DBTre50z

Hello, for those in the New York and New Jersey area, you're already aware of the gas shortages going on due to Hurricane Sandy and more recently this snow storm. Unfortunately premium and middle grade gas are non existent at the moment and could take a few weeks to get back to a norm. I have never used regular gas in my car before until today when i mixed some premium already in the car with 5 gallons of regular. Being my daily, is it safe to run on maybe two tanks of regular, or until this shortage is addressed?

surfcity40

You'll be fine. Just don't make a habit out of it. If it knocks, stop.

hugo350z

iTrader: (18)

also consider adding octane booster, it might help but not by much. I believe(depending on the brand) it raises octane half a point

jerryd87

iTrader: (4)

above poster is stupid(surfcity40), no the timing and compression are way to much unless you have a way to reduce timing the engine is going to knock all the time. unless you have some way to monitor it, other then listening, then its an even worse idea. if you actually hear it your knock count is going to be in the hundreds and good luck.

also octane booster unless leaded is useless. if you absolutly have no option pick up two gallons of xylol(xylene) and add every tank but its going to be expensive that should put it exactly 91 octane and is really the only major difference between regular and premium anyway

jninja26

iTrader: (1)

93 is the way to go, if it's available, of course. Calling someone stupid for the reason you did is stupid on your part. Especially because he is correct.

binder

iTrader: (8)

It "might" be ok. If you hear knock it is already way too much to be safe and damage will be evident with premature rod bearing wear.

Get a cipher cable and you can reduce 2* of timing all across the board with it. I would do that and then NEVER give it hard throttle. You could probably have a member loan you his to do this. It doesn't need a flash.

RMichael

thank god

jerryd87

iTrader: (4)

lol no he isnt even close to correct the op asked if it was safe, the amount of timing and compression these engines run they WILL knock under anything more then idle. know how i know? because even on 92 when i added the haltech 2 degrees more timing caused knock so stock timing on 87 is guaranteed to knock. knock damages the engine, so no he is not correct because it is unsafe for the engine.

mattleegee

consider just renting a corolla instead
i can send you some premium in a flat rate box???

terrasmak

iTrader: (8)

Perfectly fine, many have run their car off only 87 since day one. OBD2 will prevent damage.

n7zfe

Always RTFM. Some excerpts:

If premium gasoline is not available, unleaded regular gasoline with an octane rating of 87 AKI number (Research octane number 91) may be temporarily used, but only under the following precautions:

Have the fuel tank filled only partially with unleaded regular gasoline, and fill up with unleaded premium gasoline as soon as possible.

Avoid full throttle driving and abrupt acceleration.

NISSAN does not recommend the use of any aftermarket fuel additives (for example, fuel injector cleaner, octane booster, intake valve de- posit removers, etc.) which are sold commer- cially. Many of these additives intended for gum, varnish or deposit removal may contain active solvents or similar ingredients that can be harm- ful to the fuel system and engine.

binder

iTrader: (8)

No knock protection under 2k or over 5k for starters.

Secondly for the ecu to pull timing it must first detect detonation which means the detonation even already happened and most of the time it has to happen a few times before it pulls timing back. Then it advances it again then more detonation and pulls the timing. So if this is happening over and over all that detonation adds up to excessive loading of the rod bearings.

No, light detonation won't snap a rod but it will destroy the crap out of rod bearings over time...say a tank full of gas.

jerryd87

iTrader: (4)

100 counts of knock to be exact before the ecu pulls timing, also n7zfe you might read that but go try and get a blown engine warrantied with 87 octane fuel bet yah $100 bucks they laugh at you. like i said if your going to do it get some xylene, its already an ingredient in gas and the only difference between regular and premium is the amount of benzine, toulene, and zylene in it.

its just very expensive to do now since prices keep jumping and jumping and harder to find 55 gallon drums

R350Zz33

iTrader: (4)

nickkkkk i haz 93 in manorville no line lol come get it buddy valero has 93
why you no text me

JCITY

iTrader: (2)

Man,has this topic been discussed before?
Yes.
IMO,in emergency situations,yes.
I would not use regular long term.
I'd like to know how many have run their
cars on 87 since "day one" as posted in
this thread?
Using regular,I'd dump in some octane booster.

djamps

iTrader: (1)

87 is only 'fine' if you drive it like a grandma going to church. If you drive it like a normal person it will knock. The ECU will pull some timing, but it will not pull enough to completely stop knocking on tip in.

jninja26

iTrader: (1)

Running 87 octane on a stock/ish vq is MUCH safer than the piggy back tunes that some cheapo FI guys are using, and racing around on....

R350Zz33

iTrader: (4)

i had to do this for 2 days durring our gas shortage i get really crappy gas mileage on 87

oldschool350z

iTrader: (1)

I wouldn't risk it at all.

DBTre50z

Thanks for the inputs. I drove about 35 miles like an asian grandma on a mix of regular and premium. Once I got home I stopped by the Hess station I usually go to but no luck. I almost just filled my tank up but decided id try the Sunoco down the road. I got there and no wait lines PLUS 93 oct Just got to make it last a while now cause im pretty sure I got really lucky. I will consider these suggestions though for my next tank when i might not be so fortunate.


---Also as originally posted it would be done for a tank or two, not trying to replace it with regular or use it over a long period of time