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I wish we here in CA had an octane rated fuel above 91, as I believe that explains the nagging ping that occurs with my 82T at increased RPM's when cruising in any gear. Could be a city street in traffic and you want the higher RPM's for torque when changing lanes, passing... damn knock. And this is with the timing set below (retard) spec.
I had a lengthy conversation with a SAAB wizzard on this very topic some time back. He was insistent that nothing but premium gas be run through the turbo cars. Besides reduced performance, there are the internal overheating and fouling issues with low octane gas. If only high octane gas didn't cost so damn much!
So here's what I'm thinking: recently someone posted (either here or the performance BB) a link to information about making your own octane boost mix using the common available ingredients found in pricey store bought octane boosters. Considering the lowered cost for volume purchases, perhaps one could indeed make one's own octane formula while at the same time using the low cost low octane gasoline. Without any way of doing the the math right now, perhaps there is a nice savings to go along with an even better performance than what you get at the official gas pump using premium gas!
The only thing I don't know about is just how "junky" low octane fuel is and what internal (mostly fouling) problems might occur over the long run by using that gas. I do know that with my previous 900 N/A I used low octane fuel exclusively and I drove it for another 100k miles in addition to it's previous 175k miles without any noticable fuel system problem. The fuel injectors did, however, have a considerable amount of gunk on them when I pulled them before retiring the car for parts. I didn't get a look inside the intake chambers or the valve stems, but chances are that it was dirty in there as well. Because of using low octane gas all that time? Don't know. I know I never pulled them for a cleaning in all that time, and perhaps the previous owner never did as well. So the gunk could have been a normal 275k miles worth of buildup.
I suppose the only way to tell with my car is to check the injectors after a period of using the formula to see if there is an increased buildup of gunk happening. I know that after many months now of driving with nothing but high octane fuel, the injectors on this turbo are clean. So it will be easy to notice a difference with the low cost gas/octane formula mix.
posted by 32.100....
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