Gas

Gambini

Gambini

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I know that were supposed to use 93 octane or higher but seriously what damage can occur due to using 87 or 89 octane? I mean here in Miami and im pretty sure all over America gas of premium's is over 4 bucks...
 
this has been discussed and it's a fact that using anything under premium can potentially damage your car. but by all means use the cheaper gas, and a few months from now we will be answer your questions about why your car is making a pinging sound and it is feeling rougher. like many on here have said, if you could afford the car then you should be able to afford the gas it needs to run properly
 
The fact are - the LS does have a knock sensor so it technically can keep reducing spark to compensate for the lower octane gas - but your fuel economy will suffer - so you save a little on the pump but get worse mileage.

at $0.20 a gallon difference - $3.60 a fillup. You get much better savings by driving calmly (getting 22mpg vs 17mpg) than cheaping out on gas.
 
Based on Quick's mpg estimates (17mpg vs 22mpg)
18 Gallon tank
$3.80 for regular
$4.00 for premium

Regular:
18 x $3.80 = $68.40 per fill up
17mpg x 18 = 306 miles per tank
$68.40 / 306 = $.22 per mile

Premium:
18 x $4.00 = $72.00 per fill up
22mpg x 18 = 396 miles per tank
$72.00 / 396 = $.18 per mile

So... In the end, you are spending more money by using regular vs premium and possibly damaging your car.
 
I understand the comments being made, and using lower octane fuel in a car that requires premium can actually be counter-productive from a cost-savings standpoint; however, nowhere can I find in Lincoln literature that the LS requires 91+ octane fuel, only that it is recommended.

From the owner's manual:

"Your vehicle is designed to use "Premium" unleaded gasoline with an (R+M)/2 octane rating of 91 or higher for optimum performance. The use of lower octane ratings may degrade performance"

I'll also agree that $10 a week is not that big a deal. I just can't find anything that states a "mandatory-or-your-engine-will-fail" requirement.

Andy
 
dude i live in miami also and gas is hurting a bit 2, what i do is i switch around from premium to regular, but always using premium mostly. About engine damage occuring, well ive noticed that my car is knocking a bit mostly when i have it on drive and at idle, im taking it to the shop sometime this week, so ill keep you guys posted.

Eddy-Dr.LSEV8
 
I always used 87 and the car never knocked, pinged, whatever. I consistenly got 21-22 mpg with an equal mix of highway and local driving.
 
If you live at a high altitude; that is another consideration. The LS can only retard the the spark so far.

91 octane all the way; I will let the rest of you 87 octane people experiment.
 
TrickVert said:
I understand the comments being made, and using lower octane fuel in a car that requires premium can actually be counter-productive from a cost-savings standpoint; however, nowhere can I find in Lincoln literature that the LS requires 91+ octane fuel, only that it is recommended.
Click to expand...

On the inside of my gas door it has a big sticker that says "91+"
and in my manual:

ENGINE DATA
Engine 3.9L-4V V8 engine
Displacement 241 cid (3 949 cc)
Required fuel 91 octane
Firing order 1-5-4-2-6-3-7-8
Ignition system Coil on plug
Spark plug gap 0.040–0.044 inch (1.0–1.1mm)
Compression ratio 10.75:1
 
glanga said:
I always used 87 and the car never knocked, pinged, whatever. I consistenly got 21-22 mpg with an equal mix of highway and local driving.
Click to expand...

:bsflag: This isn't a if, ands, or buts kind of thing where you may experience these problems explained. YOU WILL!

When I got my car I was misinformed that I could use some 93 and some 87. Nothing but knock. I experimented myself to keep the tank full when I was not using the car for a few months over the winter to prevent condensation in the tank and nothing but knock when I used it those few times to keep it loose. The second that gas ran out this spring I filled it up with 91, no knock.
 
