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A vehicle’s engine needs good-quality gas to operate at maximum efficiency. It is therefore important to know what type of gasoline, and more specifically what grade of gasoline your engine needs in order to ensure that you get the very best performance and fuel economy.
Most of us know that there are three types of gas: regular with 87 octane, midgrade with 89 octane, and premium with 91 octane. Sometimes, you can get performance-grade gasoline with 94 octane.
“Without getting into advanced chemistry, the octane levels found in gasoline indicate how resistant the gas is to compression. Moreover, octane levels dictate when gas will explode within the engine”, explains a service technician at Civic Motors.
To better understand, here’s a quick explanation of how an engine works.
In your vehicle’s engine there are cylinders, and within these cylinders there are pistons. A mixture of gas and air is sent into the cylinder where the piston pushes it up. As it is pushed, the mixture compresses and then ignites thanks to a spark provided by the spark plug. The explosion pushes the piston back down and the cycle starts over again.
The mixture must explode at the correct moment in order for the engine to perform at an optimal level. If it explodes too soon, you could experience engine knocking or other problems related to performance.
Back to octane ratings. They represent the percentage of gasoline that contains octane, which is nothing more than a chain containing eight strands of carbon. When you read that a particular type of gas has an octane rating of 87, which means that 13 % of the gas does not contain octane.
The lower the octane rating and the higher the volatility of the gasoline, which means it ignites sooner in the compression chamber. If you put such gas in a high-compression engine built for performance, you will quickly have problems as the gas will explode too soon.
On the other hand, there is absolutely no need to put high-octane gas in a vehicle equipped with an engine that only needs regular. You will not get better performance, and you will not get better fuel economy.
Therefore, to avoid problems and not pay more than you need to, stick to the octane rating specified by the manufacturer. You will see it as soon as you open the fuel trap.
