Just a couple o fuel questions.
How well do the honda engines run on your standard pump fuel (92 octane i believe)?
What is the highest octane fuel you get at the pumps in the States?
Do higher octane fuels really make a difference?
Only asking because i run my car off 99 octane fuel and a friend runs his off our standard fuel (95 octane) and mine does seem to run better with what feels to be stronger engagement of vtec.
I will be running both my mk1 and civic on 102octane as soon as it is released (if its aint too expensive).

 

around here, the standard is 87 octane, and the highest you usually see at the pumps is 93 octane (I know where to find 115 octane though )

Generally, your engine won't run any better on higher octane if the manual only says you need to run low octane. For example, I believe my '94 civic is supposed to run on 85 octane. I regularly put 87 in the tank, and on occasion, I've put in 93 octane. I felt absolutely no difference between the two grades of gas, and I'm sure the power gain was nonexistant, or very small at best.

 

Ok,though for me running an import it needs to be quite high as the standard pump gas in japan is 97octane and also i don't have a clue what the handbook is on about as every word is japanese,oh the joys of an import lol.

 

The octane rating is a measure of the autoignition resistance of gasoline and other fuels used in spark-ignition internal combustion engines. It is a measure of anti-detonation of a gasoline or fuel.

For example, a car that is rated for running 93 octane minimum. If you put in anything lower than 93 octane fuel, there is a very good chance that predetonation will occur (aka knocking, or early combustion). Since the fuel isn't rated high enough for the engine's combustion factors, it will combust before it is supposed to, thus disrupting your engine's cycle and making a knocking noise.

On the flip side, a car that is rated for funning 87 octane at a minimum. If you put in anything above 87 octane fuel, some of the fuel will not fully combust, thus wasting fuel, and reducing the life of your O2 sensors and catalytic converter.

Conclusion, run the octane of fuel that is reccomending by the manufacturer.

*Unless, you have the fuel maps adjusted accordingly. (i.e. ECU chipping)

 

also, I believe in another post, you said you had a b16, which I believe have 10.4:1 compression... honestly, I doubt you'd be at risk runnning 95 octane.

 

I've never seen a pump with an octane level higher than 93.

 

Octane is measured with different standards in the USA. I think USA 87 is basically the same product as Europe's 91 or 92. Premium in the USA is 93 but that would correspond to a higher number in Europe.

Stock Civics run fine on the lowest octane sold for cars. If you have any car that is stock, follow the owner's manual, but be sure it is written to correspond with the octane standards in your country.

 

if you have a dohc vtec, you need to run premium fuel, a sohc doesnt, unless timing, boost, or compression is changed to a point that you dont get the predetonation protection you need. and many countries use the research octane rating, in the US we use R+M/2 method to rate our octane, thats why the numbers for fuel overseas seem high.

btw, R+M/2 means Research method rating+Motor method rating/2 (average of the two ratings, motor ratings are lower than research ratings.)

 

Here in Illinois, the Reg Unleaded is 87 octane, while in Colorado, Reg Unleaded is 85 octane. As stated before, octane is rated differently in the states than in many other countries. Read your manual to find out what octane you need to run.

 

I believe that our 87 is roughly the same as their (Europe) 92 octane. as you stated, we use R+M/2 and on the other side of the big pond, they use just R. R is about 9-10 higher than M.