V-Power

[Xog]

Ahoy, I've got a Nissan Sentra SXE (2006), and I use regular unleaded 87 octane fuel.. however today I accidentally pumped $20 (4 gallons, half a tank) of 91 unleaded octane "v-power" fuel.. anyone know what'll happen to the car? I successfully drove home (2 minute drive from the gas station) without any weird sounds or anything. I tried looking up if anyone else has done this, but to no avail. I keep getting stuff about ppl accidentally putting REGULAR in, when they usually use v-power, but not what I've done I feel like a retard lol. Oh gosh. I didn't notice the light was blinking on the gas pump until I was putting the pump back :/

Anyone know?.. Will my engine fuck up?

[Displaced]

higher octane fuel will make your car run better...

next time pump some diesel in there, it go like a rocketship on acid! (trust me!)

[Xog]

higher octane fuel will make your car run better...

next time pump some diesel in there, it go like a rocketship on acid! (trust me!)

uh no, im not a retard

[Displaced]

i beg to differ...

will 91RON gasoline fuckup my enginez, OMGZOR!

[Xog]

i beg to differ...

will 91RON gasoline fuckup my enginez, OMGZOR!

Knock is a serious problem for gasoline engines. The resistance of a particular gasoline blend to knock is given by the octane number, with a higher value indicating greater resistance. Over the years the public has come to think of higher octane numbers as indicating higher energy/more power. That's not really true, but a detailed discussion of the topic is worthy of its own article. Suffice to say that self-ignition is a pivotal difference between gasoline and diesel engines. In a gasoline engine you don't want the fuel to self-ignite--that is, to burn without benefit of a spark plug. In a diesel one you do.

Trying to use diesel fuel in a gasoline engine also has unpleasant consequences, but generally not as dire in terms of damage to the fuel system. Depending on the proportion of diesel fuel relative to gas in the tank, a gasoline engine will either run poorly or stop altogether, necessitating another $500 trip to the repair shop for draining and flushing. A couple of old grease monkeys at the shop I used to work at claimed that their "super high-compression" gasoline engines of the late 1960s could easily switch between gasoline and diesel fuel with no problems, but I tend to think they spent too much time inhaling fumes from the carburetor cleaning tank.

In short, don't put the wrong fuel in your vehicle. If a significant amount of the wrong fuel does wind up in your tank, have the vehicle towed to a repair shop lest you ruin the fuel pump or get stranded by the roadside. If you want to use inexpensive diesel fuel, the solution is simple. Buy a diesel car.

http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mdieselvsgas.html

[Displaced]

wtf selfpwnd.

[Adman]

shouldn't be that big of a deal. Whenever i had to get my old vehicles E-tested, i'd put some 91 in at sunoco and take her for a run down the highway, and i always passed. But i don't think you'll have any real damage, check your owner's manual and it will tell you what you shold put in.

[Xog]

shouldn't be that big of a deal. Whenever i had to get my old vehicles E-tested, i'd put some 91 in at sunoco and take her for a run down the highway, and i always passed. But i don't think you'll have any real damage, check your owner's manual and it will tell you what you shold put in.

Thanks adman. I don't know where my manual is right now, but thanks for your input. Hopefully my engine times itself.

[Displaced]

so you can google, but not read the excerpts you link to? :greedy:

[Xog]

so you can google, but not read the excerpts you link to? :greedy:

i read that one before I even came to the forums. You can see I went through it as I edited the article... :/

[iLDuce]

You'll be fine. In fact, V-Power gasoline has more detergents and additives in it than regular unleaded (or even 91 octane from most other companies), so your fuel system might indeed see some short-term benefits. Just as long as you're not using it regularly of course - stick to what your manual recommends.


As an aside, FUCK sometimes I hate having a car that needs 91 octane.

[iLDuce]

Oh, also, 100 octane fuel is godly if you've got the gwap.

[Dameon Angell]

Your car is completely fine, don't trip.

[Money]

true, but all cars unless they say "PREMIUM ONLY", like cadillacs, take regular. after a while it can do damage but not one time and only a couple gallons

[Jerome Scuggs]

Octane is basically the rating of how fast the fuel burns when ignited. Your engine is configured to run with a certain octane because of the timing required - using a different octane will cause knocking because the gasoline will combust before or after it's supposed to.

Mixing a little 91 oc into your tank wont be an issue, especially if you fill it up (and therefore dilute it) with whatever gas you normally use.