I’m a car girl, its mkind of my thing. Octane ratings aretgere to protect your engine, its a rating of how readily the gasoline ignites in the engine. The larger the number the harder to self ignite. Most cars use 85, the only time the higher octane 93 is needed is for cars with turbo or supercharging, or cars with higher compression ratios.
Just put whatever its rated for in it, going with a higher octane than what your car is rated for doesn’t hurt a thing, but it also won’t make your engine run better or anything.
As far as ethanol goes, modern cars ate fine with 10-20% ethanol in their gas. It will get worse mileage the higher the percentage of ethanol as it is not as energy dense as gasoline. The E85 stuff has a higher percentage of ethanol (85%) than is allowed in conventional gas and was introduced to try and lower gas prices (it’s actually completely ineffective and ethanol for fuel is more energy intensive than just giving us straight gasoline but they have to prop up the corn industry somehow). Regular cars can’t use E85 unless they are rated for it as the engine has to add more fuel to keep a close to stoichiometric ratio of fuel to air.
TLDR: Use whatever octane your car asks for, if you put a higher octane in it doesn’t hurt, but it also doesn’t add any benefit.
When it comes to ethanol regular cars can tolerate up to roughly 20% with only a reduction in fuel mileage as a result. E85 is only for cars rated to use it as they need a sensor to detect ethanol percentage and adjust fuel to air ratios accordingly.
I’m a car girl, its mkind of my thing. Octane ratings aretgere to protect your engine, its a rating of how readily the gasoline ignites in the engine. The larger the number the harder to self ignite. Most cars use 85, the only time the higher octane 93 is needed is for cars with turbo or supercharging, or cars with higher compression ratios.
Just put whatever its rated for in it, going with a higher octane than what your car is rated for doesn’t hurt a thing, but it also won’t make your engine run better or anything.
As far as ethanol goes, modern cars ate fine with 10-20% ethanol in their gas. It will get worse mileage the higher the percentage of ethanol as it is not as energy dense as gasoline. The E85 stuff has a higher percentage of ethanol (85%) than is allowed in conventional gas and was introduced to try and lower gas prices (it’s actually completely ineffective and ethanol for fuel is more energy intensive than just giving us straight gasoline but they have to prop up the corn industry somehow). Regular cars can’t use E85 unless they are rated for it as the engine has to add more fuel to keep a close to stoichiometric ratio of fuel to air.
TLDR: Use whatever octane your car asks for, if you put a higher octane in it doesn’t hurt, but it also doesn’t add any benefit.
When it comes to ethanol regular cars can tolerate up to roughly 20% with only a reduction in fuel mileage as a result. E85 is only for cars rated to use it as they need a sensor to detect ethanol percentage and adjust fuel to air ratios accordingly.