I was wondering what kind of fuel you guys use when doing open track/ HPDE. The car is stock and caled from the factory for crappy gas, so is there any reason to use premium or even high octane ratings??. I understand the engine will get much hotter than it does during an autox but does it get up to the point I need to worry about preignition?? For the record it is a 2002 civic EX (d17a2) in STS form. The only mod for the engine is a catback

 

I ran what the car was designed for.. .

my first year in racing H4 my ECU was only factory tuned... so I ran 87 (even brought it to the track)

 

You need to run whatever the factory reccomends in your vehicle unless you have dramatically changed the compression of your engine. I am running 12.5:1 and just to be on the safe side I run 50 % Sunoco 104 unleaded so I have mixed gas.

Running 93 when it is not needed only raises the costs of doing such driving events. Hope this helps

 

I use 91 but I am running slightly higher compression.... could still be wasting my money

 

I run 87 no need for more that what the manufacture calls for. IMO you have nothing to worry about just run what Honda says.

 

Same motor... when it was N/A, I ran 87 without a problem all the time. As far as running hot... not really, if it was 90+ out the car might break 200 degrees.
With the turbo I usually put 2 or 3 gallons of 100 in the tank mixed with 93, just for safety factor, and the car still doesnt get hot. I think it ran 207 with the ambient temp at nearly 100. When the air temp was in the 80s, it ran at 195.

 

my d15 i ran on 87. tried 93 once at the glen. did absolutely nothing. my b16 i run 93 cause the compression is up a touch and the cams arent b16 cams.

 

I run premium just for the safety factor. If everything is normal, it should not be needed. But we do run'em kinda hot and we do wind'em pretty tight... The hotter they get, the more they need the octane. A little extra octane to prevent knocking or preignition couldn't hurt. I draw the line at buying race gas, though. Premium pump gas is the highest margin of safety I'll pay for on a stock engine.

 

am I right by saying on a stock engine higher octane will help you not run lean?

if your motor is stock, the lubricants you use are much more important than fuel. get some Motul or Redline and you will see a difference.

if you get 10 gallons of race fuel at the track it will have costed the same.

 

Premium fuel is where I would draw the line on a stock motor...... When I was still supercharged, I ran a little race gas for det resistence. But the car was tuned on 91 so thats what I ran. On a stock car like that.....I would stick with 87... or mid grade unless its really hot out there

 

I believe it says Unleaded Fuel Only

 

87 here. I ran 100 at Summit Point for a session since I didn't have time to get to the gas station. I felt a little faster due to the weight reduction of my wallet.