Fuel

[EJ20H-TT]

Turbo cars love high octane fuel and they can drink lots of it.

So what's the highest Octane you can get in your area ?

And at what price.

I can get 98 Octane (ron) @ $NZ 1.15 per litre.

$US 2.23 per gallon if i got my math right

[AMT4SWA]

In Austin Texas I pay about $1.55 to $1.65 a gallon for 93 octane (Super Unleaded...Texaco/Exxon/Shell) depending on what part of town I am at.

BTW, cars love "Jet A"...I get that from the airport at about $2.50 a gallon! :shock:

[Gumby]

91 Octane is the best commonly available gas/petrol here in California. Paid $1.80 on the weekend at Costco (cheap) but it's around $2.00 at a lot of places and on the way up again. 100 octane can be had in San Jose but it's ~$4.00 a gallon.

BTW, Fuel is graded here RON+MON/2 so 98 Octane RON would be approx 94 Octane at the pump here in the US.

AMT4SWA, what is "Jet A"? I thought jet engines ran on Kero?

[AMT4SWA]

Gumby...I was just having some fun with you all...yes, "Jet A" is basically Kerosine...used by all the commercial airlines/aviation for any turbine powered aircraft. This fuel would destroy a car engine so do not try this at home! :lol:

[PPower]

Here in Panama, 95 is $1.92/gallon. I'm guessing that this is RON because I highly doubt it to be octane as "we" calculate it. So that should be 93 Yankee Octane.

[gtguy]

93 octane in the Chicago area, for about $1.80 per gallon these days.

Kevin

[Gumby]

Looks like the rest of the country is catching up with California prices.

Does anyone know why California only has 91 octane and almost every other state has at least 93?

[Tide]

Looks like the rest of the country is catching up with California prices.

Does anyone know why California only has 91 octane and almost every other state has at least 93?
Ah, those wonderful emissions laws.

[team23jordan]

WA highest i've seen is 93 :roll:

[SUBE555]

93, few spots 94 but few and far between. 100 octane race fuel can be had but I can't remember where. I know when in Vegas we stopped at a gas station and 100 octane was available for a whopping $3.85 a gal!

[dark_rex]

i run 94 in my WRX exclusively. it's about $1.75/gal now.

being a turbo, i'm sure they'll state "premium unleaded fuel only" in the maual and on the gas cap. (as they should)

dR

[akm3]

Highest I've found in WA is 92, is there a place in Spokane anyone knows of that sells 93?

(If you live in Seattle, Spokane is that place on the east half of the state that gets taxed to fix up your city and doesn't get much rain)

[AMT4SWA]

Yes, the new Legacy is a premium unleaded vehicle only (minimum required octane rating will be 91 in the owners manual...this is for the U.S. spec car).

[gtmy04]

Australian spec. model states in the manual that minimum RON (I think US uses Pump Octane Rating, which is an average of MON & RON ??? - correct me if I'm wrong) 96, but recommends 98RON. The sticker on the fuel filler flap says to use 98RON only.

I actually quizzed Subaru on this before I bought the card because my company supplies me with a Caltex fuel card - Caltex only supply 96RON in Australia at this stage. Shell & BP are the only suppliers of 98RON. Their reply was that the car would run satisfactorily on 96, but they wouldn't guarantee the performance or fuel economy specs.

Anyway, the first few tanks I used 98RON Shell Optimax whilst I waited for my new Caltex fuelcard. With trepidation, I then switched to the Caltex Vortex Gold 96RON. I honestly have not been able to detect any difference in performance, driveability or fuel economy. I record my fuel consumption and was getting 9.8 l/100km on 98, and now average 9.6 l/100km on 96. It would be interesting to run with both fuels on a dyno.

[Tide]

Australian spec. model states in the manual that minimum RON (I think US uses Pump Octane Rating, which is an average of MON & RON ??? - correct me if I'm wrong) 96, but recommends 98RON. The sticker on the fuel filler flap says to use 98RON only.

I actually quizzed Subaru on this before I bought the card because my company supplies me with a Caltex fuel card - Caltex only supply 96RON in Australia at this stage. Shell & BP are the only suppliers of 98RON. Their reply was that the car would run satisfactorily on 96, but they wouldn't guarantee the performance or fuel economy specs.

