher cost of the fuel....BUT using a lower grade than recommended can very well cause damages to your engine and also..ultimately...take more money out of your pocket for repairs!