TrickVert said:
I understand the comments being made, and using lower octane fuel in a car that requires premium can actually be counter-productive from a cost-savings standpoint; however, nowhere can I find in Lincoln literature that the LS requires 91+ octane fuel, only that it is recommended.

From the owner's manual:

"Your vehicle is designed to use "Premium" unleaded gasoline with an (R+M)/2 octane rating of 91 or higher for optimum performance. The use of lower octane ratings may degrade performance"

I'll also agree that $10 a week is not that big a deal. I just can't find anything that states a "mandatory-or-your-engine-will-fail" requirement.

Andy
Click to expand...
Some things are learned over time with vehicles. Rule one; never use fuel rated lower than recommended. Rule two; using fuel higher than recommended without modifying timing or compression ratio does nothing for performance and may actualy decrease performance due to the slower burn rate of high octane fuel. The owner's manual is only a short explanation of a vehicle's general requirements. It is not meant to be the definitive resource for all things related to engine performance.
 
This little motor is too high of a compression ratio to use anything lower than the suggested 91. Do it if you want, but don't come on here bitching when you pop headgaskets.
 
If you can't even afford the $10 or so a week for the correct gas, what are you going to do when something breaks??

Don't buy an expensive car if you can't afford the extra expenses that go along with it.
 
Bro, I live down here in the keys. I have on a couple occasions used regular insted of premium by accident (work truck takes regular). My LS pings terribly on the 87. I don't know if it is causing any damage, but just listening to it makes me nervous. I will admit that I have a good tune from Torrie, and it might not ping so badly with a stock tune.
 
JWerner2 said:
:bsflag: This isn't a if, ands, or buts kind of thing where you may experience these problems explained. YOU WILL!

When I got my car I was misinformed that I could use some 93 and some 87. Nothing but knock. I experimented myself to keep the tank full when I was not using the car for a few months over the winter to prevent condensation in the tank and nothing but knock when I used it those few times to keep it loose. The second that gas ran out this spring I filled it up with 91, no knock.
Click to expand...

Normally I'd get pissed for you calling BS to me on something as asinine as this but you can say what you want, I never put anything more than 87 in the LS except for an occasion where I forgot I was in the LS and not the V and accidentaly put premium and never noticed a difference in mileage or engine habit.

I do know the difference in engine manner too since if I accidentally put 87 in the V it would knock, ping, whatever its called, terribly.

A good friend who is a head mechanic at a Ford dealer always told me that yeah, a manufacturer reccomendation is a manufacturer reccomendation and that majority of people don't follow the specific manufacturers reccomendation anyway, whether its gas grade or servicing schedules. Almost no one follows them down to a T and I doubt every single person that has ever put 87 in their LS has experienced bad gas mileage, pinging, knocking, and blown gaskets. I never experienced anything negative related to putting in 87. Like I said, the car never had engine knocking, pinging, or bad gas mileage with it consistently being in the 21-22 mpg range with an equal mix of highway and city. Coils went bad a lot on the LS but he assured me that it wasn't caused by the gas I was putting in and never advised me to change what gas I was using.

GM also reccomends premium gas for the 98 Seville, but I've put 87 in it since the day I've owned it back with 20,000 miles in 2000. It has close to 160,000 now and runs like the day I bought it, and trip computer states it's getting between 20-21 mpg. The only thing I've done with that religiously is put 87 in there and get oil changes every 4000 miles. I've never had any major work done to engine. The most expensive thing done to it was a new radiator and suspension work.

So personally, putting 87 in 2 of the 3 V8s has never had a negative impact in engine mannerism and mpg for me. The CTS-V, however, noticeably acts different.
 
You aren't getting pissed cause its the truth. I don't mean to be offensive but what else can I say. No one on this forum should believe it either and I doubt they will. Honestly I also doubt you are the only person that has this magic 3.9 liter that can with stand such low octane dude. It dont exist.