Anyway, the first few tanks I used 98RON Shell Optimax whilst I waited for my new Caltex fuelcard. With trepidation, I then switched to the Caltex Vortex Gold 96RON. I honestly have not been able to detect any difference in performance, driveability or fuel economy. I record my fuel consumption and was getting 9.8 l/100km on 98, and now average 9.6 l/100km on 96. It would be interesting to run with both fuels on a dyno.
The first thing you would notice would be pinging. Whats nice about most newer Suby's is they will learn over time what timing to use based on fuel in it. You'd be safer to always put the same thing in (96) than switch back and forth. I dont know, though, how safe this is for the engine in the long haul.

[PPower]

Paul Hansen has written several times of how Subaru's ECU (non-USDM STi?) is very good about learning and retarding the timing if there starts to be some pinging.

[Tide]

Paul Hansen has written several times of how Subaru's ECU (non-USDM STi?) is very good about learning and retarding the timing if there starts to be some pinging.Yeah we need to get him over here! I sent him a personal email but he hasn't shown up or replied.

[gtmy04]

In my case, I don't believe there's any detonation because (and i know it's subjective) there is no discernible loss in performance running on 96 compared to 98RON. The manual says "when 98RON is not available, the engine may be run on 95 octane fuel. This may result in loss of performance and driveability." It seems to me that there is no noticeable difference and the spec (as is Subaru's wont) is a little conservative.

[EJ20H-TT]

All Subbies have knock sensors that if they detect "pinging" the ecu retards the timming.

So your pretty safe.

[legacy92ej22t]

I only run Ultra 94 in my 92 Legacy SS which runs $1.69. I can get GT 104 race fuel for about $4.30 a gallon and GT 108 race fuel for about $4.50 a gallon from March to October at the local 1/4 mile. IIRC if you aren't running cats (leaded) you can get up to 116 there for about $4.85 a gallon.

[EJ20H-TT]

Paul Hansen has written several times of how Subaru's ECU (non-USDM STi?) is very good about learning and retarding the timing if there starts to be some pinging.Yeah we need to get him over here! I sent him a personal email but he hasn't shown up or replied.

Well i see we have a new member ApexJapan ~ Paul Hansen perhaps ?

[Tide]

Yeah, It's him. No posts yet, but he's lurking!

[MSB]

Fuel in Japan currently costs about 115yen per litre of 100 Ron "super" which is the recommended fuel for my Legacy GT Spec B.

Does anyone know where on the web there is info re using lower grade fuel, as I'll probably take the car to the UK or Oz when we leave Japan

[PPower]

So that's about $4.11/gallon at 106yen/dollar & 3.79 liters/gallon.

A black Spec B wagon? :envious: Can we get some pics? MT or AT?

[Dr. Zevil]

Paul Hansen has written several times of how Subaru's ECU (non-USDM STi?) is very good about learning and retarding the timing if there starts to be some pinging.Yeah we need to get him over here! I sent him a personal email but he hasn't shown up or replied.

Well i see we have a new member ApexJapan ~ Paul Hansen perhaps ?

Yeah, I PM'd him on the NASIOC board to see if he would like to enlighten us instead of defending the car from the haters on NASIOC :lol:

[EJ20H-TT]

Fuel in Japan currently costs about 115yen per litre of 100 Ron "super" which is the recommended fuel for my Legacy GT Spec B.

Does anyone know where on the web there is info re using lower grade fuel, as I'll probably take the car to the UK or Oz when we leave Japan

Not that i know of but....

Here in NZ we have the JDM GT spec B and it runs on 98/96 Octane here no trouble.

If u read through this these threads u will see GTmy04 runs his GT in Aussie on 98/96 as well. However the aussie GT has been slightly detuned though. They are probably too conservative.

[Tide]

It's amazing to me how much fuel costs anywhere other than the US. Here we pay about 1.80 per gallon for premium. The same in the UK would run us about 4.00. Heck I can get 100 octane (race gas) for $4.50 a gallon here. Ah, the oil dependent US.

