There are 49 articles on this title. You are reading the article ranked and rated #19 by Helium's members.
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| Yes | 56% | 314 votes | Total: 556 votes | |
| No | 44% | 242 votes |
while i am sure an argument can be made for the yes side. i have to say no and my reasoning for this is based on the manufactures specs. a great deal goes into the designing and manufacture of the engines being used in todays, and yesterdays autos. the term "compression ratio" is really the guide to which octane fuel to use. in fuel, the higher the octane, the the higher the compression needed to burn the mix. the lower the octane, less compression is required to burn it. if an auto with a higher compression engine(Viper, Corvette....) were to burn regular fuel(87 octane), under heavier loads (lower rpm in a higher gear) you would get pre-ignition(knocking and pinging) from your engine. most of todays cars are equipped with knock sensors. when they feel the vibration from the pre-ignition, they send a signal to the engine control module (ECM). the ECM in turn adjusts the timing to compensate. in yesterdays autos, there is no way for the car to make this adjustment on the go. the only fix is to adjust the timing manually(time consuming) or the much easier way which is to just put in higher grade fuel. the combustion wont happen until the timed spark tells it to, rather than happening just with the heat build up from the higher compression engine. it will also help prevent the engine from running on too.(you know when you turn the key off and the engine still turns over a few more times usually ending with a big sigh.. i hate when that happens.
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