Octane Boost: is it working?

Sorry but your argument about it is pointless for people like me. There is a 40 to 60 cent difference here in Milwaukee for premium. While you may of gotten lucky because the price difference there ins't all that big, for the rest of us, it's like throwing away money. I estimate that it will cost me $153 a year more if I used premium. This is at 8 gallons a fill up and 4 times a month. I do only use either BP or Mobile fuel. I use only top tier gas. It would be nice if you could post the prices you pay there so the rest of us could see the price difference.



Milwaukee Gas Prices - Find Cheap Gas Prices in Wisconsin

 

But you'll never know until you try. His case is going to be an extreme outlier. However, that doesn't mean that everyone is going to experience zero change from premium fuel, obviously. The only real way to verify if you will have an insignificant effect is to attempt the experiment at least once. Who knows. Maybe more people will find it cheaper, but most likely not.

 

I agree.
It's probably rare to find a case where the Premium is cheaper per mile.
But if you are looking for better MPG, and if you are not living in a reformulated gasoline zone such as CA and the Northeast, then you might find some variations. Actually where I'd look first for better MPG (and possible cost-break-even) would not be Premium, but something like the new BP Silver MidGrade E0. However, since I live in a reformulated gasoline region, that BP Silver E0 is not available to me.

 

There is a new station near to me; it's a RaceTrac, I think.
They have a new marketing strategy:
VERY competitive with others in the area on E10 regular; often the lowers in the area.
BUT they have 4 "grades" available and the step price difference is $.20 per gallon.
Thus, by the time you get up to E0 Premium, the difference from regular is $.80 per gallon.
YIKES. If regular is $3.20 a gallon, you need to get a 25% increase in mileage just to break even.
I would REALLY like to know how much of that overpriced E0 "premium" they actually sell.

Then again........if your car actually needed the higher octane to start with, bumping up to E0 for just $.20 might be a good deal.

 

I hope that (more choice of E0) is the wave of the future.
In the thread going on about Toyota manager as EV skeptic, he says the hybrids are going to be getting 60 MPG. But he's probably not talking about getting 60 MPG in my region...I suspect more like 55 MPG for EPA E10 reformulated gasoline.

I think as cars start getting higher MPG's, like Prius, the public will start to ask EPA why we have to take a MPG loss due to fuel? If there's a good answer (cleaner) we can accept that, but I am not sure there is a good reason anymore with modern cars meeting CARB emissions.

 

I guess everybody needs something to obsess about; that's as good as anything.

 

Your car is not designed to burn higher octane gas! When you use higher octane than necessary, you're sparking the fuel too late in the combustion cycle which will result in knocking if you continue to abuse your car.

This is like if you considered Usain Bolt did pretty good at the Olympics consuming 5000 calories per day, if I eat that much I'll be as good as an Olympic athlete! Wrong. So wrong. Usain Bolt is a running machine, he needs the special diet to be efficient. If you try to replicate his performance by mirroring his diet, you're going to have a heart attack. If you try to put Ferrari fuel in your regular car, you're going to throw a rod.

 

It would appear that you really don't understand what you are talking about........along with about half of the people who try to discuss octane and what it does.

Too much octane does NOT cause knocking; it's the other way around.
And if any spark timing change occurs, it is toward EARLIER with higher octane not later.

The higher octane is to prevent the mixture from firing before the spark says it is time.

 

I think you are wrong! If higher octane was an issue toyota would list that. I dont remember a warning about high octane. Just remember a low octane warning.

 

There is a warning about high octane being hard to start in some 3rd party Prius manuals (Bentley's Toyota Prius Repair and Maint 2004-2008) but I don't know where they got their info

 

Exactly, higher octane is to retard the ignition of fuel to allow for higher compression engines.

Using premium in an engine not designed for it is (at best) a waste of money.

If higher octane gas actually lead to better fuel economy, then surely Toyota would "require" it (at least in terms of the owner's manual) as to get a higher MPG rating by the EPA... And, since Toyota makes no such claims, I think it's safe to assume that even Toyota sees no benefit in anything other than regular 87.

 

There's a rationale for use of a product like 104+ Octane Boost (and Stabil) in the 2000 -- relatively high compression ratio, significant spark advance, designed for leaded gas, used infrequently.



None of this is a factor in a Prius, bar the Stabil if a tank of gas gets to be more than 30 days old.

 

15% better mpg would be like

15% better mpg is like going from 30 to 34.5 mpg; 4% higher cost is like going from $3 a gallon to $3.125 per gallon. Neither do I believe will happen in any state I know of. NOw if you use ethanol free gas you can get 3-4 mpg increase but the cost will add 25%.
octanr boost will increase the resistance to knocking but not much else.