24V engines and octane

["Karl Robrock" <robrock@xxxxxxxx>]

Hi all,
a while back I hed read someone's post about 3.0 engines (probably talking
about 12V 9.5:1 CR engines) didn't really need the premium gas and ran fine on
mid-grade and perhaps even regular. I got cheap for a while and decided to
start putting midgrade in my Q4. For a while I had been contemplating why the
car had intermittent hesitation when accelerating that did not seem to be a
typical stumble due to improper ingnition or fuel supply. It was very smooth,
yet sadly underpowered. It finally clicked that it might be the knock sensors
detecting the pinging and playing games with me. I loaded up on 93 octane and
immediately  - IMMEDIATELY - noticed an enormous difference. I will NEVER use
midgrade again (unless I am seriously broke, in which case I would drive the
spider and get over 30mpg)!

Sorry to hear that CA is downgrading their premium gas to 91 octane. I think
Alfa actually only requires 95 RON for the 12V 164 (choices in italy are 95
RON and 98 RON, which end up being about 90 PON and 93 PON respectively in the
U.S.). Since we usually have a choice of 87, 89 and 93, alfa required
"premium" gas, but 91 octane *should* be enough to prevent pinging. On the
other hand, I've known Volvos that had to get 94 octane to not ping....

Karl
'91 164L
'95 164LS
'94 164Q4
'91 Spider Veloce
http://alfalover.dhs.org
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