Whats the difference between unleaded and high octane unleaded?

Question

there was only high octane unleaded at the petrol station so I had no choice, but what is it?

Answer 1

high octane is more expensive but better for the environment, it also means you can travel further for less fuel but I personally think its poo, I use cheap unleaded.

Answer 2

The only damage it would do is to your wallet.  It is only necessary for those engines designed to use it especially, makes no difference otherwise.

Answer 3

Despite what a 'top contributor' has quoted from Wikipedia, the higher octane content in 'Super' means that your car, depending on the ECU and fuelling/ignition management system, will make more power and go faster/go further on a tank of Super as opposed to regular.  It depends if the program can advance ignition until it becomes in danger of pre-ignition ('knocking'). Regular is 95RON Octane, super is at least 98 - it actually costs the oil companies money to refine it down further, and in particular ESSO can often be tested to show 100RON or higher - very good news for those of us dabbling with motorsport or running higer-performance cars which can make (e.g. Subaru Imprezas, Mitsubishi Evos) something around 25-35bhp more on Super grade.  

   You have to balance this against the higher cost per litre, and like I say, if your car will do any better on it anyway.  My Alfa Romeo is livelier on Super, and a little flatter on regular.

Answer 4

turbo, supercharged, luxury, high end sports cars require premium higher octane gas

higher compression engines use higher octane

Answer 5

Higher octane burns cleaner, and is more combustible.

Answer 6

As it says the octane level is higher which can be advantageous for some high performance engines.

I use it as it's recommend in my car, otherwise I can experience a slight loss in power and/or economy.

In your car it will probably make no difference other than the price, certainly no damage will be caused.

Answer 7

The difference in Octane on measure resistance to Self ignition or auto-ignition from high compression (like turbo engine).

Octane rating does not measure anything else - not the energy content (not more potent), not cleaner, not better mpg,

NOTHING

====

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rati...

Search down for this statement:

--- "It should be noted that octane rating does not"

--- "relate to the energy content of the fuel"

Good Luck...

Answer 8

Ordinary unleaded ignites hotter and sooner than high octane unleaded, which has a more controlled burn.

This means that if you use ordinary in an engine designed for high octane, you risk preignition (pinking) that can damage the engine.

There is no problem or benefit using high octane in engines designed for ordinary, other than it costs more.

Answer 9

from how it works ......

The octane rating of gasoline tells you how much the fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites. When gas ignites by compression rather than because of the spark from the spark plug, it causes knocking in the engine. Knocking can damage an engine, so it is not something you want to have happening. Lower-octane gas (like "regular" 87-octane gasoline) can handle the least amount of compression before igniting.

the higher the octane the better the gas is for your ride...

also high octane gives your car more power but is more expensive....

Answer 10

The truth is that high octane petrol offers no advantage over standard fuel whatsoever. As with so many marketing ploys it's all in the mind. Like fat exhaust pipes, sounds good, does nothing.

Answer 11

the additives that are used more in regular and less in premium.

Answer 12

It's unleaded gas with a high octane level in it, usually 92 or 93 octane where as you usually use regular unleaded and it has 87 octane in it, the higher octane level is for high performance engines.

Answer 13

Er, the answer is in the question. One has a higher octane level than the other. The use of high octane fuel in high performance engines has been proven to give an extra bit of brake horse power over standard unleaded. One of the performance car magazines did a back to back test. They ran the cars on unleaded and put them on a rolling road to record the BHP, then did the same after running them on high octane. They recorded an increase of around five BHP. In an average 'normal' car, you wouldn't notice the difference.

The higher octane allows the engine to have a higher compression ratio, which gives a bit more power.