What Grade Gas Does Your T-Bird Like?

[Figori]

Okay guys... Just a quick survey. What grade of gas do you put in your T-bird? This topic came up just yesterday when I finally broke down and put $20 of the Shell V-power in my tank.... It was like my car was instantly happy... I lost my low power upshift shudder, and everything. I don't think my car has ran this happy in a long time...

Anyways, throw up your votes, and let the good times roll!

[RickwithaTbird]

ive tried 91 octane in my 3.8 before because a friend talked me into it, but I didnt notice a difference except the price. I usually use 89. Ive used octane boosters and all that shit too, and never noticed a difference. when I used the "off-street legal" octane booster there was no performance difference, I just lost 50 miles to the tank, and my 6 bucks. the dollar bottles of injector cleaner help my mileage by 15-50 miles per tank depending on how I drive, how many drive thru's I eat at, shit like that. But back to the topic, I never noticed performance differences in my 3.8... maybe because its a v6... I dont know.

[thunderbird muscle]

The cheap stuff. If your car isn't meant to run on premium you really shouldn't. One of the Mustang moderators had a good post on this subject I will try to put in the tech help section.

[thunderbird muscle]

Re: octane boosters? (Post #3)
"Octane boosters or high octane fuel are over rated. In most cases they will actually hurt performance, unless you have a car that runs high compression or has a power adder with a decent about of boost, there is no reason for it.

The reason for higher octane is to eliminate pre-ignition or detonation. This is when the fuel ignites in the cylinder before the spark plug fires.

Now for any type of performance you want to run the lowest octane possible without detonation occurring. This will give you the quickest burn possible, and take less effort to make power. Higher octane has a higher burn rate, and will take more effort to ignite and actually cause less power to be made. Also not to mention that running higher octane then required will ultimately cause you to have to run that grade consistently, because of the deposits that will build up on the cylinders.

Now here's the gimmick, octane boosters that say they raise your octane by 7 points would have most to believe that if you run 93 grade, you will now have 100 octane with the booster. But in reality its more like 93.7 octane. If you actually have a car that requires such a high octane to perform, then it would be wise to invest in 100 octane race fuel at something like $3 a gallon, and not the cheap gimmicked "NOS" octane boosters.

__________________
-89 Mustang GT AOD. For Sale.
-91 Mustang Coupe, 4cyl conversion car. Project "Monster Notch", very modded, very fast.
-94 GMC Vandura, Shagging waggon."Quoted from Highflow5.O

Hope this cleared some things up

[RickwithaTbird]

well that clears that up for me... I kinda thought maybe it did hurt my performance, but then again I was thinkin that maybe my high expectations just had me feeling that way... well, now I know.. cool, good stuff

[compewterman]

ok.. been told by a certified mechanic that thunderbirds.. are meant to run on 87 octane.. that higher octane gases leave carbon residues faster... was told by him to use SeaFoam in my tank for approx 3 tankfuls...... Ya know what.. he was right.. it totally cleaned up my throttle intake,, and injectors.. its relativly inexpensive.. But pinot being use 87 grade.. 1 its much cheaper.. and 2 less hamful on your engine. Hope this helps.....


95 Thunderbird LX 91k miles
4.6 V8

[RickwithaTbird]

where do you get 87 octane gas? the lowest I can get is 89. you must be in a different part of the country, ive heard that they have different octane levels in different regions.

[DMS825]

Nothing but 93 for the SC

[brainsinajar]

The older your car get (particularly in more powerful motors) the more carbon build up you get in the combustion chambers from the overall combustion process. Aftertime it heats up and causes premature combustion and your pistons will compress an explosion instead of gas and air. Higher octane gas make it more resistant to combustion. I put 93-Octane in mine.

[white 97 lx]

have to run 93 since the pi swap. Oh well gotta pay if ya wanna play

[SilvrFox122]

I usually put the regular in my chicken. I also have a 3.8, and I tried the v-power once I think, it didn't really do much.