Poll for Special Owners: What octane gas do you use?

[InfernoRedM]

I am mostly curious about owners of Specials. How many use higher-octane gas in your cars? Please let us know by entering your vote. Please choose the one that you put in more than half the time. Thanks for participating!

[M-Pressive]

87 all day

[Sneke_Eyez]

I use regular 87 octane top tier gas in my DD Special about 85% of the time.
The other 15% of the time I use premium, usually in the summer.

I run my summer-driven-only Intrepid (which has been converted to 2002 Special specs) on premium 91 octane top tier gas always.

[InfernoRedM]

I didn't think about folks who had more than one Special. The reason I am asking is that I was wondering if you found a performance difference. I used to do mostly 87 in mine with an occasionally treat of 89 or 91, particularly when in Ohio (lower prices). Recently, I found a station near me selling 93 octane for about $0.15 above the average price of regular in the area, and that's what I have been using. Since I don't drive that much, especially in the winter, I'm thinking my price premium is much less than $10/month. Seems like $5/month or so is worth it to run on 93 vs 87 octane.

Thanks for voting!

[beespecial]

87 octane every time. I never noticed any performance or mileage difference whenever I tried higher octane early on in the life of the car. Now it's strictly 87 from a quality retailer.

[Gorm]

I usually go with 91 premium. In my area, the only other option is 87 with 10% ethanol. Every time I run that 87 the engine just shakes and shimmys and I can feel it in the steering wheel. We used to have an 89 non ethanol, I would use that and be just fine as well.

[sparky99]

Everyone knows my car is a special conversion.
But with that said.

I have to run premium gas.

When I bought my car, the water pump failed, it was driven hot, the heads were warped.
While fixing the car, the heads were milled down. Now that they’ve been milled down, it pings badly if I don’t run premium gas (91 or above).

[adu1982]

Running 87 all day....all of them including the special and the engine block I put in had 175, now over 182k..... Same oem internals other than gaskets/belt/water pump when put in. Looked good though bearings and all...never used premium, maybe once or twice...but saw no difference.

Sent from my Moto G (5) Plus using Tapatalk

[Sonicrob]

I don't know about you guys, but I notice some engine pinging when I use 87. So I tried to avoid that and usually go with 91

[Sneke_Eyez]

I don't know about you guys, but I notice some engine pinging when I use 87. So I tried to avoid that and usually go with 91

No pinging for me, so I don't shell out the extra money except for the Intrepid - and that's only because I want the theoretical power boost.

[Jason300M]

87 most of the time but usually run 93 in the summer


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[LUNAT1C]

Depends on where I go for gas. I ususally buy Costco (Top Tier) fuel, and buy 87 since they only offer 87 and 91. Anywhere else that serves, 89, I get 89. I haven't noticed it recently, maybe because the trans has been rebuilt, rockers replaced, and LIM cleaned out (not to mention I seafoamed it last summer), but when I bought the car in 2009 it had a slight pinging that went away with 89.

91 has no noticeable difference in efficiency or performance (remember, octane has nothing to do with power unless PCM senses octane level and retards timing accordingly), so I don't bother. I never put it in my Hemi Charger either, always 87.

[Beautimous1]

I know this is an old thread but was interested in the results. The owners manual said to use 89 so I always have. Now that she's at 200,000 miles I dont expect to switch unless I go 91 because the motor is pretty worn.
In my special it pinged no matter what I used(2002). I tried all three 87,89,91 and none of them would make it so there was zero pinging at WOT. That 02 special is long gone. My 1999 is 7 years of ownership, always used 89, and she's only begun to ping so I'm using Berryman Chemtool fuel additive to hopefully free some ponies.

[M-Pressive]

We usually put 87 in the cars. Two 02s and one 03.

I see no difference when putting a higher grade gas in.

[EasyRider300M]

I usually use 87 in my Special with 90k miles.. No pinging....once in a great while I'll run some 91 octane as it may contain more cleaning additives from what I have read.