I am making this post as a correction...the point is if the 350z can safely run 87 octane...not difference is cost..not what fuel the car should be given, it is if it can safely on 87 octane, daily on long drives

and not everyone with a 350z lives in the states...examplerice diff in 87 and 93 octane in Ontario, Canada is about 25%
now
The 350z manual "recommends premium" ...."recommends..."
premium is some areas is 89 octane, while regular in switzerland is 91 octane and premium there being 95 octane...

I have research a bit about the minimum octane that you can safely run on a 350z... In all the threads I read, members claimed that the vq35de setup in the 350z can not safely run 87 octane...
if you lookup the threads, regardin 87 octane, you will see many members of this forum and 350zmotoring making claims of engine damage from it, specially in the long run...without any first hand experience or evidence...

once I realized that all these claims were without experience or evidence... I looked into g35s running on 87 octane... and peoples opinions in threads were very different to the 350z on 87 octane... many said 87 runs fine but does a little low mpg and has slightly less power...

so I tried it...I used 93 octane for the first month I had the car...
I mixed 93 with 87....the car ran fine... no knocking...nothing...
then I refilled half a tank with the cheapest 87 octane...
it ran fine...mpg might have been off by 0.5-1mpg for me...

I forgot that I had 87 octane in the tank and floored the car through 1st, second and 3rd gear...unlikely normal shift to 3rd, the rear wheels did not slip much when shifting rough to 3rd....except that, the car pulled hard as it should...and sounded nice, as it should

later, I forgot again..and floored the car in 4th gear... I noticed vibrations through the accelerator pedal above around 4500rpm. It could have been mild knocking covered by engine noise??

I have since been on 87 octane since... the car is running perfectly fine...
you probably will only notice the power difference if you have floored the 350z on a higher octane with the ECU reset very recently...
I drive over 150km every day and have easily covered atleast 7-900km, some of it rough driving...
I get 28-32mpg 75kms on the way to work...
and I get 29-36mpg on the way back... I usually slipstream a truck and hypermile to go above 30.5mpg
and maybe 13-18mpg in the city depending on traffic
The variation is my mpg due to traffic conditions does not allow me to properly observe the difference in mileage between 87 and 93 octane


In summary:
If the fuel at your fuel station is of the same quality as the regular-87 AKI (91RON) in GTA, Ontario, Canada... you can safely use 87 octane in your 350z...
if you do use it...
There is a chance for mild detonation to occur if the fuel is below 87 octane due to maybe stale or bad fuel...if that does happen, your engine should immediately change the timing and no damage should be done to your engine...
-do not floor or rev the engine higher than 4000rpm until the engine adjusts to the fuel...


Questions:
I am posting this here because I had a few questions for the members who claimed 87 octane will damage the engine...
and the members who tried to portray people using 87 octane in a 350z as cheap and stupid... while assuming that everyone pays the same prices for fuel and not realizing that some spend around $1000 on fuel a month where fuel cost of $12,000 over the year is more significant than a tiny fractional bit of power...

Apart of detonation (which doesnt usually happen cuz the timing changes quick...only should be possible if your knock sensor fails..)
what damage can low octane cause to a 6mt ECU'd vq35de??
have you ever seen a 350z knocking cuz of low octane??
have you ever tried 87 octane??





Is it possible that the 350z requires 91 RON and not 91 octane??

 

I tried 87 once and had a noticeable ping on hard tip-in.

 

No, the owners manual states 91 octane for the US market. They mean 91 AKI, which is what is sold in the USA.

In some climates, 87 will work. In other climates, it won't. I wouldn't run any less than 89, but that's my choice to make just like you're free to run 87.

 

just cause you dont "hear" knocking or pinging doesnt mean that its not happening.

A lot of the time when you hear detonation its been occuring long before you noticed it.

 

In essence, if your concerned about an extra 10 cents a gallon maybe you shouldnt be driving a sports car? Just sayin....

As for the lack of power your feeling its because the ECU is pulling timing due to detonation...again leading back to my previous statement.

