Raisedina911

maybe a dumb question, but can us lowly 996 3.6l NA engine guys put 100 octane in our cars? Will it hurt my car in any way? Will it make it faster?

slant911

The 100 octane won't hurt your car. You are in the same fuel boat as I am....91 octane is the highest you can get at normal pumps. If you check out the owner's manual or just the inside of your filler flap the car is suppose to be getting a diet of 93 octane. Not to say that anything bad is going to happen to your car running 91 octane, but 93 would run better. Your ECU is pulling timing to make up for the lack of 2 extra octane points. Hence a marginal amount slower. Best bet is to mix about 5 gallons of 100 octane in with your normal 91 octane gas which will give you an effective octane rating of about 93/94. This will halp your ECU to give you all the power your car can turn out. Likley nothing you are going to notice though. The higher octane will help on the hot days also as heat has to do with knock/timing calculations by the ECU. In a nutshell...No you are not going to witness some miraculous happening if you put in 100 octane fuel. Your engine will like you more and your car will be running at it's optimum. Hope that made sense.

htny

I can attest to the ECU assertion, mine definitely detuned a bit on California 91 (which I swear is not even close to 91) since I've shipped my car back to NY, I've been able to burn two tanks of 93 and it's back to normal.

But I don't think you should run straight 100 octane at standard timing all the time, or casually mix 100 octane from one brand with 91 from another. I'm not a petrochemical engineer, but in all likelihood neither are you, so be careful making mixing assumptions before confirming the effects of various detergents.

htny

sorry I missed this. I'm pretty sure all the unleaded hi test race fuels in the USA contain some form of oxygenator: MTBE, ethanol, or methanol.

JDSStudios

Maybe you should find out, because there are several links with info on Ethanol damaging
certain engine parts (to a certain degree, of course).

I do not know about if the other additives you mention do the same damage.
John

BillJ

Not sure anyone mentioned this but is that near Mid-Ohio?

chily2008

Not really.

About 1 hour away.

htny

It's not just race fuels, in many US states, ethanol and other oxygenators are already mixed with premium gas to 10%, ostensibly to save the polar bears I think. In some states there's no choice really. There's a lot of things in retail gasoline that can theoretically and in reality harm your fuel system and engine, none moreso than water, but including the variety of detergents and other additive packages that serve to differentiate the major gasoline brands.

How about in Canada, is there a lot of ethanol blending going on yet?