Accord 2008 and fuel octane

Hello,

I have a 2008 Accord Auto 4 cyl EX-L. The manual says to use regular 87
octane. The compression ratio in this car is high enough where premium would
be required in other car brands with the same compression ratio and almost
as high as other Hondas (such as the civic si) that do require premium. My
question is that "if" I used Premium even though it wasnt really required,
would i see an improvement in the performance being that its so close to
almost needing premium?

Where I live the Regular unleaded octane is 87, Plus is 89 octane and
Premium is 93-94 octane. Our gasoline in my part of the country is 10%
Ethanol also. I've been using regular since I had the car and during the
break in period as well. It has 1524 miles on it now and is almost 2 months
old. I followed the break in requirements 100% and my oil is at 70% on
original oil.

Another question is about using fuel injector cleaners like the Chevron
Techron fuel system cleaner, is that something that I should consider maybe
every 6 months? How would that compare to other brands like Gumout and STP?

Thanks,
Al

 

No.

This is a family car. Honda's engineers know EXACTLY what they're doing.

 

Use top tier gas and a bottle of techron every other oil chage. Some would
eliminate the techron concentrate if you were to use top tier gas all the
time, pretty much shell and chevron around here.

 

Maybe

 

Well I use "top tier" gas all the time. I always use Shell gas, because its
a name I trust, unlike Hess or other no name brands that you just don't
know. So maybe I'll do the Chevron Techron every 9000 miles or so. I suppose
I could put the premium in there some time to see if it makes a difference.
Its a family car with a nearly high performance engine, so I don't know...

 

If your car required premium, Soichiro would have told you that in the
Owner's Manual.. It's always a waste of money to pay for octane your car
doesn't need...

 

If you always use Shell, then you won't need the Techron at all.

 

Probably not. Honda will have set the ECU to keep it de-tuned for the
regular gas. Its worth a test though. Run about 3 tankfulls of premium
through it and see if anything changes.

 

you can't presume that higher compression ratio automatically requires
higher octane, or yields better results using higher octane. in the bad
old days, detroit never bothered to fully research the correlation
between what had been empirically observed about compression ratio and
octane. basically, they just doctored gas to fix what they knew was a
problem.

then came the japanese. why not fix the fundamental problem rather than
doctor gas? what they figured out was that combustion chamber design,
namely making sure that there were no dead zones no sharp edges, no
obstacles to smooth flame front propagation, allowed low octane to run
at higher compression, and thus, be much more fuel efficient.

marry those fundamental principles to modern engine management - knock
detection and active timing adjustment - and you have a high performance
motor that runs great on any old crap gas.

bottom line - while there is a teensy little difference in calorific
value between high and low octane, higher octane being slightly higher,
it's almost certainly not enough to be noticeable without scientific
measurement. and not enough to justify the cost. just spend your money
on a quality branded gas, regular octane, with a quality additive
package that will keep your injectors clean, and you'll have a great
running car, plenty of power, and as cheap to run as possible.

 

And keep in mind--we're talking an Accord here, a family truckster. No
money was spent for it to do anything other than what it does.

 

Probably not. Honda will have set the ECU to keep it de-tuned for the
regular gas. Its worth a test though. Run about 3 tankfulls of premium
through it and see if anything changes.[/QUOTE]

That won't work. He'll "feel" that it's "better" right after spending
$4.00 more each for those tankfuls of gas.

What he needs to do is to have his wife go out and fill up the car, and
randomly select whether she puts in premium or not. She keeps a record,
on her person, then after three months he decides if he ever felt any
difference. If he did, he needs to correlate that with what was
actually in the tank.

He'll find out that higher octane in an Accord does nothing for him.
Makes the oil companies happy, though.

 

Elmo P. Shagnasty wrote:

i guess - pretty much by definition. a vast fortune was spent however
on getting it to do what it /does/ do.

 

i guess - pretty much by definition. a vast fortune was spent however
on getting it to do what it /does/ do.[/QUOTE]

Yep.

But as we know, absolutely no more than necessary is spent on building
the car itself. Car companies slobber at the thought of saving half a
penny in manufacturing.

Despite its recent stumblings, Honda is at its heart an engineering
company. And they used that talent to bring the manufacturing cost of
an Accord down as far as possible.

There ain't not give in that car. Nowhere.

 

Yep.

But as we know, absolutely no more than necessary is spent on building
the car itself. Car companies slobber at the thought of saving half a
penny in manufacturing.

Despite its recent stumblings, Honda is at its heart an engineering
company. And they used that talent to bring the manufacturing cost of
an Accord down as far as possible.

There ain't not give in that car. Nowhere.
[/QUOTE]

driven a ford lately? there's a /ton/ of "give" in a honda.

 

driven a ford lately? there's a /ton/ of "give" in a honda.[/QUOTE]

What kind of "give"?

 

What kind of "give"?
[/QUOTE]

pretty much everything - cheaper glass, cheaper paint, cheaper metal,
cheaper design, worse tolerances, lower standards across the board.
ford's plastic brake pistons are among of my favorites.

 

I dunno... some of the combustion chamber design coming out of the U.S. was
pretty high-tech, especially the aftermarket race tech, although little of
that reached the consumer (Chrysler's hemispherical head came closest, but
didn't lend itself to passenger car use). Cam profile and timing have as
much to do with engine knock as compression ratio. Not knocking Honda
(that's all we own) - I think in some cases the Japanese took some American
tech and simply improved upon it. Chrysler had some great engines back in
the day (Slant Six, 340, 383, 426, etc.), just never had a high-quality body
to put them in.

One drawback of higher octane that no one has mentioned is harder starting.
The higher octane is less likely to 'fire' and will add a miniscule, though
likely insignificant, additional stress on the engine, starter and battery -
not a good thing when it is -20 degrees...

 

detroit might have flirted with it, but nobody was prepared to put in
the r&d dollars to get it into bed. the japanese got it in the 70's.

that's not the same thing - cam timing affects what gets into the
cylinder, and thus what actually gets compressed. if the combustion
chamber design means that stuff doesn't burn right, you're monkeying
with symptoms, not cause. same goes for timing.

that's all the japanese have ever done! the point is, they bother - we
don't! for us, once something is saleable, r&d stops. and if it
remains saleable, it stays stopped. that's why you can still buy 1950's
engines, transmission, suspension, etc. in detroit products today.

not a problem with electronic ignition.

 

detroit might have flirted with it, but nobody was prepared to put in
the r&d dollars to get it into bed. the japanese got it in the 70's.[/QUOTE]

CVCC. That 79 Civic I had was a great car.

 

He'll get better mileage because his wallet will be that much lighter.

--Gene