 

Buy a sports car and run regular, bought the wrong car. Stick with a Prius if you want to run regular.

 

This was what i was thinking when reading. Not saying the car can't run 87 or anything like that. But a Z/G is not the hyperfueling car in any sense. Most cases drivers on here are not super worried about MPG. We might be happy to see 30+ but reality is not many car. A beater car almost pays for itself in savings if you care that much.

I've ran my g35 on 93 when i first got it, lately i've moved to a mix of 89 and 93. If 87 is all i was given, i would have no problems using it as well but i rather not for simple safe of mind. We do a lot of things to just clear our head of worry, like double checking on our cars at night or w/e it can be. This is another one of those things for me.

Everyone wants their car to run at OPTIMUM levels and @87 it will not, it will run but just not at optimum. There is no doubt in my mind it will run and for a long time. Nissan put that there for a reason, its not because the gas company paid them to, in super HOT climates i think you can do some damage.

Also for something keeping track of MPG, how do you vary so much? Your 29-36 MPG. I know down the xx.xxx what my MPG is when i'm tracking it. Miles driven divide by gallons filled, should not equal 29-36, it should be like 28.892 mpg or 36.544

 

Here's an rough estimate of the annual cost, if you can't afford premium you shouldn't be driving a z.

 

yea lets risk ruining our sports cars for $70 a year. i spend a lot more on a lot less useful sh*t.

bottom line....your a dumb bastad if you put regular in a sports car. whether regular works or not.

in the time it took you to do all that research you could've mowed 2 lawns and made up the difference in money to use the right gas

 

I would highly "recommend" that no one listens to the OP on this matter.

 

^^lol. I never got this debate. Who cares if its safe or not, the difference in price is SO LITTLE. Just do IT

 

you obviously should not own a performance car you are indeed damaging it and simply choosing to ignore the signs. sure it will be fine everyday driving and shifting below 3k. the symptoms you experiencing when flogging it however is the ecu pulling timing since the car is most definitly knocking, the only way your going to hear it while driving the car is if its knocking BAD.

frankly where is YOUR proof that it is ok? go ahead let us see your data logs so we can laugh at your many thousands of knock counts in the ecu. the can has a 10.7 compression ratio it NEEDS premium, the whole point is detonation resistance and while the car has some leeway the only thing your post proved is that it does indeed need it because your obviously knocking and the ecu is pulling timing. go ahead keep flogging it so we can tell you told yah so in a few months when you have a destroyed piston.

 

Same reasons people run to the gas station when they hear gas is going up by 2cents a liter the next day.

So on a 40 liter fill up, you just saved yourself 80cents ... wooo! Probably cost that much just to get to the gas station!

Here is your answer...people are stupid.

 

Too much to read......

 

No problem with 87, I used to run it all the time on long boring freeway trips. You lose a little performance , no big deal. There is a lot of safeguard built into the car, and it actually works. Now with a tune, nope, will fry the plugs quick. Trust me.

 

Premium (91) fuel is about 14% more $ than regular in Canada, so it does end up being more significant. You Americans are lucky that the difference us so slight. I'm not saying it's significant enough that I use it! I'm just saying that anything over 10% deserves some consideration.
I think I put one tank of 87 in a while ago (long, irrelevant story) and it pinged enough at low rpm that I would avoid it, where possible.

 

f you all. ! lol..

mid boost.

SIngle turbo.

Corn Oil from the Filibertos taco fryers.

Ill crush you all.

 

you will be experiencing detonation if you run octane 87 on your car. It will run but it will be detonating instead of steady burning of fuel.


I know this for a fact because i tried to put 87 on my 07 and it detonated. the reason why i tried 87 because i owned an 04 z before and i tried 87 octane and it worked. However, with hr it detonated. I am not sure about 06 model because i havent tried it yet. my buddy crashed my 06 before i could tried anything with it. oh well

 

About ManDogFish
Location
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I am always curious why so many forum members do not drive a 350Z, yet give unsolicited advice to 350Z owners.

 

Eating deep fried foods everyday doesn't mean you will be healthy for life.