I have had my maxi for 2 weeks now and I have put in 87...is this ok, or should I atleast put in 89 or 91?...any opinions would be helpful....I want to treat her right!

 

what odes the owners manual and the sticker on the gas door say....premium recommended. i use 93 but anythign 91 and above work just as well. So use premium if ya want to treat her just right

 

Unless you want your Maxima to run like an '87 model, don't put anything under 91!!!

 

Big Nissan recommed you spend more money at the pump. It doesn't say required or 91+ only.

Your fine with 87 but if you want to try out 91 go ahead it's a free country.

Been running 87 since I bought my maxima. Now I have 220,000 miles still getting great gas mileage and no performance drops.

Maybe 91 makes you and your car better with people and other cars but I seriously doubt it.

 

It would be fine, But your car will run like Sh(t and you end up burn more gas, and end up in gas staion more....

 

there even has been dyno tests done showing that you lose hp by using 87 compared to 91. and there even was a thread a couple of days ago about some guy who just switched to 91 instead of 87 and felt a big diff in power and smoothness. so if you wanna treat your car right use 91+. plus, you're ONLY spending a buck and some change more....now i'm sure you can afford that extra dollar!

 

Dont start this again.....

 

It only says it right in the manual.

You still have not answered ANY of my technical questions or challenges to you, and you have only continued to spew non-stop despite all of the evidence that has been brought against you. Even the stupidest of newbies would have shut up by now. But what can I say. You're just "special".

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=288685

 

How much do you care about performance? It's def. better to run 91, but the difference is small. You can't really feel much. Gas mileage is the same, unless you open up the throttle more. The vast majority of regular max owners use 87, and their cars are still running. I've always used 92, but I don't really see the point anymore. I'll probably switch over to 89 or 87. Maximas are slow anyways.

 

87 is fine. My mother ran 87 in her maxima for 90k miles (from 60k to 150k, don't know what the previous owner ran) and it ran tip top. I even beat the **** out of the thing when I wasn't driving my car. No problems whatsoever. These are NOT high performance cars, run what you want.

 

But they DO have a high compression ratio...therefore they should have >=91 to be assured that they run as designed.

 

Whats the compression ratio?

 

10:1

1241235

 

What's funny here is that Armelius replies to pretty much every single post/thread about octane. Seems to me that he makes up the .0001% of orgers who obviously think that running under-90 octane is good for your Maxima.

Anyway, I suggest that Armelius read his owner's manual once in a while because it specifically states in mine (99 SEL) to use 91+ octane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BTW, his other argument in previous thread about this very same topic was that "we really don't know what they put in our pumps anyway because it's not like our government actually checks to see that there is say 91, not 87 octane where it says 91".

Well buddy, I have news for you. You are WRONG again. What you said is almost exactly what happens. See for urself how strict regulations on US gas stations actually are. The government does indeed check each and every single gas station EVERY month. I don't know the name of this "commision", but you actually have people come to a gas station and test whatever pump, if not all pumps, at random. There is some % error allowed, but very little. So 91 is in fact 91, or the gas station won't last very long, and you'd be surprised how many don't.

 

Armelius has been banned for a week.

Oh and please read THIS thread. EVERYTHING was just discussed in there.

 

You're kidding, right? Every station? The manpower to check every station in the country on a monthly interval would be staggering. If this were true, I'd be very surprised.

I thought the little inspection stickers on the gas pumps lasted 2 years...my memory has been failing me ever since I forgot which kind of memory pills I was taking.

 

I really don't think 10:1 is high. I have many friends with all motor cars running 12+ on 93 without any detonation.

 

10.0:1 has usually been about the crossover point for needing or not needing premium fuel, depending on how the engine is tuned. A conservatively tuned 10.0:1 engine can get by fine on regular, but a more tuned up one like the VQ will need premium.

But you're right, 10.0:1 is getting to be "lower" these days. The Accord 4-cyl is now running 9.7, Accord V6 also 10.0, the Toyota 1MZ-FE 3.0 has been running 10.5 for ages, and the new 3MZ-FE 3.3 is doing 10.8:1. The new TL is running 11:1 squeeze, as is the RSX-S I think. Toyota's 2ZZ-GE (Celica GT-S) runs 11.5:1, and that's about the highest you'll see out of a production car in the US.

Beyond that you're pushing the limits of "lowest common denominator" 91 octane pump fuel in the US. If you have a bunch of friends that have 12:1 engines then they're probably rebuilt with higher compression, because nothing with factory compression that high has been out since the musclecar era. They were running has high as 13:1 back then, on very high octane leaded fuel.

You could run 13:1 today, but you just wouldn't be able to run very much timing advance before you get detonation, which sorta defeats the point of the higher compression in the first place. Unless of course it's a track vehicle and you fill it with race gas for the track but then dial the timing back for street use on pump fuel. Or just trailer it.

 

Thank you.

Dave

 

Right they aren't stock engines running 12+. And I think the Celica/Matrix/Vibe are at 11.7.

 

Interesting subject...I do work for a Honda dealership and we get all kinds of literature regarding cars. And in this one magazine , there is a section: ask Oscar
(Jackson)... Ane he was talking about getting better gas mileage from Honda CRV. He tried something different with a previous Honda CRV ( 1 gen) He advanced the timming a few extra degrees than it should be ,but used high octane...Wih the timing change and the better gas mileage, he got not only more power ,but a bit better gas mileage.
The max has the timing advanced electronicly ,so the way I see it ,that high octane would help with the timing...(an in goes up to 36 degrees advance) If timing cannot be advanced properly due a number of factors, not only the performance ,but gas mileage would suffer ...
Correct me if Im wrong...cause I may be...

 

You're my hero.

 

Very interesting....SteveC. Thanks.

 

Yep, that's a basic hot rodding trick.

You're correct.