Bad performance with Premium Gas

[UKT]

Hi

I get worse performance with premium gas(98) than with regular(95) - are the European Camry's set up for regular only?

There is a lot less torque when using premium, but a slight top end improvement.

(I also used to get the same problem with my Maxima.)


Thanks

J


98 Camry V6

[Xevuhtess77]

there shouldnt be any difference.... octane doesnt do anything to power

[Warped]

Check out the first post in this ( http://www.toyotanation.com/forum/sh...505#post369505 ) thread. It should help you out. Most Camrys are fine with regular grade gas.

[UKT]

Hi

I couldn't get the link to work - is there a topic to search for?

Thanks

J

[EKam]

Premium works fine with the V6. It's recommended but not required. Your owner's manual should say this.

Originally posted by UKT

There is a lot less torque when using premium, but a slight top end improvement.

I think this is psychological, different gas will not decrease torque and increase top end at the same time.

[SmokingTires]

First off... read this:
Octane, and what it means to you...

You should really run unleaded. Standard unleaded in the US is 89 octane. Yours is even higher. Premium gas for you is almost racing fuel here. It is more hurting your engine than anything. Switch back to the 95 octane. That will suit your engine best.

All thats happening now is your engine is unable to burn all of the gas. So your not even using the full potential of the fuel. Your also causing carbon to build up on the inside of the engine. And that cause performance loses.

[Toysrme]

I've ran 87 octane in everything I've ever driven. The only car that has a problem with 87 is mom's '02 Maxima will ping on a hot day with it.

That's with cheap gas, Chevron '87 runs fine in mom's Maxima, despite it asking for 89-91.

[SmokingTires]

^
Yo, look at the octanes he gave. He's in Europe. Regular over there is 95 octane. Ours here is 87-89 octane.

And premium over there is 98 octane. That's like racing fuel

[terrythisis]

maybe your car got used to drinking "water", you give it "soda", it doesnt like it, lol

[TOYO-ED]

just follow what your manual says. Dont believe in all the hype saying higher octane is better for your car if it doesnt require it. It's not. You're basically wasting your money.

[UKT]

Thanks for the replies.

In Europe the oil companies have recently trying to sell premium gas by saying that it will increase your engine output.


J

[Toysrme]

It will. If you get under your hood and advance your timing until the car is on the verge of pinging.

If the ECU can tell your putting premium in the tank, then you'll gain power.

Unfortunately... No ECU is able to tell what gas you put in the tank. Manuf. simply make setup a timing that'll run any gas. or in the case of Nissan's 3.5L they're alittle mroe aggressive and the car will have to retard the timing on poor gas because it's pinging.

[Mikey21]

Originally posted by SmokingTiresV6
^
Yo, look at the octanes he gave. He's in Europe. Regular over there is 95 octane. Ours here is 87-89 octane.

And premium over there is 98 octane. That's like racing fuel

In most countries including Europe and Australia they use a different octane rating system than the US. They use RON (Research Octane Number). Which is the rating system of comparing the resistance against knocking compared to a percentage mixture of isooctane and n-heptane.

Example: A gasoline that has a 90 RON has the same anti knocking ability as a mixture of 90% isooctane & 10% n-heptane.

Here in the US we use a octane rating that is an average of the RON and MON (Motor Octane Number) of a gasoline mixture. The MON is a better measure of how the fuel behaves when under load. The MON averages 10 points lower than the RON. So the US octane rating is about 5 points lower than the RON.

Example: Europe octane of 95 = 90 octane in US within one or two points.


All gasoline created is not the same! Different gasolines with the same octane rating can have significant differences in energy content. I really wish this was also posted at the pumps. In cetain states and cities it's mandated to add a mixture of ethanol or other oxygen bearing additives to the gasoline mixture. It's purpose is to make the fuel burn more completely to lower emmissions thus reducing smog and pollution. The added oxidizers are any where from 2 -15% of gasoline mixture or more. This adds cost to the fuel which we end up paying for, and it also lowers the energy content of the fuel because ethanol has less energy content than petrol.

Example: 87 octane some where else has a hell of a lot more performance than 87 octane fuel in Las Vegas with 15% ethanol.

Hope this helps.

[SmokingTires]

Originally posted by Mikey21

Example: Europe octane of 95 = 90 octane in US within one or two points.

According to that, their regular is still the equivalent to our premium (in some states)....

So he's still running higher octane then he needs to. 90 octane is more than needed for a V6 Camry. I don't even like giving mine premium (92 octane here in MN). Midgrade is the most I go (90 Octane here). Good shit

[Ne0z31]

yeah, i have that same problem when i run 93 here... car feels like shit... gotsta love the 89... but Em's 3000GT runs like crap on 89 and thrives on 93...