With the rising cost of fuel, have any S/C owners checked with their dealers re using 90+ ocatane in their X-Terras? If so, is there an issue with using a lower octane other than w/ performance issues. . .ie damage to the supercharger?

A lower octane will take less pressure to combust. The increased pressure from the supercharger will make the fuel explode prematurely(before the sparkplug can ignite it). This is bad news not only for permorance, but also the life of the engine. It creates increased stress on every component in the engine. If you run it that way to long it will break. Use the high octane. There is no way around it.

Gotta pay to play

I swear I'm going to go postal on the next twit that asks about octane!!!


Brent

Would I save more at the pump if I put 89 octane in at the station and then dump in a bottle of Octane boost. How many bottles of boost would I need to bring 89 octane back up to 93?

I used to run my ricer on a quarter tank of 93 octane and then add two bottles of boost to the tank. Damn she burned up the road! Till I rear ended a school bus.

Just kidding

F'in Octane AGAIN...!!!!
Sell the Supercharged truck if you don't want to run Higher grade fuel. OR...Run the cheaper low octane and you'll be sorry...Just like you are going to be for asking this stupid question without SEARCHING...!!!!

I'm POSTAL...!!!!!

How 'bout the twits what spell it X-Terra?

I suggest you use the lowest possible octane you can get away with. Usually, the manufacturers recommendations are close, but you'll often find you can go down a couple digits and be fine. Experiment. If it doesn't knock or ping, you'll be saving yourself money, and probably increasing your performance a tad as well.

Higher octane fuel is not 'cleaner', and won't produce more power than it's cheaper counterparts unless your motor is tuned specifically for it.

But like said above, if it does start knocking & pinging (detonation) then make sure you bump the octane up immediately. that's very damaging to your motor.

The knock sensor will pretty much quell any knocking at least to the point you won't really hear it, but it will still be happening and causing damage. Don't dick around with the friggin' octane!

Hey - they don't have knock sensors on bikes!

Good point

But if the knock sensor picks up what it thinks is detonation, it's going to retard the timing in an attempt to stop it. If this works - and you're no longer detonating - then wouldn't it be true that you're also no longer causing any damage to the motor? I don't know - I'm just asking.

I'm sure that retarding the timing isn't going to have any positive effects on your performance, however.

It's similar to the operation of the rev limiter or speed governor, it will nip it for a moment but it will come right back unless you actually change the load you're putting on the engine. This on-off-on-off is less harmful than always-on, but harmful nonetheless.

Brent

cool - thanks for the info Brent!