[Don Clarence]

do you use?

A service manager at a local Honda dealership told me it is better to fill up with 87 Octane gas. I was told it yields better mileage and actually helps the engine run better and cleaner. So I checked with my mechanic and he sort of confirms that too. What do you guys think?

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Proud owner of:
01' MB Ody EX W/NAVI
01' SM Accord V6 EX

Don Clarence's Ody pics

 

[adam1991]

To start with, on a brand new car, use the gas that's recommended by the manufacturer. For 01 and lower, maximum horsepower was gained by using premium fuel (high octane). Changes to the 02 model made that unnecessary for maximum horsepower.

See the following resources:

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/autos/gasoline-faq/

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/autos/octane.htm

 

[darelldd]

Clarence -

Read up all you can on octane. The knowledge will take you far. The links Adam just posted are a great place to start.

In short - Your engine will be fine running on regular unleaded. That's all you need. Running higher octane gas will not increase your mileage, nor will it keep your engine cleaner. It will give you maximum HP, but you'll only notice that when you use 100% throttle. If you never or rarely do that, stick with regular. The anti-knock compounds cost more, create more pollution, and have a lower caloric value (on purpose) than gasoline. If your engine never pings, there is no reason to burn higher octane fuel.

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-= Darell =-
2002 Ody EXL-Nav (TW) ordered, but apparently never coming.
2001 Civic EX

[This message has been edited by darelldd (edited 10-09-2001).]

 

[darelldd]

Oops. The easy answer is:

Regular.

 

[Kuruma Hayai]

Geez, I didn't read this before I filled up this morning. I filled it up with Premium. And it's a lot of gas

. You learn from your mistakes. Until next time.

What's with Methanol? I didn't realize I can't even use it in my Civic. I've been using Sunoco Ultra since Oct 2000. I've got that habit of sticking with one brand. Will have to change gas stations now.

 

[Don Clarence]

I was also told, that if using higher Octane, i.e. 92 gas, it would leave more carbon deposit in the engine. That'll eventually hurt the engine (i.e. resulting in hard start, etc...) when it reaches around 30000 miles. Is that true?

 

[Jerry O1]

Darell has said it all. I really feel NO difference when using premium and you will not, either, unless you are exploring the high regions of the rpm range at full throttle.

Jerry O. 2001 GG LX

 

[Yur]

Try to read the latest issue of Car and Driver. They did a test on the perofrmance of different grade of gas on the car. The stange result come from a V-6 Accord where the lower grade actually creat more power and better acceleration. Other car tested had minimal effect. Check it out.

 

[darelldd]

Unfortunately, most drivers become married to the gasoline marketing way to easily. The marketers would have you believe that premium gasoline is a "more powerful" fuel and a "cleaner-burning fuel." Neither statement is true, of course, but it is the most commont sentiment out there. There was a time when certain oil companies were putting more detergents in their higher grades, but that isn't the case any more.

Higher octane gas ("premium" or "super") simply indicates a fuel into which products have been mixed for the express purpose of slowing down the combustion process. If a given engine preignites (also called pinging or knocking) before it can generate full power, using higher octane fuel can help the engine acheive full rated power. The "premium" fuel itself is not better, cleaner or more powerful. It is simply the correct fuel for those engines that require it. It costs more to make, so it costs more to buy. Dumping higher octane fuel into an engine designed to run on "regular" will not increase the engine's performance. Ever. In fact, it would insignificantly degrade the performance since the higher-octane fuel has lower a caloric value.

As you can tell, this is a sensitive subject to me, and I wish the big oil companies were held more accountable for their advertising. There are those who swear they see signifacant mileage differences when burning the different grades. If that were true, auto manufacturers would ALL require super unleaded so they could post the better mileage numbers on the sticker.

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-= Darell =-
2002 Ody EXL-Nav (TW) ordered, but apparently never coming.
2001 Civic EX

 

[darelldd]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Don Clarence:
I was also told, that if using higher Octane, i.e. 92 gas, it would leave more carbon deposit in the engine. That'll eventually hurt the engine (i.e. resulting in hard start, etc...) when it reaches around 30000 miles. Is that true?</font>

As much as I hate to see people using higher octane fuel than they need, I seriously doubt it would ever harm an engine. If you use a fuel with a good detergent package (my research and real-world experience has shown Chevron to have the best package) you should never have to worry about fuel-related problems regardless of fuel grade.


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-= Darell =-
2002 Ody EXL-Nav (TW) ordered, but apparently never coming.
2001 Civic EX

 

[adam1991]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Unfortunately, most drivers become married to the gasoline marketing way to easily.</font>

And THAT sums it up nicely.

