100 octane: is it good for miata?
Joined: Oct 2007
Posts: 6,029
Total Cats: 304
From: The coal ridden hills of Pennsylvania
100 Octane will destroy your engine. Especially if you run Unleaded Only. I only run leaded fuel, the lower the octane, the higher the lead. The lead will lubricate the cylinders thus making your car faster. Every 5 octane numbers that you go down = the same effect as 1 psi of boost.
If you're making 0 boost on 87 octane, 72 octane with lead additive will produce 3 psi with no turbos or nos.
If you're making 0 boost on 87 octane, 72 octane with lead additive will produce 3 psi with no turbos or nos.
If your car doesn't have any kind of forced induction(Turbo or Supercharger) you can even run regular(~87 octane) gas and easily get away with it.
100 Octane will destroy your engine. Especially if you run Unleaded Only. I only run leaded fuel, the lower the octane, the higher the lead. The lead will lubricate the cylinders thus making your car faster. Every 5 octane numbers that you go down = the same effect as 1 psi of boost.
If you're making 0 boost on 87 octane, 72 octane with lead additive will produce 3 psi with no turbos or nos.
If you're making 0 boost on 87 octane, 72 octane with lead additive will produce 3 psi with no turbos or nos.
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 34,402
Total Cats: 7,523
From: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Ok, folks. The OP does not live in an English-speaking country, nor in a place which uses the same rating systems and conventions to describe gasoline as we do in Canada / the US.
kimkim, yes, it is safe to run 100 octane fuel in the Miata so long as:
1: It is unleaded, and
2: It does not contain a high concentration of alcohol. (10-20% is fine.)
If the fuel is leaded, then it will cause gradual degradation of the catalytic converter and the O2 sensor.
If the fuel contains a high percentage of alcohol, then it might cause damage to certain rubber or plastic components of the fuel system, however this is not likely to occur in a short period of time.
There is no benefit to running 100 octane fuel as opposed to regular unleaded fuel (87 R+M/1 or 91-92 RON) unless your engine is specifically built for this, such as having a very high compression ratio or being turbocharged to a very high pressure.
Speaking about octane, I heard a few years back that running a higher octane (87 vs 94) on a regular car would actually reduce the power it makes. Is this just one of those rumors that has no merit?
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 34,402
Total Cats: 7,523
From: Chicago. (The less-murder part.)
Whether this is a practical concern today with commercially-available gasoline is something I honestly don't know.
On a cross country journey, my buddy put 87 octane in his car instead of the normal 93 and it resulted in a 2.5mpg increase at 70mph running cruise on flat ground. I don't know if those results are typical, but it was what we experienced on the trip.
It is theoretically possible, depending on what chemicals were used to boost the octane. If the act of raising the octane causes the energy density of the fuel to be decreased, then yes, you will make less power burning high octane fuel in a low compression engine than you would with a fuel that, by way of not having been diluted by octane-enhancing compounds, has a higher energy density.
Whether this is a practical concern today with commercially-available gasoline is something I honestly don't know.
Whether this is a practical concern today with commercially-available gasoline is something I honestly don't know.







