premium or regular gas?

lking

lking

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premium or regular gas? iv'e always been putting premium but i;m wondering now if i can get away with putting regular gas? without doing any damage to the engine or fuel injectors/other parts

only difference i know of is the car is more responsive when you use premium i'm very easy on the gas most of the time

what are the long term differences?
 
search it... discussed many times... long term damage from lower octane
 
Lets see.... When you come to a red light, do you go through it or you stop?
Most likely the second option. So, just like you follow the directions on the road, follow the directions on your gas filler door.

I was running 75 octane in my Ls and had no problems.
 
That's close to a religious question.

Your engine has a knock sensor. As long as you trust that this sensor is working correctly, then the PCM will retard the timing as knocking occurs, before damage is done. If the sensor fails, you may do some serious engine damage, or you may still be okay. I've heard that running with retarded timing will cause the valves and cylinders to carbon up more. I don't know if that is really true or not.

Why do you want to use lower octane? If its because you can't get the correct octane, then that's one thing. If its to save money, then you are being foolish. The reduction is mileage will more than offset the lower price per gallon, so you'll lose money.

If you're worried about the cost of running your car, then the LS is not the right car for you.
 
joegr said:
If the sensor fails, you may do some serious engine damage, or you may still be okay.
Click to expand...

GM cars have a knock sensor failsafe. When the sensor fails it sets the light and retards timing way back to protect it from detonation, which feels like you are running on half an engine. It's bad enough that it makes you want to run straight to the dealer to get it fixed. Does Ford not have this sort of failsafe?
 
Telco said:
...Does Ford not have this sort of failsafe?
Click to expand...

Not that I'm aware of. I wonder how they detect (with certainty) that the sensor can no longer hear pings from the engine?

Edit: Apparently it has something to do with noise from the engine at startup.
 
quick question, in the great white north, does the sticker on the gas door, recommend that you use premium gas, or does is specifically say not to use non premium gas?
 
1LoudLS said:
quick question, in the great white north, does the sticker on the gas door, recommend that you use premium gas, or does is specifically say not to use non premium gas?
Click to expand...

the sticker on the gas door says to use premium gas
 
joegr said:
Not that I'm aware of. I wonder how they detect (with certainty) that the sensor can no longer hear pings from the engine?

Edit: Apparently it has something to do with noise from the engine at startup.
Click to expand...

When I took my truck out for its initial run after sticking the new engine in I forgot to connect the knock sensor wire and missed it on the final check as the stupid thing is behind the intake. As soon as the engine warmed up and went closed loop it set a code for the knockers. Facesmacked myself, connected the knockers as well as the cam sensor (back of the engine) and the codes were cleared and power returned.
 
Even with gas prices now, premium is only maybe 30-40 cents more then regular. Lets say 40-cents being nice. It's an extra $6.80 assuming you needs 17-gallons (the LS' tank size) to fill up. Lets say you fill up a full 17 gallons every week, you are talking $353.60/year.

To me it's worth $353.60/year to not have to fix any more then necessary. Just think of the 91+ octane sticker on the gas cap door as preventative maintenance that cost you $7/tank.

To frame the big picture, buying 17-gallons of premium every week for a year around me would cost $3474.12 (17gal*$3.93/gal). It's not worth it to save 10% on my fuel cost compared to what it's going to cost me to fix anything that bad gas will potentially destroy.

Maybe the problem is that I'm not thinking Canadian enough. Is the difference between regular and premium there something astronomical compared to here? Queue the great white north! *grabs a molson*
 
This thread keeps coming back.

Run what you want. I've run the last 50,000 on regular and the first 100,000 on premium. Previous car (also FoMoCo) required premium and I ran first 100,000 on premium and next 180,000 on regular.

When an engine problem develops I'll let you know.
 
^ so then for clarity, are you telling the OP that there is no danger to the motor running reg gas???
 
If someone doesn't want to spend the extra cents per gallon then why would they buy an LS
 
because with deprecation, too many LS's cost less than some civics.
 
1LoudLS said:
because with deprecation, too many LS's cost less than some civics.
Click to expand...

true but make no mistake my friends my LS is probably one of the best condition and lowest mileage LS on this site not my daily driver so it sits in the garage most the time with only about 44000 miles even underneath the car looks new muhahah
 
lking said:
true but make no mistake my friends my LS is probably one of the best condition and lowest mileage LS on this site not my daily driver so it sits in the garage most the time with only about 44000 miles even underneath the car looks new muhahah
Click to expand...

pics?
 
I just wanted to see how clean his LS is if it's one of the "best condition" cars on the site
 
Wow, for how under powered these cars are with premium I can't imagine how much power the PCM would pull out to run on regular...

My '93 Mustang I had to retard the timing two additional degrees for each pound of boost to run 87 vs. 93 and it didn't feel weaker until I filled it with 93 and dialed the timing back up. 5psi old school Paxton on a 10-1 306 with heads, etc.
 
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