what tyoe of gasoline do i use that wont mess up my engine? 89, 90 or 91

 

Read your manual. An octane rating of 87 or greater will suffice all models except the Si's.

 

In my opinion, 89 is useless. Just go 87 or get a better grade of 91. Sunoco is my choice of gas. I've heard shell is good too.

At the end of the day, if you're not tracking your lx, you'll be fine with any gas..

 

87 only. No need to waste your money.

 

:facepalm: not this subject again.

 

Just use 87. I have a 2010 civic and the manual says it will perform best with 87 octanes. Just a tip for Sunoco lovers in Canada (not sure if Sunoco in the US is the same). Sunoco uses more ethanol in their fuel than any other gasoline out there (up to 10%) and it is a fact by most automakers that ethanol harms your engine. Additionally, ethanol decreases your MPG.

 

ethanol added to gasoline can also reduce power output. A car has to be set up to run added ethanol and tuned to take advantage of it.

 

Use 87. Like the others said there is no advantage to using something higher.

Although any brand of gas will do fine, I usually fill up with brands that use proprietary additives like Chevron or Shell. There is no hard proof that the fuel is better, but I see it as paying for piece of mind.

 

I run regular 87 from where ever I buy it, most of the time I use sunoco because I get a discount from price chopper.

I see no difference in mileage or power, the car go's up over the mountain I travel every morning in 5th gear with power to spare.

 

There is a reason why generic brand fuel costs less, the fuel contains the bare minimum amounts of detergent the government requires.

When you buy premium branded fuel, such as Chevron, Shell, BP you are getting the same gasoline, it's the additive that makes the difference. Not only do they contain better detergents they also add more than the government mandates. Most fuel delivered throughout the country travels thru a pipeline, do you honestly think that there is a pipe for every brand with every grade? There is a line for 87 and diesel, the additive and octane boosters are added when the fuel is pumped into the trucks for delivery. There is an exception to this and this is Amoco Ultimate and places where there are refineries or port of call.

 

Just to add a ditto. My uncle used to own a few gas stations (RIP) in the SF area. All the gasoline comes from the same area - one refinery (in Marin County?). So your no name and Chevron are the same. Is the detergent that makes it a Chevron vs Shell vs BP vs no name.

Sort of like a fountain soda. The CO2 tank is the same. But it's the syrup that determine is it's Coke, Pepsi or 7up.

In his case, I believe the (nearly) all the oil is imported by boat. And truck to the stations. They only make 87 and 91. The stations only have two tanks. When a customer selects 89. The machine mixes the two together.

On the reply. I accept the idea that Chevron detergent is better than no-brand. But I don't know if it's more than the government requirement. It cuts into profit to do more than necessary. Just want to point out for the readers that better doesn't always mean more. But I think we are saying the same thing.

 

I know there is more detergent because I use to haul fuel, when we loaded a unbranded product each line had an injector and you can hear the injector dispersing the detergent. You could hear the injector audible 30-40 times a minute where as the unbranded fuel was less than half the audible.

Believe it or not even the generic gas station sells brand name fuel, the fuel contains the brand names generic fuel additive. The generic station where you buy your fuel just happens to have whatever fule was the cheapest the day of order.

Our company also pumped commercial fleets and most of the time the cheapest fuels available were "murphy undranded," "citgo unbranded" and "valero anbranded." Most of the time this reason was that these companies were domestic at the time and had the lowest overhead.