please help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[crxinw/b20turb]

at what level of performance(horsepower) do you have to up grade to 93 or better octane. Im building a weekend racer and im trying to come up with my set up.

[crxlvr]

if your building anything, run it. it only helps things, dont worry bout what perfermance level you are at, or what HP's you are running.

[kris]

Originally Posted by crxinw/b20turb

at what level of performance(horsepower) do you have to up grade to 93 or better octane. Im building a weekend racer and im trying to come up with my set up.

It doesnt matter what "level". What matters is what you are doing. If you really have a B20 turbo, you should have already been running on premium fuel.

[shylock]

YUP!!!!!
In my 88 hb I run 93...it gets better gas milage and seems to run better...and thats just a d15.
In my 93 integra...all I run is 93....and I am very happy with the gas milage and performance.
Anything less than 93 and its a waste.

[kris]

Originally Posted by shylock

YUP!!!!!
In my 88 hb I run 93...it gets better gas milage and seems to run better...and thats just a d15.
Im my 93 integra...all I run is 93....and I am very happy with the gas milage and performance.
Anything less than 93 and its a waste.

Yeah, a waste of money.

The octane rating of gasoline tells you how much the fuel can be compressed before it ignites. When gas ignites by compression rather than because of the spark from the spark plug, it causes knocking in the engine. Knocking can damage an engine, so it is not something you want to have happening. Lower-octane gas (like "regular" 87-octane gasoline) can handle the least amount of compression before igniting.

The compression ratio, or changing the spark timing, of your engine determines the octane rating of the gas you must use in the car. So a high compression ratio requires higher-octane fuel. Or, for instance, if you have your timing advanced. It doesnt mysteriously give you better gas mileage.

[shylock]

"It doesnt mysteriously give you better gas mileage."

Hmmmmm.
I dont think I said it mysteriously gives you better gas mileage????

I stated that in hondas and acuras I (Im not sure of anyone else..) but I have owned in the past (along with other high performance autos)knock and ping less with 93. I apoligise if I mis represented what I was trying to convey. Next time I will go out and search the textbook answer....when someone asks someones opinion.

:::::
The octane rating of gasoline tells you how much the fuel can be compressed before it spontaneously ignites. When gas ignites by compression rather than because of the spark from the spark plug, it causes knocking in the engine. Knocking can damage an engine, so it is not something you want to have happening. Lower-octane gas (like "regular" 87-octane gasoline) can handle the least amount of compression before igniting.

The compression ratio of your engine determines the octane rating of the gas you must use in the car. One way to increase the horsepower of an engine of a given displacement is to increase its compression ratio. So a "high-performance engine" has a higher compression ratio and requires higher-octane fuel. The advantage of a high compression ratio is that it gives your engine a higher horsepower rating for a given engine weight -- that is what makes the engine "high performance." The disadvantage is that the gasoline for your engine costs more.

The name "octane" comes from the following fact: When you take crude oil and "crack" it in a refinery, you end up getting hydrocarbon chains of different lengths. These different chain lengths can then be separated from each other and blended to form different fuels. For example, you may have heard of methane, propane and butane. All three of them are hydrocarbons. Methane has just a single carbon atom. Propane has three carbon atoms chained together. Butane has four carbon atoms chained together. Pentane has five, hexane has six, heptane has seven and octane has eight carbons chained together.

It turns out that heptane handles compression very poorly. Compress it just a little and it ignites spontaneously. Octane handles compression very well -- you can compress it a lot and nothing happens. Eighty-seven-octane gasoline is gasoline that contains 87-percent octane and 13-percent heptane (or some other combination of fuels that has the same performance of the 87/13 combination of octane/heptane). It spontaneously ignites at a given compression level, and can only be used in engines that do not exceed that compression ratio.

During WWI, it was discovered that you can add a chemical called tetraethyl lead to gasoline and significantly improve its octane rating. Cheaper grades of gasoline could be made usable by adding this chemical. This led to the widespread use of "ethyl" or "leaded" gasoline.

is that better???????????????

[kris]