Does the 350z HAVE to run on higher octane fuel?

[sterry]

Hey guys,

 

In the process of buying a 350z at the moment, and read a couple of horror stories regarding the fuel the 350z has to use. A lot of people are saying it has to use a higher octane fuel otherwise the engine life is reduced, yet the 350z was released in America who use lower grade of fuel than this side of the pond?

 

Is this true?!

 

Thanks, Stu.

[andlid]

Hey guys,

 

In the process of buying a 350z at the moment, and read a couple of horror stories regarding the fuel the 350z has to use. A lot of people are saying it has to use a higher octane fuel otherwise the engine life is reduced, yet the 350z was released in America who use lower grade of fuel than this side of the pond?

 

Is this true?!

 

Thanks, Stu.

Where did you hear that?

[Chris`I]

You have to run it on 95 or higher, but its mapped properly for 98+ IIRC. It wont be too happy below that returning less power and higher fuel consumption, so its really worth running it on "premium" fuel, sometimes it works out cheaper! Running my 350z on Tesco 99RON it returned enough in higher MPG to make it cheaper.

 

Also IIRC the US uses a different rating system, so their fuel rating isnt equivelant to ours.

[Cragus]

If you are going to buy a zed, be prepared to pay super unleaded prices.

 

People have said its ok to put regular unleaded in once in a while if you are struggling to get super. I have never used it so can't comment personally.

[sterry]

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index ... 603AAypIzw

[sterry]

Thanks for the comments so far. My main concern is not what I am prepared to pay for, its what the previous owners have!! My concern is in a couple of years time something major would go wrong?

And does running on premium REALLY deliver a noticeable return on MPG though?

 

Thanks

[Woody]

I only ever fill up on Vpower or Tescos99. The I personally dont think the MPG is any different to running on normal fuel. I do it for piece of mind. Correct me if im wrong, but the standard japenese fuel is high octane? Hence the Zed is designed to run with that fuel.

[Beavis]

Tim (Lomoto) used to only ever put 95 ron in on his JDM and he never had any problems. Having said that i think its always best to use the correct grade of fuel.

[Chris`I]

There wont have been any problems if the previous owner had run 95RON, the car will happily run it, you just dont get the most out of it

[rtbiscuit]

the car will adjust to run on the lower grade fuel. some cars deal with it better than others. lower fuel generally loses you about 20-30 bhp and worse fuel economy,

[spursmaddave]

I go for a happy medium, Sainsbury Super, it is nowhere near as good as Tesco or Shell / BP stuff I know but not as poor as the cheapo stuff....

[rtbiscuit]

I go for a happy medium, Sainsbury Super, it is nowhere near as good as Tesco or Shell / BP stuff I know but not as poor as the cheapo stuff....

 

i heard a rumor the saisnbury super is BP super

 

also murco super is actually higher octane than stated. (also a rumour)

 

texaco is nasty stuff

[spursmaddave]

Yeah there are all sorts of rumours, hard to know which to believe

 

I work in an industrial area with a refinery and all the lorries come out together

 

Plus Sainsburys Super gives me Nectar Points and Nectar Points = Free Donuts

[threefiftyz]

if a previous owner ran it on standard fuel and the new owner runs it v power etc is an ecu reset needed? or does it adjust itself?

[rtbiscuit]

if a previous owner ran it on standard fuel and the new owner runs it v power etc is an ecu reset needed? or does it adjust itself?

 

adjusts over time,

 

althoguh you can do a reset if it makes you feel better.

[Chris`I]

Yeah doesnt make much difference, the car learns on its own as it detects knock. Wont hurt to do it though.

[JetSet]

Yeah there are all sorts of rumours, hard to know which to believe

 

I work in an industrial area with a refinery and all the lorries come out together

 

Plus Sainsburys Super gives me Nectar Points and Nectar Points = Free Donuts

 

Yeah, Each main refinery supplies raw petroleum to a specific area. Around here, Shell Stanlow is the supplier, Fawley supplies the South etc. Additives specific to a manufacturer will be added at smaller terminals if needed. The only exceptions would be Supermarkets who are supplied from The Netherlands via a terminal in the south.