[Skylab™]

Running higher octane in a computer controlled car without being able to bump up the timing would be a waste of money.

[Tide]

Running higher octane in a computer controlled car without being able to bump up the timing would be a waste of money.
Subies do bump up the timing though. If I only ever ran 100 Octane in it, the computer would learn over time and adjust.

Waste of money, problably so.
Would I be fooked if I went back to 91. Absolutely.

If I ran a XEDE I could hold 2 maps though. Seems the best option to get the most out of a California car.

[EJ20H-TT]

Knew a guy who ran his TT GTB on 98 octane.

He accidently put in 91 octane - car pinged like mad on acceleration - but very quickly changed the timming to run fine - obviously lacking in power tho.

When he put 98 back in - it took a little while but the ecu learnt and advanced the engine to the old maps

[MSB]

So that's about $4.11/gallon at 106yen/dollar & 3.79 liters/gallon.

A black Spec B wagon? :envious: Can we get some pics? MT or AT?

It is an AT, and I'll try and post some pics, after I've given it a wash :oops:

[AMT4SWA]

Tide...the fuel cost is the same for everyone WHOLESALE from the oil companies, it is the countries varying TAX levels on fuels that makes most of the difference.

[PPower]

^yep. For one thing, raising fuel taxes can act as a way to encourage lower consumption and higher fuel economy from auto manufacturers. This is the same thing with car prices for the most part like the GTO selling for less than the Monaro. It has to be from charges bein levied on cars sold in Australia.

As I said elsewhere, Costa Rica had 100% import duties/taxes on all cars. This was originally done to promote public transportation and limit people from buying cars. All it did was promote too many piece of crap cars on the road. Because of some trade treaty with Korea set years before, there were much lower taxes on Korean imports=cars (for Korea to buy CR coffee/bananas mainly). So there were boatloads of Hyundai, Kia, Daewoo, and Ssang Yong. It also acted as a usuary tax in a country where proper and fair income tax collection may not be the best. If you can afford the 360 Modena convertible a dude drove around, he paid the taxes and probably had evaded taxes from other sources that more than made up for it. Remember that if you pay 30% taxes, you have to earn almost $43,000 for a $30,000 car.

[AMT4SWA]

YES...taxes NEVER work for social class and economic engineering by politicians.

[Gumby]

If I ran a XEDE I could hold 2 maps though. Seems the best option to get the most out of a California car.

Cobb AccessPort will allegedly have a "race gas" map, maybe this will be a 100 octane map.

[gtguy]

So that's about $4.11/gallon at 106yen/dollar & 3.79 liters/gallon.

A black Spec B wagon? :envious: Can we get some pics? MT or AT?

It is an AT, and I'll try and post some pics, after I've given it a wash :oops:

Lordy, a Spec B wagon? I'm all tingly...verrrry nice. :D

Kevin

[shelltox]

I think it would be good to be able to do a couple of tanks on RON96 and then switch to RON98 to sort of clean out the engine so your engine stays clean most of the time.

I know in my car (non turbo) I run a couple of tanks or so on regular and then do a higher octane to clean out the tank couple with a bottle of fuel injector cleaner when I top up with the higher octane fuel, the performance is much better and there is less pinging or lag. Acceleration is much smoother as well.

Also on the subject note, I was thinking would perhaps an Octane booster like the Octane104+ (I think) help the engine to attain higher octane, instead of using the ideal 100LL which is not available in most places, I'm sure the engine would be as sweet as consuming 100LL. This could be a less expensive alternate.

[PPower]

HUH? Where did you get that running low octane and then higher octane will clean out an engine? As for octane boosters, I think you'd better research that a little bit. The do not work like you are thinking it does. Splashing in some race gas is much cheaper.

[EJ20H-TT]

I think i have found the Japanese fuel specs

100 octane (ron)
88 octane (mon)

So that comes to 94 (ron+mon)/2

So perhap US fuel isn't so bad after all ?

Best i can get is 98 ron & 87 mon.

[THAWA]

There's 91-92 around here at like $1.70/gal Dunno for sure, I don't pay much attention to it.

[SUBE555]

You can get 87, 89, 91, 92, 93, and 94 all at one of the local stations a few miles from me.