Gas

I believe I have been convinced to change my habits.

I have had my 2000 LS V8 for about 3 months now, I bought it from a colleague at work who had the car since it was new. He had for the past 8 years put 89 octane gas in it and so I have continued to do the same. He certainly had the means to put premium in it and so do I, but hey, we are accountants and are frugal/cost-conscious by nature. There are no engine pings or obvious signs of lost performance, but I am thinking I am losing out on gas mileage. I live & work in the suburbs and I get 15.5 MPG, perhaps I could get closer to 17 MPG using premium. Tomorrow I'm filling up with premium and we'll see what happens...
 
You will do even better using 87:lol:
 
in the State of Washington the difference in cost for reg vs. Prem. is 10 cents. or $1.40 per 14 gal of gas. The cost of a top end valve repair is about $2,500.

If you purchase 1785 fillups at 14 gal. you can break even in cost.
 
Dude, just use premium. If anything, you will gain peace of mind and if you do start experiencing pinging or other problems, you can attribute it to the ignition and eliminate the fuel being the problem.

Also, another fact about premium fuel. The fuel stations are cheap, they do not like to maintain their pumps. Premium is the least sold fuel at any given station. The in-line filters in the pump (If the pump has three seperate handles/hoses) are cleaner and filter better. Also, they dont fill the premium fuel holding tanks as often which means for less "stirring" of the tank, less trash in your car.
 
91+ only for me. I'm a working 9-5 guy with a mortgage, child support pmts, private school tuition x 2, shop for the best deals, use coupons, and more. But I'm just not that cheap to put 87 in the LS.
 
its not about being cheap or not.. but is there any substantial proof that PROVES putting lower octane gas will damage your vehicle.... yes we know perfomance will suffer ok... thats not the point... will the vehicle get damaged you guys seem to miss the point
 
97stscaddy said:
If you want to know what kind of damage can be cause by using lower grade fuel, read this: http://www.streetrodstuff.com/Articles/Engine/Detonation/
Then if you decide you want to run regular, be my guest.
Click to expand...

Agreed, IF detonation is occurring. Only some people have indicated they have an issue (and the sounds at idle mentioned in a previous post will not be fuel-related unless physical damage has already occurred).

I've run 87 in my 2003 since purchasing it several months ago, have heard not a single ping, and am averaging 21.4 MPG according to the computer. Now, as the weather warms, I might consider bumping up the octane if necessary, but to this point, I've had no problems. (I also don't drive it like I stole it either..... much.)

Andy
 
TrickVert said:
I've run 87 in my 2003 since purchasing it several months ago, have heard not a single ping, and am averaging 21.4 MPG according to the computer. Now, as the weather warms, I might consider bumping up the octane if necessary, but to this point, I've had no problems. (I also don't drive it like I stole it either..... much.)

Andy
Click to expand...

Funny... same circumstances for me. Same car/year, same gas, same mpg, same driving style as you and I get called a bs'ing liar by some toolbag in here saying that it is impossible to acheive no pinging or knocking and that kind of mileage using only 87. I beleive you but a certain idiot skeptic who obviously doesn't know much about these cars, or any in general, won't believe you

From what I have always understood from licensed Ford mechanics, not forum jockeys, is that the car will protect itself with the anti knock sensor by retarding the timing. This will not affect your MPG, only your power output. And the sensor also retards the timing to protect your car from detonation damage.
 
glanga said:
Funny... same circumstances for me. Same car/year, same gas, same mpg, same driving style as you and I get called a bs'ing liar by some toolbag in here saying that it is impossible to acheive no pinging or knocking and that kind of mileage using only 87. I beleive you but a certain idiot skeptic who obviously doesn't know much about these cars, or any in general, won't believe you
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You both should be advised that you may not always hear detonation. The sound you may or may not hear can be anywhere from a very faint pinging sound, to very loud hammering knocking sound. If you drive with a very light foot, and have adaptive computer timing, you can "get away with" lower than required octane. But if you ever need to really accelerate hard, the damage can be immediate and without warning. Having put holes in the tops of pistons, I can attest to how fast it can happen. The stock computer program probably has fail safe margins built into the program. But any High Performance tune applied to the ECU will cause detonation on low octane fuel.
 
I have driven with my mechanic with a real time engine sensor program on his palm pilot plugged into the OBDII. He saw absolutely no problems with the engine and I was running 87 at the time. I have no problem with a lower power output since I rarely floored the car or pushed it into high rpms. I never tuned the car with a programmer. The most was an intake which was short lived.

He did advise me that 91+ was reccomended but that it wouldn't damage the car using 87 anymore than constantly hammering down on it and that majority of people don't use the reccomended 91+ and he has yet to seen mass engine faliure due to people not following this reccomendation.
 
I wounder why Ford would develop and requirer 91 vehicle if not needed, must be a conspiracy with the petroleum company's, yeah thats the ticket.
 
I wonder why of six different dealerships I called, five of the service managers said it was a recommendation, but not required. Only one told me it is actually a recommendation, but he'd consider it a requirement and suggest 91+ only, as he needs to "cover his butt."

And I would suspect that while the majority of folks on this board are automotive enthusiasts, and have read the owner's manual cover to cover, 75% of LS drivers have never cracked the binding, except to see how to change the time on the clock, and are running 87 without issue.

If Ford had the factory tune to such a narrow margin that 87-octane fuel would destroy the engine, I'd think they'd have stated "REQUIRED" rather than "recommended," and would have a placard on the sun visor and a red flashing indicator in the fuel filler cap. Now, go to a tuner, and get things to the peak of performance with advanced timing curves, and all bets are off. I had an 87 Mustang with timing advanced to the point that it would ping like mad with anything less than Sunoco 94.

All this said, I've already considered a change to higher octane for the summer months, as there is increased potential for detonation with higher temps.

Bottom line:

There will be those who use 87 octane without care, concern, or problem.
There will be those who do so, experience pinging, pay attention, and upgrade their fuel.
And there will be those who "hear a weird noise," and figure it'll go away if they drive faster, then wonder why they're at the garage a month later.

The other school will follow the recommendation, pay a bit more for their gas, and have the peace of mind of following father Ford's suggestion, and getting top performance from their luxury sedan, with little or no risk of fuel-related catastrophic engine failure.

Either way, you're likely not going to convert one to the other no matter how many pages this post generates. :D

Andy
 
Some people have different experiences with lower grade fuel. When I bought mine the dealer filled it with regular, it pinged like there was no tomorrow no matter how easy I was on the gas. I had to buy 6 bottles of Octane booster to make it stop.
 
Idiot skeptic?

That sucks I had this spoiled brat on my ignore list and some one goes and quotes him....lol!

Dude you are a spoiled douche!

Any time you feel like it you can come up my way if you really wanna make that mistake over something so simple as this.

Your comments just look dumber and dumber.
 
either way ...

im sittin in class right now talking about gas prices....

the way that gas prices are going it seems that we are going to hit $7.00 by summer....:eek:


ima have to buy a homda ruckus ...... that be kinda cool though :)
 
we must be on the look out for these rich car and oil company's watch out ufo conspirators here we come lol
 
I'm going out and getting a Diesel. But I don't wanna use Diesel so I'll just use 87.

I wonder if the trucking industry is part of some kind of conspiracy also?
 
JWerner2 said:
I'm going out and getting a Diesel. But I don't wanna use Diesel so I'll just use 87.

I wonder if the trucking industry is part of some kind of conspiracy also?
Click to expand...

:bowrofl: :bowrofl:
 
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