 

Pete

[sterry]

so all in all, it doesnt really matter?!

 

Cheers guys

[Dblock]

so all in all, it doesnt really matter?!

 

Cheers guys

 

During winter no, but 99ron usually gets you more mpg plus the car feels smoother.

[Sarnie]

I dont believe all the marketing bullshit. I put 95 RON in my zeds and the Gallardo and none of them have blown up.

 

Granted they may have been down a few bhp but I don't drive around the 'Ring everyday so would never, EVER, notice any difference.

 

This bullshit is the male version of what make up companies have been doing to women for decades;

 

"Ah, this super dooper face cream will transform you from the crack whore that you are, into Liz Hurley, all for £75 for a measely tub"

 

Any mpg gain is negated by the extra cost.

[CaptainSensible]

Agree with Sarnie.

 

I'm pretty sure I remember reading about some legislation that states any car sold in the UK must be able to run properly on 95 RON fuel. If running on 95 fuel knackered the engine I'm sure there would be plenty of horror stories out there by now.

 

I always run mine on super, but where none is available I won't sweat about using 95 and can't say I've ever noticed any difference.

[D4XNY]

Its in the handbook, to use a higher grade fuel....

[JetSet]

O.K, lets take the USA, in many, in fact most places 91 Octane is the highest you can get and 93 seems to be the highest available anywhere. Now because the Americans use a slightly different way to calculate their Octane rating (they would wouldn't they ) which means that 91 in the US is the same as 94/95 here and 93 works out to 97/98. The simple way to work out octane ratings is to use reference benchmark materials, for example 100 Octane would be 100% Iso-Octane, 95 Octane would be 95% Iso-Octane and 5% Hexane, simple really. Anyway, I digress, to get higher octane ratings used to be easy and cost effective, you would just add TEL , Tetra Ethyl Lead and this boosted the octane rating as TEL is a very good anti knock agent. However, the law changed and TEL was considered to be too dangerous to human health so Oil companies had to come up with something else. I worked for a company that came up with a solution that not only increased the Octane rating but helped to make the engine run a tiny bit better. Big profits involved here for what are quite small amounts of additives. Companies that we sold the additive packages to, Shell, Esso, Mobile,etc also make big money from selling these on to you and me. The Americans just aren't interested in paying more for fuel, they think $2.50 is outrageous, so very little of the Octane booster is sold over there.

 

So, is it worth the extra cash to put the super dooper fuel in? Well, you can't get it in The States and the majority of Zed owners seem happy with 94/95 Octane fuel. From some of the engine tests run with the booster, engine life was certainly extended but who wants to keep their car for 180k miles? My advice would be if you are running on the track, put it in, for everyday use, don't bother, you're just contributing to the already vast coffers of the Oil companies.

 

Here's a typical American pump BTW.

 

 

Pete

[Mark@Abbey m/s]

Can I say my 2 pences worth , US fuel octane ratings as said above are different to our fuel.

 

If you run a Z on 95 octane car your car will retard the ignition due to detonation , these cars run 2 ignition maps , high det and low det , normally you run on the low det which will have approximately 5 degree more timing. Full det controlis only up to 5000 rpm due to engine noise at high rpm and the ECU is unable to work out what is det and what is engine noise.

 

The car will go into high det mode oif the car keeps hearing det , this will be reset once you turn the car off and back on , but if the car dets at high rpm you run the risk of detonating a piston or 2. Most people dont drive the cars hard enough to cause serious det damage but I have seen so slight det damage on pistons when checking out bore wear with a endescope.

 

But tuning the car on 95 octane fuel properly is pretty easy , and with a few mods the car will perform better than a totally stock car.

 

I wonder if someone could work out how much mileage you would need to do on 95 octane fuel to save enough to pay for a Uprev Reflash @ £393-53 inc vat agaisnt using 98 octane fuel we could use 25MPG as the ecomony figure.

 

any more questions ask away.

 

Mark

[spursmaddave]

Average price difference around me is +7p for Super over normal Unleaded...

 

So to save £393.53 thats 5,621 litres....

 

25mpg = 5.5 miles per litre

 

5,621 * 5.5 = 30,957 miles

 

So if you use normal unleaded after 30K you get a free upRev