Is "Ultra" as bad as it seems?

[happydog500]

As my hunt for a good, base, Park Avenue continues, I keep running into good deals on, "Ultra's."

I don't want an Ultra, because it seems like another thing to go wrong and maintain.

Not only that, but it gets slightly less gas mileage, not only that, but I've just been told by the second person, that an Ultra needs premium gas. What happens if you ran regular? Also, you have to change the oil in the supercharger? I was also told that, on average, the supercharged engine doesn't last as long (certainly, it matters how you drive, but was told on average, it doesn't last as long).

I know the Ultras are a "rocket ship" (another problem for me, as I like that!!!), but does anyone else think or know that an Ultra is real nice, but it's not worth the extra things in maintenance and stuff like that?

Thank you,
Chris.

[Stealthee]

If you don't want to run premium, don't get the Ultra. Not running premium can cause detonation, which can cause chipped pistons, which is bad. And honestly premium isn't that much more expensive than regular. On a 17 gallon tank filling from completely empty you'd spend 5.10 more on premium with prices at 2.69 and 2.99.

Gas mileage is determined by how and where you drive. I have gotten as much as 28+ mpg on a highway trip in my supercharged Grand Prix. When I was driving 17 miles to work I got 23 mpg daily driving in the summer, and about 19 mpg in the winter due to warming the car up, colder temps burning more fuel, and winter mix of fuel. If you drive hard your mileage will suffer.

Whoever said the supercharged engine doesn't last as long was just talking out their behind. The supercharged engine will last as long as someone takes care of it. There are guys with 300K+ miles on modifies supercharged 3800's. I have 176k miles on my drivetrain. If you drive it hard all the time then reliability goes out the window.

Oil change on the supercharger is easy and only needs to be done about every 50k miles. Buying the stuff online I did my supercharger oil change for $20 and I probably won't ever have to do it again.

[Foolzrushn]

I run regular 87 octane gas most of the time and don't detect any pinging. But I don't usually accelerate very hard either. The electronic knock detector will retard the timing and handle regular but with a small loss in performance. If you drive hard..go premium fuel as recommended.

The tradeoffs are:

The plastic drive coupler in the supercharger will start to sound like a box of rocks eventually and you can replace it yourself fairlr easy in about an hour.

The regular PA has a plastic intake that will leak. The Ultra is metal.

The Ultra has better performamce, but you have a supercharger belt in addition to the accessory belt. I have driven mine without the supercharger belt, and it still ran OK. The charger belt only drives the charger.

The Ultra has beefed up rods and pistons, and a transmission.

You need to keep special oil in the supercharger. It hardly ever needs more.

I would rather have the charger.