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Re: Octane (again)
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Posted by Ari [Email] (#2847) [Profile/Gallery] (more from Ari) on Wed, 17 Jan 2001 11:20:51 Share Post by Email
In Reply to: Octane (again), Chuck P, Wed, 17 Jan 2001 08:18:32
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Short answer - you're doing fine, and not harming your engine.

Octane is just a rating of how resistant the fuel is to knock. The Saab turbo engine reduces the boost if it detects knock. If it doesn't detect knock, it doesn't reduce boost.

Whether your engine will knock with a specific octane fuel depends on a lot of things - engine timing, condition of the spark plugs, carbon buildup, outside air temperature, how hard you're driving the car, and many, many other things. If you reliably get full boost on 87 octane with your car, then running higher octane is a waste of money. If the engine isn't knocking now, buying fuel with even more resistance to knock is useless. Higher octane fuel contains no more usable energy, doesn't 'burn cleaner', and can't improve your sex life or keep baldness at bay.

Each engine is different - they're different when they leave the factory, and they change with use. My two '88 9000Ts run happy as clams on '87 octane. Full boost, no knock. My '86 900T had basically the exact same engine, but it wouldn't run at full boost without 91 octane. But I could have saved money and run 87 octane in the car and not reduced its life - in fact it would have probably increased it. I would have gotten less boost, which is less stress on the engine. But I wanted the performance, and was willing to pay extra for it.

As to your knock sensor not working, first, I sincerely doubt it. If your engine is knocking, you'll know it both as hearing it, and that you'd notice a reduction in power. Knocking engines produce less power than an engine where the fuel is burning when and how it's supposed to.

So run the lowest octane fuel you can and still get the performance you want. 'Premium' fuel sometimes contains more detergents and cleaners than lower grades (but not always), so if you're really paranoid, take a very small portion of your savings and buy a can of good quality fuel injection cleaner and drop it into your tank every three months.

Good luck!
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