Couldnt tell you the difference, because I've never used anything less than 93 in the car.

 

Knock on me all you want but I am not bowing down to big oil. You get something from a magazine that depends on advertisements from (sometimes) oil companies.

But look at the mustang v8 which is about the same horsepower as our car. Two horsepower increase is not going to be noticed by anyone. It's a slight improvement just like I said at the start of the thread.

Go to a restraunt buy some food and have it analyzed, I guarrantee it will not match up with their nutrition statement.

You go to a gas station with up to three different octane ratings. You don't know what your getting because you can't tell just by looking at the gasoline.

I suppose your going to tell all those people here that use copper plugs (maybe not even ngk) that it's going to ruin their engine cause Nissan only recommends NGK platinums.

I use cheap autolite platinums and still getting great gas mileage.

Another thing is my driving situations are near constant. I live in Florida and the temperature doesn't change much plus there are no huge hills to climb.

The government isn't going to shut down a gas station just because they are selling 87 and saying it's 91, just isn't going to happen.

Call up your weights and measures people in the government and ask them when was the last time they measured the octane rating at your local pump. You might find out that they are undermanned and are getting around to it as soon as possible or they might blow you off and just say last week.

It's just so funny to me. You can go south of the border to central or south america and you know what octane they run in their nissans?

Someone in this thread mentioned a 97 suv maybe a pathfinder running 87 octane, why do you suppose it doesn't matter?

 

i agree with the other people in this thread. if armelius isnt going to treat his maxima nicely, he shouldnt be driving one. A Maxima is a piece of beauty, and why not splurge the extra 1.50 at the tank for it? so what if its 6000 over the x amount of years you claim you save...you could have saved more money buy not even getting a maxima and getting a toyota corolla.

 

I'd like to see the evidence that knocking will always occur (assuming vigorous driving), leading to timing retardation. I know it can happen, but I've never seen anything that leads me to believe that it's practically guaranteed.

Also, I didn't notice the "~5fwhp" that my CAI gave me...so I find it hard to believe that people notice any possible gains from switching gas.

(edit (off-topic-rant "I understand how passionate people are about their cars...hell, I'm the same way. But I also realize that most people look at their car as...well a car. Why is it people consider it a travesty when someone beats on a car? I could understand if it's an Enzo or an original 427 Cobra...but a Maxima?"))

 

It's not my fault that you don't know enough to really explain anything as I have asked, and can only bring up more irrelevant arguments.

 

5 whp would be hard to notice, but hp isn't what you feel, torque is. The 8 wtq (10 crank) difference would be noticeable.

And from my OBD-II logging, while driving in the summer in heat-soaked conditions I would get knock retard even with 93 octane fuel in the tank. On moderate acceleration with timing at about 22-23 degrees BTDC it would retard to around 18 degrees BTDC in the 3000-4000 rpm range. With the knock sensor bypassed with the resistor trick, it would stay at 22-23 degrees and I would get some mild knocking, which confirms that it was active knock retard before. If I only had 87 octane in the tank it would have been retarded considerably more, and over a wider range of RPM's. Or, with the resistor bypassing the KS + 87 octane + heat-soak = would knock like a **** and possibly ruin the engine

 

all you ever wanted to know about octane ratings :
http://www.seansa4page.com/resource/octane.html
I know its long, but its well worth the read

 

Unfortunately, I was thinking that we had 91 where I live, but there is only 87, 89, & 93. I guess I will have to be bumping it up to 93. That is expensive. I mean, it is like $1.80 now.

I just read a news article yesterday about how gas prices are the highest in record right now. The average nation wide is like $1.75 for reg unleaded. That is ridiculous. They are not making it any easier to treat your car to some premium. Plus, they said that it will probably go up for April and May, because OPEC is being stubborn and not allowing as much crude oil to come to us. They su ck!!!!

 

Heres some advise, I live kinda on the border of the rural and urban part of my metro, if i go more into the rural area, i have 93 as an option and its nearly 10 15 cents cheaper, maybe a 5-10 min drive. If i go farther in the urban area its 10-20 cents more expensive and most areas only have 92 as the highest. So try different areas, some are cheaper than others. Avoid high traffic areas, those tend to be the most expensive.