Question about octane

There's a Sphinx near me that has 105 octane gas. Assuming money is no issue, what exactly would I need to do to run that high octane fuel in my GP, and can I put it in a stock '96 Corvette?

Put it in the car and drive it. Nothing special needs to be done or higher octane fuel. Your car will treat you special and thats about it.

Higher octane gas does not produce more power or give you better mileage.

The higher the octane, the higher the temperature and pressure required to detonate the fuel.


But its definitely good for bragging =)

make sure its unleaded tho or you will cause nothing but problems

It gives as much power as the type-r sticker on a civic, for a stock vehicle anyway.

I know all that. I was just wondering if I needed to do anything (like a pcm tune or something IDK) to run it is all.
Guess not?

You're good to go. But unless you are running into knock right now it's only going to drain your wallet quicker.

really high compression.

like 14:1 :p

but just make sure its not leaded gas!!!! if its unleaded than put it in and run it, our exaust will start smelling good to
if it has lead and u run it kiss ur cat, o2's, and a few othere things good bye

How much do they charge?

only benefit (stock) would be if you had knock from running too much timing. if you have a tuner, you can benefit from higher octane since it will allow you to run higher timing.

actually u can use an E85/prem mix since e85 is like 110/115 octane i think

I haven't checked since prices dropped. When they were still making my wallet cry it was around $5.50 or something outrageous like that.

Ya and you'll destroy your fuel system trying to run the E-85.

Not worth it.

As for the OP unless you tune your car for some serious advance on the timing what ever you pay over 92 octane is a complete waste of money.

Like was states above you need some serious compression to have any benifit of 105 octane.

how will you destroy your fuel system ? i know you need larger inj to help make up for the fuel, you need more of it, im talken like like 1 1/2 gal e85 then rest prem, in a 5 gal can

How about in said '96 Corvette? Does the same go for that? It already runs on 93 premium.

Doesn't e85 at a certain percentage eat your fuel lines?

yep, any stock or mildly modified car will have no use for the race gas. You may even lose performance.

people seem to think "race gas" means it will make the car faster, but its not like that.

the race gas is actually resists ignition to a certain point, like when you have a high compression engine, the compression alone could ignite the gas before the spark plug does, obviously that is not a good thing. therefore the race high octane gas is used.

compression causes heat, diesels do not even need a spark plug to run, because the compression alone ignites the fuel.

so unless you feel like wasting money, stick to the lower octane fuel.

from wiki, regarding e85:

E-85 ethanol is used in engines modified to accept higher concentrations of ethanol. Such flexible-fuel vehicles (FFV) are designed to run on any mixture of gasoline or ethanol with up to 85% ethanol by volume. There are a few major differences between FFVs and non-FFVs. One is the elimination of bare magnesium, aluminum, and rubber parts in the fuel system. Another is that fuel pumps must be capable of operating with electrically conductive ethanol instead of non-conducting dielectric gasoline fuel. Fuel injection control systems have a wider range of pulse widths to inject approximately 40% more fuel. Stainless steel fuel lines, sometimes lined with plastic, and stainless steel fuel tanks in place of terne fuel tanks are used. In some cases, FFVs use acid-neutralizing motor oil. For vehicles with fuel-tank mounted fuel pumps, additional differences to prevent arcing, as well as flame arrestors positioned in the tank's fill pipe, are also sometimes used.[citations needed]

e85 can be run with the newer style gas tanks, supposedly. That would be my only concern, the o-rings are viton which is fine with e85.

I have never seen a gas station with E-85...

do a google search for e85 then try to find it localy

i have seen many gp'ers that run e85 in there gp, but they have to upgrade to 65lb inj and fuel pump, you burn more fuel to make up for the performance that you loose with reg fuel such as 93 octane fuel, so in fact your mpg goes down, but its kind of a toss up between lower fuel price and mpg, because the car i have seen run it he has a full size ic, he upgraded to 65 lb inj and converted to e85 in that he was able to drop pulleys again

What about the aluminum fuel lines and such? Or how about a fuel pump that won't ignite it?

It's not worth the hassle.

fuel pump that would ignite it ? i think you would have bigger problems if your fuel pump would ignite it lol

the only problem will be any rubber lines, not sure if there are any or not. most of the system is steel including the tanks and lines, which is fine for e85.

the only section is a small amount from the rails to the steel lines

Aha...ok so, unless I get a completely new fuel system on both cars and higher compression on the GP, e85 is a no go.

Thx guys!

hercman is right, the e85 can carry a current, regular gasoline can not so you need a pump that will work with that type of fuel (the e85 COULD allow an arc of electricity through it, and possibly cause the fuel to ignite). I am not sure if the grand prix pump would be ok or not.

Does that mean if you ran e85 your car would blow up? Well I wouldn't want to be the test mule for that!

It still takes quite a bit of work to run e85 properly, and you need to tune for the fuel. It takes more energy to burn, so you would lose power, and that is why guys drop a pulley to get that power back.

its not worth it in my opinion.

no he dropped pulleys because he added the 65lb inj to add for the extra fuel, and since he added the larger inj he dropped pulleys

There are many people who run e85 with w-bodies, haven't heard any reports of explosions yet. You only lose power if you don't tune for it... there is less energy per gallon of e85, but there is also much more resistance to detonation. So you make up for the loss in energy with a) higher flow rate and b) higher timing and/or higher boost. The benefits of e85 are the same as the benefits of race fuel. Whether or not you take advantage of the POTENTIAL power increase is up to you.

In any case, I WOULD recommend you be very proficient with a tuner before considering e85.

i wish i could run e85 but we have few places close to me that sell it

So are you all saying it should be used in heavily modified or FFV engines only?

yes.

or modded enough to run e85