Honda Civic / Del Sol (1992 - 2000) EG/EH/EJ/EK/EM1 Discussion

What gas to use for b16A2

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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 10:12 AM
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Default What gas to use for b16A2

hey guys i just got a hatch with a b16a2 swap and ive been told by some people i should run 91 or 93 then some say i should run 87.. what gas are you guys running.
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 10:19 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

the higher the #. the cooler it burns and less chance of detonation.

lower #, usualy cheaper. burns slower and hotter..but can kill the motor if you get a bad batch (if you have turbo etc and pulling lots of timing)

jus put 91 octane and nothing lower. anything lower is like putting diahrea in your cars gas tank......
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 10:53 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

haha thanks man ill just run 91 or 93 then
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 11:20 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Originally Posted by rick_rabies
the higher the #. the cooler it burns and less chance of detonation.

lower #, usualy cheaper. burns slower and hotter..but can kill the motor if you get a bad batch (if you have turbo etc and pulling lots of timing)

Incorrect, actually the opposite. The higher the octane rating, basically the harder it is to ignite preventing pre ignition in higher compression engines. all automotive fuels burn at the same rate at a constant air/fuel ratio. believe it or not the only reason you cant put 87 octane in a forced induction/high compression engine is because its too flammable!
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Old Oct 18, 2010 | 11:38 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

weird -_-
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Old Oct 19, 2010 | 07:27 PM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

so should i run 93 in the b16 or is 87 fine
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Old Oct 19, 2010 | 07:34 PM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

gotta agree with efstyle..

running too high of an octane in a motor with low(er) compression can actually cause it to run worse.. you wanna run the proper octane, basically- the higher the octane isnt necessarily better. there should be info on it somewhere, possibly in an owners manual, but i'd stick with 89-91

http://www.torontocivics.com/f54/b16...-rating-11249/

http://www.ht-archive.com/showthread.php?t=2338071
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Old Oct 19, 2010 | 08:22 PM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

All vtec b series require high octane fuel
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Old Oct 19, 2010 | 08:26 PM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Originally Posted by rick_rabies
the higher the #. the cooler it burns and less chance of detonation.

lower #, usualy cheaper. burns slower and hotter..but can kill the motor if you get a bad batch (if you have turbo etc and pulling lots of timing)

jus put 91 octane and nothing lower. anything lower is like putting diahrea in your cars gas tank......
Wrong. People think higher=better. Its not the case.

Originally Posted by phelpsj2
haha thanks man ill just run 91 or 93 then
Please don't. Run 87.

Originally Posted by EFstyle
Incorrect, actually the opposite. The higher the octane rating, basically the harder it is to ignite preventing pre ignition in higher compression engines. all automotive fuels burn at the same rate at a constant air/fuel ratio. believe it or not the only reason you cant put 87 octane in a forced induction/high compression engine is because its too flammable!
Yeah. Basically with turbocharged engines the air intake is a lot hotter than a naturally aspirated motor. Pv=nrt. The air intake is pressurized so its a lot hotter and so the temps inside the combustion chamber increase a lot higher which in turn can cause the fuel to ignite by itself before the spark plug sparks the fuel which= detonation which can = blown block/snapped rod/melted piston,etc. Not to mention loose HP since the combustion would be pushing the piston down when its trying to go up for example.

You basically want to run the lowest octane possible without detonation. In this case its 87, anything higher and its going to run like crap since it can't ignite the fuel properly.
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Old Oct 19, 2010 | 08:44 PM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

you have to run premium on my si on the gas cap it say premium only
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Old Oct 19, 2010 | 08:52 PM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

You should use whatever the manual says for the car that the motor came out of, in this case a 99-00 civic Si. My friend has an extremely clean JDM B16A and he always used 93 and when he switched to 87 2 months ago he was surprised how much better the motor felt.
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Old Oct 19, 2010 | 09:52 PM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

87 you will be fine its not an evo man its a honda... Anything higher will cause the car to run like **** if you dont believe us try it see what you think.
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 05:43 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Originally Posted by AnthonyEKPRJ
87 you will be fine its not an evo man its a honda... Anything higher will cause the car to run like **** if you dont believe us try it see what you think.






