I am with you 100% and you’re living the dream. I am jealous, but my present commute would never accomodate this :(
Higher octane gas is not more energy dense than normal gas. Octane is a measure of the fuel’s ability to resist combustion. Some more highly strung engines require higher octane fuel. Others will run fine on “regular”, but have sensors that enable them to do things like advance the ignition timing, change cam timing and phasing, etc to make more power with higher octane fuel. The final camp of engines is optimized for regular fuel and putting higher octane fuel in them won’t measurably impact performance (power, fuel economy), but it might make the engine sound a little nicer due to reduced pinging. Not that you would even hear that in a modern vehicle thanks to all the optimization and sound deadening.
But! At $2/week in fuel you have very little to lose. If it’s fuel injected and has coil on pack ignition, it might even be able to take a touch more power by running more aggressive ignition timing.
I keep going back and forth about whether I’m imagining it gives better performance or it actually does 😅
I vaguely knew “higher octane” didn’t mean higher percentage of 8-C hydrocarbons but definitely believed the misconception that it was higher energy density. Hm.
It definitely doesn’t have much in the way of sensors (though it does seem to adjust the idle speed in cold weather through some mechanism). It has spark plugs and a carburetor so no dice on coil on pack ignition or fuel injection.
The mechanic I took it to did say he thought it would run better in cold weather with higher octane fuel but didn’t elaborate.
I am with you 100% and you’re living the dream. I am jealous, but my present commute would never accomodate this :(
Higher octane gas is not more energy dense than normal gas. Octane is a measure of the fuel’s ability to resist combustion. Some more highly strung engines require higher octane fuel. Others will run fine on “regular”, but have sensors that enable them to do things like advance the ignition timing, change cam timing and phasing, etc to make more power with higher octane fuel. The final camp of engines is optimized for regular fuel and putting higher octane fuel in them won’t measurably impact performance (power, fuel economy), but it might make the engine sound a little nicer due to reduced pinging. Not that you would even hear that in a modern vehicle thanks to all the optimization and sound deadening.
But! At $2/week in fuel you have very little to lose. If it’s fuel injected and has coil on pack ignition, it might even be able to take a touch more power by running more aggressive ignition timing.
I keep going back and forth about whether I’m imagining it gives better performance or it actually does 😅
I vaguely knew “higher octane” didn’t mean higher percentage of 8-C hydrocarbons but definitely believed the misconception that it was higher energy density. Hm.
It definitely doesn’t have much in the way of sensors (though it does seem to adjust the idle speed in cold weather through some mechanism). It has spark plugs and a carburetor so no dice on coil on pack ignition or fuel injection.
The mechanic I took it to did say he thought it would run better in cold weather with higher octane fuel but didn’t elaborate.