Like Darrell said, there was a time years ago, when the refineries used detergents and additive packages as a way to steer you to their higher octane (read: higher priced, higher profit) fuels. If you wanted the additives and detergents, you bought the premium. If you didn't buy premium, you didn't get the additives and detergents.

That's gone away--all grades of virtually every brand use the same additives and detergents--but many people don't realize it. They just remember what the marketing spiel was, and they've hung onto that ever since then, and continue to buy "premium" fuel "for the goodies". Shoot, even the naming of the fuel--"premium"--is designed to make you think you're getting something better.

That's just one example of the marketing of gasoline.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">As you can tell, this is a sensitive subject to me, and I wish the big oil companies were held more accountable for their advertising.</font>

For God's sake, Darell, don't get intense.

 

[darelldd]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by adam1991:
For God's sake, Darell, don't get intense.

</font>

Ha. too late.

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-= Darell =-
2002 Ody EXL-Nav (TW) ordered, but apparently never coming.
2001 Civic EX

 

[kyleluong]

I think that we all have mentioned great points here. I just like to add that there were Hondas from 1996 that had carbon build up if "premium" was used. This was due to the air/fuel tuning that was optimized for 87 Octance fuel. Honda has since corrected the "problem", but that just goes to show you that 92 octance fuel is NOT required, unless maybe you are towing, driving in extreeme dry heat, etc.

 

[HawaiiOdy]

Page 232 of the '02 Owners manual:

"Your Honda is designed to operate on unleaded gasoline with a pump octane number of 86 or higher".

 

[famguy]

It seems most people are happy with the 87 octane. It is said that using premium 91 octane fuel gives the Ody 210 hp and 229 lbs. torque, and using regular gives it 205 hp and 219 torque. So, what if I use 89 octane? Will I get approx. 208 hp and 225 lbs. torque? Just curious. I pump 89 octane in the Odyssey just in case. I've had cars knock on me before so I use 89 octane to be safe.

 

[darelldd]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by famguy:
I've had cars knock on me before so I use 89 octane to be safe. </font>

Just because other cars have knocked certainly doesn't mean a new Honda engine will. Please don't waste your money or our environment needlessly. Give regular a shot. If it ever does knock, go back to higher octane. I'll bet you won't be able to make it knock though.


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-= Darell =-
2002 Ody EXL-Nav (TW) ordered, but apparently never coming.
2001 Civic EX

 

[darelldd]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by famguy:
So, what if I use 89 octane? Will I get approx. 208 hp and 225 lbs. torque? </font>

That is probably roughly what you'll experience. If you don't notice the loss of power to wind drag when you roll a window down, you aren't ever going to notice a 2-3 HP gain from using higher octane fuel. And again, the increase will only be felt at near 100% throttle.

------------------
-= Darell =-
2002 Ody EXL-Nav (TW) ordered, but apparently never coming.
2001 Civic EX

 

[Intrepid175]

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by darelldd:
That is probably roughly what you'll experience. If you don't notice the loss of power to wind drag when you roll a window down, you aren't ever going to notice a 2-3 HP gain from using higher octane fuel. And again, the increase will only be felt at near 100% throttle.
</font>

Yeah, what Darelldd said!

I did a little experiment on the first trip I took with my '01 LX. I ran regular on the way out and premium on the way back, about 2500 miles round trip. I got from the mid 24's to the low 26's in fuel mileage (with the premium doing slightly worse than the regular) in all my highway driving regardless of the type of fuel I was burning. Wind direction seem to play a much bigger role in my fuel consumption than fuel octane did.

As for performance? I could feel "absolutely" no difference in how my Odyssey ran. That includes full throttle accelerations during passing maneuvers and freeway on-ramps. IMO, the less than 10 hp you gain by running premium fuel simply isn't noticable in a 4000+ lb vehicle.

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Drive Safe,
Steve R.
'01 SS LX
Cargo tray, leather steering wheel, mud guards, alarm, fog lights, transmission cooler, in-dash CD player, Kelton subwoofer, under seat storage tray.

[This message has been edited by Intrepid175 (edited 10-10-2001).]

 

[Snowfanatic]

I agree that regular is all you need.

However...watch when you leave the midwest travelling thru Colorado, Montana etc....the regular octane drops to 85 causing significant pinging on our former Dodge Grand Caravan when we hit high altitude.

We found that mixing fuel....some regular and some higher octane eliminated the problem.

Cheers

 

[cmt4]

I experimented with different octane on a long trip (3,100 miles), also. '01 EX I had a completely full vehicle: four occupants, couple hundred lbs. of luggage, top luggage carrier on roof rack. Same route back and forth. Absolutely no difference in mpg.

Boy was that an expensive experiment. Save your money for really important things... like lotto tickets.