New Owner Have Questions =)

Hey Everyone,
I am a new owner of an Infiniti G20, Sports Model 5 Speed 2002. It has all the bells and whistles, the white with the Black Leather/ Grey Seude(?), in any case it also has a "Factory" Aftermarket Exhaust, Carbon Fiber Dash Kit and Wind Deflector. Any Comments? I am thinking of my first mod being to shave the door locks off, any comments on that? Also Any ideas on Engine breakin? Car came with 30 Miles but with me hasn't seen over 3K Rpms or 60 Miles an hour, i am going to do my first oil change with Mobil 1 Synthetic when it hits 1000 miles, that ok? Is 87 Octane for Gas OK?

Thanks for the Input,

Actually they suggest first change at 3750, i did it at 3k but something about the minerals needed for proper break in......
Congrats on the purchase though post some pics when ya get em!
Chris

I just put 89 Octane from Citgo today and notice the car got little more hesitant i'm wondering if 89 is to much for that car?

You should probably use Premium gas.

definately premium gas :)

The Book is confusing it says either 87 something or 91 AKI which is confusing, beyond that i know that higher compression cars use 91 octane, is the 2.0 litre car a high compression motor? It would seem mostly unnessesary.

congrats dude. work on lowering the car first, best mod to do. :D

yah, I use to use 87 octane, but kept getting this stinkin rotten egg smell from the exhaust (sulfer) so went to 93 octane or premium. works great. Im gonna try 89 next.

you should wait at least until you get to 3500miles before you do your first oil change. it does have the break-in lube, so do not wanna change oil too soon.

good luck :D

There is no need to run premium fuel in the car.

I used to use premium in my NA car because of the extreme heat here in Houston. Premium fuel transfers less heat to the engine. When I raced karts I would see a 50+ degree decrease in cylinder head temps when doing nothing but switching from 94 octane to 115 octane, back to back.

But, unless you have thermal management issues, or are pulling a trailer, or driving in such a way that would tend to make the engine run hotter, 87 octane is sufficient with the stock ECU.

BTW, AKI is anti-knock index.

Also, for our international friends, here in The States our pumps display octane as (r+m)/2 where:

r = research octane number (the rating most of you use)
m = motor octane number (usually quite lower than ron)

So your octane rating numbers will tend to be higher, but your petrol may not actually have a higher rating than ours.

i'm not exactly a certified auto mechanic, but i have thoroughly researched octane ratings, and the deal is... you do what the manual says. ignore the AKI (anti-knock index, as it is useless for you, because youll never find a gas station that tells you the AKI... its all expressed in octanes).

generally, they will have two numbers, like:

recommended: 89
minimum: 85


what that means is the following.. the engine is tuned so that it NEEDS a minimum of 89 octane if you are to get performance/gas milage/long life out of it. but the engine is designed to accept octane of down to 85... it can accept 85 because it can electronically control ignition timing so that damage is prevented.

in this case, anything ABOVE 89 would be a waste of money... the engine is NOT designed to utilize anything above 89 octane. if it were, it would say "recommended: 91". but it doesnt, so its a waste of money. you MIGHT be able to argue that premium is full of goodies for the engine... stuff that keeps it clean i guess, which is good... but for the most part, they put the SAME additives in ALL the octans. the only big difference between regular, plus and premium, is 87, 89, and 91.

if you have done some engine mods to raise hp, your engine will start to run hotter... in which case you might need to step up with the octanes.

ooops, i got my AKI and RON and MON mixed up :rolleyes:



anyway... i reinterate that using premium gas over regular when the engine recommends regular is not only a waste of money, but it is possible (albeit on an ever so slight scale) that you could actually LOSE power, which i am about to explain.

a higher octane is made that way so it is less susceptable to pre-ignition, or detonation, and things like that... in other words, so it doesnt ingite unless its because of the spark plug. translated, it means premium gas requires MORE engergy (heat) to combust than regular. also, it will burn SLOWER when it does combust. so because premium is so much harder to burn than regular fuel... using premium in an engine thats only requirements are regular CAN ONLY HINDER PERFORMANCE (although i havent verified this... and if it is true, its probably on a scale that is almost unnoticeable by a human driver). no way, no how will it increase performance. if you fill up your car with 87 one day and the car seems bogged down.... try going to another gas station (even if it is the same brand)... no need to step up to a higher octane.

Well funny you should mention that, i did notice a big loss of power switching to 89 from when i took the car out the lot, i am going to try 91 octane, also about my first mod being lowering the car i actually want to take the door locks off first.

Premium gas is a waste of money, I have seen several tests all of which indicated there is little or no difference between mid and high grade gasolines. As you may know, most gasolines regardless of what filling station you use, get their gas from the same piplelines and distributors. I run reg unleaded which I believe is 87 ron and have no problems whatsoever. The car runs great, does not smell, hesitate, idle rough etc... I switched to Mobil One at the first oil change. And quit kidding yourselves, the G20 is just a nissan with good customer service and a decent warranty.

I agree that the SR20DE in stock form runs fine on regular gas.

But to say that plus/super/ultra has no performance differences you are wrong.

b00gie is right - a stock SR20DE will run fine on regular petrol. Using high octane fuel will make no difference.

High octane fuel comes into play when you tune the engine to get more power. The higher the octane rating of the fuel, the more power you will be able to extract from your existing setup before you get "pinking" problems.

Remember - all high octane fuel does is resist pinking more than low octane fuel.

Since you guys KNOW there is a difference prove it. No to be a smart ass but back up your claim.

Simple - set your timing to 19 degrees using 93 octane and dyno the car.

Then fill the car with 87 octane and repeat the process.

The engine will pink like hell on 87 octane, which the knock sensor will detect and cause the ECU to retard the timing to hell to save your engine. This will of course lower your engine performance, and would have hurt your engine.

Pinking is the fastest way to destroy your nice shiny SR20, short of removing the oil and revving the socks off it :(

I don't need to prove any of this, but just go and ask any respected performance tuner (JWT would be a good one) and they'll tell you exactly what I've writen in my past two posts... :rolleyes:

If you advance your timing or run hotter cams you NEED to get premium gas.

UH yeah, I think we are still talking about a stock car. I'm sure there are any number of tweaks you could do to the engine that would REQUIRE higher octane fuels, but a stock G20 won't know the difference between 87-89 and maybe a hair with 92 but my guess is back to back dynos would show a statistical tie. :bandit:

Well even on a stock car if you advance the timing to 19 you'd better be running premium gas. I don't know if you still consider that stock but I do. :)

OK, I agree with you there, just like I said before...

On a stock SR20DE there is no benefit of using higher than "regular" gasoline.


There are performance benefits which may be needed when performing modifications to your engine.


If anyone would like to read why "super/premium/ultra" gasoline has no benefit to your stock engine please read this...

http://theserviceadvisor.com/octane.htm


for further reading, follow the links at the bottom of that page.

Next question, how do you advance the timing to 19 degrees and what are the benefitws and drawbacks? Thanks

http://www.se-r.net/engine/about_timing.html ;)