If you're like me and on a 1/4 tank of gas north of Atlanta, you're working from home and hoping premium gas comes sooner rather than later. I was 15 minutes too late to the pump by my house before the premium dried up today . However, if (when) a much more severe shortage of gas happens again, would you be able to run your GSF on unleaded with an octane booster added in to every tank?

Curious to hear anyone's thoughts on the current situation and any workarounds.

 

As long as it is a quality octane booster I would think you'd be OK. There are several tests on youtube you can watch to see which brands actually work.

Steve

 

Or you can drive with 88 octane. Just don't drive like Ken Block, and you'll be OK. I got to the pump with a half tank of 93, and filled it up with 88. Not quite 91, but I know the engine will protect itself, and I'm not planning on going WOT with this mix. One of the great beauties of DI is the cooling effect directly in the cylinder when the fuel is injected. It's why we have such a high static compression ratio and run 91 or better from the pump without issues. The biggest downside is you'll lose economy from the ECM pulling timing and running rich to minimize the threat to the engine's life. Way back when California dropped 93 to 92, I lost a lot of mileage even around town with my Supra. I was able to recover it with changing the coolant ratio to 80/20 water to coolant. Then when it dropped to 91, I went from typical 18 mpg to 12 mpg. It ended up being cheaper to put in 4 gallons of 100 octane with the rest of a fill at 91 octane. Mileage came back and cost per mile (I measured it) was cheaper despite paying $7 a gallon for 100 octane. The hard part was there were only a couple of places I could find 100 octane at the pump.

Very few of the octane enhancers actually work, and if you understand octane blending ratios, you'll understand why putting a quart of anything in a 16 gallon tank isn't going to move the needle much.

 

I went to like 6 different gas stations in my area of Virginia and they had Regular, but no Premium or Mid-Grade. I ended up filling up with 87 Regular because I have to drive home soon. Do you think 1 tank of Regular will be okay? I won't fill it up again until Premium is back in my area.

 

Just take it easy on the car. No Sport or Sport Plus until you get a tank of 93 through it. I'd also keep it below 4000rpms if you can.

Steve

 

Will do, thanks for the input @1A1 .

 

RPM doens't matter. Throttle input does. Stay well under half throttle with weak fuel. Detonation is load based. You can run an engine on bad fuel with a light load and you'll be OK. Go WOT and it will die very quickly. AMHIK.

 

Thanks for all the replies and insight! I've been able to keep it slow, but definitely seeing MPG being affected. It appears that the pumps close to home are getting premium, as I am seeing higher performance cars at the pump (and no paper signs saying "unleaded only" taped to the pumps). Haven't had to go back to the pump yet, but I imagine it will cost more than usual for 93 moving forward.

 

Sounds like North Gwinnett county...

What part of GA are you roaming?