If you are an average car geek that don’t know much about gasoline octane rating, then this post is for you.
These octane ratings confuse consumers big time, which led most people to believe that the higher the octane rating is, the better your car will perform.
The result, thousands or even millions are paying hefty dollars for these premium fuels. In this short but informative article, I will clear any confusion about high octane rating and teach you if you really need this expensive gasoline products.
What is Octane Rating?
According to WikiPedia, an octane rating or octane number, is a standard measure of the performance of an engine fuel. The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before igniting.
So most experts opinion is this, fuels with high octane rating are more suitable for high-performance gasoline engines as they require high compression ratios (compression from the piston that the gasoline can withstand). And using a low octane rating may lead to engine knocking.
This sounds a blessing to people who own cars with high-performance engines. But of course, premium high octane rating fuels comes with a hefty price as well.
If you live here in Manila, the price difference from each fuel grade ranges from P3 to P7 (Philippine pesos). So having a 48-liter fuel tank equates to P336 price difference for each tankful. That number might mean cheap but that’s a lot from where I live.
And I am quite thankful as my cars don’t have gasoline engines under their hood, but they are diesel-powered toys (diesel engines do not compress fuel but rather compresses air then injects fuel).
So, how about those cars who have average engines? Are premium, high octane fuels good for them too?
What is the Right Octane Level for Your Car?
It is important that you don’t jump to conclusion that your car needs high octane fuel because you think that it is a “premium” brand. That isn’t outright true.
As explained above, high octane fuels are recommended for high-performance engines. Therefore, if you have regular or average petrol engine, you have to settle for regular octane fuel as well.
Actually, this is a no brainer. Regular octane fuels are recommended for most cars. So if you aren’t sure about your engine’s preferred type of fuel, always check your owner’s manual for guidance.
And, modern engines are designed specifically to run on either low or mid range octane gasoline, negating the possibility of pre-ignition, knock or ping.
This means that modern engines doesn’t heavily rely on the capacity of the fuel to resist knock, but instead, they are programmed to prevent incorrect air/fuel combustion in the cylinder, in relation to ignition by the spark plug.
Other car enthusiasts also claim that using high octane fuels mean better quality and more cleaning performance.
Well the truth is, it is not the octane rating that matters, both low and high octane rating fuels don’t effectively prevents deposit formation in the engine, nor does it help in eliminating them. So they are basically not a better choice.
Summary
If your car has turbochargers or superchargers straight from the factory, or you know that your car has high-compression engine that requires high-octane fuel to perform at optimum level, then you really need premium, high-grade and high octane fuel.
But of course, most of us have “regular” and everyday cars that doesn’t need expensive premium fuels. Using high octane fuels on your average car is just a big waste of money.
If your car knocks or pings, it is not because of the low octane fuel you used, but is most likely caused by an underlying issue of your engine. You might need a tune up, not a high octane fuel.
So check your owner’s manual, be smart and save money!
