Featured What octane gas are you really putting in your car

You must live in high altitude? Theres nothing lower than 87 here in california. I have seen some parts of the US where high elevations have 85 as regulars. Something due to the high altitude makes lower octane acceptable. I still opted for Mid Grade (89) when I was in those parts near the i80 when I was heading towards the East Coast.

 

Yep. Lived at over 10,000ft for a good portion of my life. Now I've came down to around 7,700ft, but do go up as high as 12,000ft at times.

 

Where do you get 83 octane?

I've never seen less than 85. I can imagine a good market for it on a high Tibetan or Andean plateau, but thought the U.S. places where it would work were too close to "low" areas of just 6000-ish feet.

 

I might be mistaken. I thought there were towns here that sold 83 octane but I can't seem to find them in a google search. The station I go to here in town sells 85, 87 and 91. Sorry for the confusion.

 

Its the thin air and lower pressures. The ambient pressure is lower at the top of a mountain than at sea level. Then the thin air results in less fuel being burned in the cylinder. That leads to a lower maximum pressure possible in the engine.

Octane is resistance to ignition by pressure. A lower starting and maximum pressure means lower octane is needed.

 

My guess is that you saw 83
years ago it likely is getting to the point it isn’t a volume fuel and doesn’t save $$$ and this isn’t common

 

In the early 1970s as kids we would drive to Cal's Huntington Beach Airport - buy a bit of 100 octane Aviation gas for our hoped up motors. Wishing now I could get back all those wasted hours - as well as lost. Brain IQ points from sucking in leaded fumes.
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