SI with 87 octane gas *Threads merged*

[4door]

that dam hurricane.....i live in a area where most people use 93 oct

[ImAllStock]

ya like stated.... dont wot or put heavy load on the engine and you'll be ok till your able to get premium. You might get some knock, but you'll be ok.

[jecaFG2]

dam! ull be aight puttin 87 but ill be mad as hell i only put 93

[bsbabcock]

So I'm down in Asheville NC and if passing a station that actually has ANY gas, NONE I've found has either 89 or 93... All 87. I'm in a 6k mile Si Sedan and I'm beginning to get a wee bit concerned...

I'm running 89 right now since last Friday.. At 1/2 tank now.

Driving very very conservative on the throttle.. NO hard accelaration and keeping the rpm's high enough not to lug but low shift points around 4-5k tops.. no vtec-ing.

This sux! No 93! Dadgum hurricanes!!!
Can't they just help the drought down here without causing another one!?!?!

[Tredd]

theres a full thread on this, cant find it atm, but 87 should be fine for a week, wouldnt be good if you went any longer.

[JDMlunatiK]

dude...how much is 93 octane where you guys are? you guys talk about using 93 octane as if it were to be 87. i've yet to find a gas station here in orange county where they have anything more than 91.

[peenoySI]

hey bro...FYI 91 is the highest for CA, you can find 100 OCT race gas but you can only put it into a container...

[JDMlunatiK]

no wonder...that's what i was thinking. but yeah my friend got like a full tank of 100 oct saved up in his garage as a present for his birthday. is there an expiration date or time you should use it within before it becomes bad?

[mellowbob]

Keep a bottle of octane booster for emergencies.

[ruger11mcrdpi]

Hey this is a good thread... I've thought of this before.

What would be the harm from putting in 87 oct and a couple bottles of octane booster.

It seems like if u were careful it'd be no big deal... keep it under 4500RPMS, no WOT etc.

Anyone like a honda tech actually know????

[kdogg]

Originally Posted by asdf

its fine, just dont put a heavy load on it.

yea dont worry it only makes ur power output weak. say if you were getting 200 to the wheels with 91 and then u raped it again with 87 octane prob lose only like less than 10 hp to the wheels. no biggie i read it someone where that 91 93 only cuts your power.

[edrhee83]

Yea, some places are out of premium or midgrade. Only regular. What the heck is going on??

[4door]

well i used up the gal of 87...and 16 gas stations later i found some 93oct for 4.39

[soxfan143]

Octane is directly related to burn efficiency. The lower the octane the easier the fuel will ignite under pressure and possibly ignite prematurely. Premature ignition as also known as the dreaded knock. Now with a high compression motor like the Si the compression in the chamber on the compression stroke is way too much for 87 octane fuel. And with the high ignition timing this car runs on, the 87 octane gas is a recipe for disaster. You WILL get detonation from this. You might not hear it and the knock sensor will retard timing enough for you not to cause significant damage. But I would not run 87 octane ever in this car.

[portabuddy]

ok well late last week i FILLED my car with 87, purely by accident. since i have been soo swamped at work and i hgave to costantly fill up the delivery trucks i put 87 in my car...


Not a gallon, but a full 46l, from ~empty. well, unlike last time the car reacted well to it. no unusal noises, no loss in pawer at all...??? i did a few launches, tried accelerating up a hill, tried accelerating in a hear thats too high(from under 3000rpm) and the car pulled as usal. im not going to do it again(i hope) but your car wont blow up either....



The last time i was cheap(about 2 years ago), only had like $5 and wanted to get the best bang for my buck, I limped into the station with no bars for quite some time... put 87 in it, and PING-KLANG-TIK TIK TIK TIK.... sounded like garbage, no power at all....


But this time it went well, crused on the Highway and around town, even did a bit of spirited driving with no problems, However it the car sounded like it did last time, i was going to disconnect the fuel lines and drain the gas... Its my stupid mistake, i deserve the $75 punishment to re-fill it...

[soxfan143]

Do you even know how bad that ping-klang-tik-tik is for your motor? The pistins are trying to be spun backwards. The fuel is igniting while the piston is on it's way up on the compression stroke. This will cause serious problems. Like bent rods and broken pistons. So please don't make it out to be OK to use cheap gas in this car. Or there will be a lot of unhappy owners at the dealers with voided warranty claims when they test the fuel and find out it was run on 87 octane and the motor is rubbish.

[jdm free]

imho i think the whole "i need 93 gas or my engine goes kaboom" shit is all bull. Ive driven my gsr wit 120k on it for probably 10k miles using 87 octane and no knock. and that was beating the shit out of it.

i drive my si the same way whether its 87 or 93 octane. i dont develop a knock and runs the same way it does when i bought it, when i put 93 or 87 in. ive talked to honda, mercedes, and infiniti techs and theyve all said it really wont make too much of a difference if u dont put 93 in it.

i dont care too much to put 93 in since its only like a buck or two more than regular 87 octane anyway

[milestoneiii]

I'm not going to get in a heated debate about it, but if your car can't retard the timing enough, detonation is inevitable. If you're lucky, the car can compensate for it to a point. Either by richening the mixture wildly or what-have-you, it's still not an advisable task. Much like SoxFan has said, warranty doesn't cover engine replacement due to neglect. You may in fact be able to run the engine indefinitely on 87 gas, and your car may compensate well for it but not every car is the same, and honda safeguards this by requiring the 91-93 high octane. The math is very simple too. An 11-1 ratio is the extreme threshold for 87 gas and blowing the piston backwards is a very big deal. Just one knock in the right point of the stroke can blow the engine. Knock sensors (to the best of my knowledge) will try to prevent as much detonation as possible. Some may not ever experience an audible knock. It's just not worth the risk for daily driving. If you have to limp to a station, yes. If you can walk or ride, I wouldn't hesitate. Making a gas engine act as a diesel one is a huge mistake waiting to happen. If the chamber gets hot enough, and the compression is high enough, the fuel will burn as it enters the chamber also. This can of course fry valves and gaskets too. Just be real easy on it and stick to the recommended specs. Less worrying and risks. Just my opinion, guys.

[bluetwo]

A couple of people beat me to it. The bottom line is you'll be all right if all you do is burn that one gallon especially if you put an octane booster in it.

I had to use 88 or some odd crap when I drove my WRX through some insignifcant north west state and I just took it really easy and put octane booster in to help a little. The car obviously didn't like it because the power went way down, it wouldn't boost very high and of course I didn't like that.

[Implosive_Disgorgence]

last friday this happened in my area too

i was on 1 bar of gas for awhile, and every station i pulled up too said regular only.

9 gas stations later, i found ONE station with premium, thank the civic lord.