'The West' is a mighty big place. In my sub-region of 'The West', from Alberta to British Columbia to Washington and Oregon, regular gas is 87 Octane - alcohol is optional. Jake On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:17 AM, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@cox.net> wrote: > Well, that sounds definitive. I was hoping for a reply that would > enlighten me a little more, however. VW clearly recommends minimum > octane 87. Gasoline in the West is clearly lower octane than that (on > reasonable theoretical, and I suppose data driven, grounds). Numerous > folks, including some with claimed technical expertise, state that the > waterboxer is subject to detonation knock (ping) and that the octane > value of the gasoline used is iffy in that regard. Consequently these > folks recommend higher octane gasoline. If they are wrong, I'd like to > know how we know that. If they are right, I definitely don't want to > waste my money. I'd just like to understand it a little better. I > certainly believe that pinging would be less noticeable in a vanagon > than in a vehicle with the engine right in front of the driver. For > driving in Oklahoma, I pay the extra for alcohol free gasoline. Is that > a waste of money also? Actually, for my other cars, I concluded that I > would pay up to but not more than $0.06 per gallon more. That was > arbitrary. Given the alleged propensity of the waterboxer to be > sensitive to gasoline quality (and VW's admonition in the manual to use > alcohol free gasoline if possible), for that vehicle, I always pay > whatever extra I have to to get alcohol free fuel, where it is > available. > > Any explanation will be considered helpful. > > David McNeely > > > On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 12:18 PM , Richard A Jones wrote: > > And, am I just wasting my >>> money, as most auto manufacturers state, when I pay extra for the >>> higher >>> octane stuff when out west? >>> >> >> Yes. >> >> Richard >> >
-- Jake 1984 Vanagon GL 1986 Westy Weekender "Dixie" Crescent Beach, BC www.thebassspa.com www.crescentbeachguitar.com http://subyjake.googlepages.com/mydixiedarlin%27 |
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