They make these recommendations for a reason. I can see using it here and there but not consistently. So either you have told a lie in the fact that you used only 87 or you told a lie in the fact that you never experienced a single one of these problems. At the least I know you would have had some kind of pinging.

What is really asinine is the fact you would make such a statement.

Like I said, the car never had engine knocking, pinging, or bad gas mileage with it consistently being in the 21-22 mpg range with an equal mix of highway and city.
Click to expand...

Again :bsflag: . In no way is it possible unless you don't have any ( or very few ) stop signs or street lights can you have the same millage on highway and city/ in town.
 
You can think what you want. Why would I lie about my gas mileage? If it really was bad and my engine was constantly crapping out or pinging because of it then I would be complaining just like everyone else. Unless the attendants just gave me premium gas for free without my knowledge, again, the trip computer fluctuated between 21 and 22 with an occasional 19 to 20 if I hadn't been on the highway in some time. The car never pinged or knocked or ran rough except when I had a bad coil and again, I know what it feels like and what the symptoms are since I have mistakenly put 87 in a car that really does need premium fuel and blatantly lets me know that.
 
I don't know why anyone would lie. Maybe its just not a lie, but its not possible.

I don't like taking things this far and being a real big prick but I think by searching other posts you made that you did enough complaining about your car for me and anyone else to think otherwise.

There is no reason to take this discussion farther. Enough people here should have the common sense to not believe that this could ever be true.

If you feel the need to reply then go right ahead but it still stands that you should follow the recommendations on fuel type and they do make these recommendations for a reason and is it in no way possible that you out of all the other people here that own a LS had the privilege of using cheap gas.
 
i have noticed a difference using premium, but people saying don't buy and expensive car if you don't want to use the right gas or whatever, my car wasn't even expensive, bought it for under 10 grand, so yeah but when i had my eldorado it said to use premium and i never did and never noticed any difference when i did put premium in on occasion.
 
pcolasfinest said:
i have noticed a difference using premium, but people saying don't buy and expensive car if you don't want to use the right gas or whatever, my car wasn't even expensive, bought it for under 10 grand, so yeah but when i had my eldorado it said to use premium and i never did and never noticed any difference when i did put premium in on occasion.
Click to expand...

I don't get it. Are you saying that now with the LS you noticed the difference?

I am sure the Eldorado was nothing like the LS for one and I think the biggest reason may be that since it was run on low octane for so long it may have been dirtied or possibly damaged ( I am not positive so correct me someone if that is not possible ) and needed a good cleaning of the injectors and fuel line or maybe even other things.
 
pcolasfinest said:
i have noticed a difference using premium, but people saying don't buy and expensive car if you don't want to use the right gas or whatever, my car wasn't even expensive, bought it for under 10 grand, so yeah but when i had my eldorado it said to use premium and i never did and never noticed any difference when i did put premium in on occasion.
Click to expand...

You paid $10k for a 2000? You should have shopped around a little, you could have gotten a much better deal ;).

Just because your car is used and costs less now, doesn't mean that all of the sudden gas and repairs cost less. As a car ages the value of the car depreciates, but the cost of gas and repairs does not (if anything, they go up).
 
Oops I just realized. To the original poster of this thread it is 91+ that is recommended.

Just thought I would toss that in just in case you honestly thought it has been 93+.


You paid $10k for a 2000? You should have shopped around a little, you could have gotten a much better deal .
Click to expand...

You know it always depends on what year he bought it and how many miles were on it.;)

I paid 15K for mine. Guess when with how many miles.
 
Hmmm...i caught this forum by a misclick,but it was interesting so i read it. This is my rule of thumb with octane. Some cars gauge clusters have in them..."premium fuel recommended" and some say "premium fuel required". But,on an engine with that much compression,i might try 89 octane,but never 87. Some damage may occur,and you may see it later than sooner. But if you sell or trade the car,someone else may see it sooner that later. My dad always told me...you get what you pay for,and this also holds true to gasoline.
 
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