Honda recommends that you run premium in all b-series vtec's and plus it says so in the owners manual and on the gas cap in the 99-00 civic si and integra gsr.
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 06:21 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

honda has race fuel in the ecu but retarded to use standard pump gas.....ask hondata if you dont beleive me.............................

doesnt mean you can jus throw c16 in though.
lower octane can have ping or detonation...
higher octane IS better...to a point though. anything over 93 you should start to have alittle advance timing
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 07:25 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

on my gsr swap if i run 87 and 91 from any cheap gasstation my car throws a CEL for knock sensor but if i run 91 Chevron she purrs like a kitten
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 07:41 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

There's a big difference between what the manual "recommends" and what is required. For a B-series running standard compression, standard timing, no forced induction, no and head work I can't imagine you'd get any benefit whatsoever from running higher octane gas. Stick with what the manual requires (I'd venture to guess it's 87).
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 07:52 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Originally Posted by Whydid
Stick with what the manual requires (I'd venture to guess it's 87).
Automotives is not about guessing

The only b series not requiring premium fuel are the non vtec version's like Integra RS, LS and GS models....and the Honda crv

Car's like Integra Integra GSR and Type R models and Civic Si and DelSol dohc models use 91 octane
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 07:58 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Honda recommends 91 octane I believe. Maybe the motor in stock form doesn't NEED it, but I know the engineers at Honda know more about their motors than I do. I do know that most of the modifications (bigger cams, high compression pistons, turbo) we do will increase cylinder pressures and running the higher octane fuel would not be a bad idea especially since the OEM knock sensor is pretty worthless if you even have one, let alone haven't disabled it.

When I had my old Civic LX (stock motor, D15B7) I would occassionally run 91 octane. It was like $1 more to fill my tank, so I figured "so what" since it supposedly has better additives and didn't have ethanol. Well, I noticed I got better gas mileage. Likely I was losing a little power since premium is harder to ignite, plus the lack of ethanol helped. I didn't care since it was just for driving to school and work and in the end, it was cheaper for me. I don't care that it wasn't needed, it worked to my advantage.

A lot of modern cars that the manual says require premium can run on regular. It's not that the car doesn't need it, the ECU will pull timing and dump in extra fuel to keep temps down and prevent knock. When you do this, you lose power. By running the proper fuel, you can make the power you should be able to.
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 08:15 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

For my 2000 SI the owner's manual and gas cap say 91. I read the shop service manual it says I have a knock sensor and the ECU will automatically adjust ignition timing to match the octane. Lately I've used 87 and can't tell any difference. There probably is a small HP loss but I can't actually feel it.

The ECU logic to perform this is probably pretty complex. I don't know about Honda but GM ECU's monitor fuel tank level and recognize when a fresh gas fill-up has occured. At that point the ECU assumes the driver used 91 and resets the timing tables. Then it listens to the knock sensor and adjusts as needed.
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 09:20 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

assuming both are straight gas, not the 87 having ethanol and the 91 being straight, etc, the 87 has a higher energy content than the 91.
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 11:16 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Originally Posted by 2000em1boycivic
you have to run premium on my si on the gas cap it say premium only
x2
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 11:18 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Originally Posted by AnthonyEKPRJ
87 you will be fine its not an evo man its a honda... Anything higher will cause the car to run like **** if you dont believe us try it see what you think.
Weird, cuz my em1 says right on the gas cap and cluster premium gas only?
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 11:23 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Some of the responses in this thread kill me, people think they know more than Honda!! To run lower octane the recommended from Honda, then say it's better, give me break. Go ahead, drive you high compression engines, and over the longer term, see what happens
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 11:28 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

B16A2s have semi high compression and a semi agressive timing curve. Use 91+ octane. You can use 87-89, but you get worse mileage because the ECU has to retard timing. You might also get a tiny bit of knock if you don't use premium.
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Old Oct 20, 2010 | 11:47 AM
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Default Re: What gas to use for b16A2

Ran my b16 on 87 for a week and it ran like ****, went back to 93 and no problems.
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