Premium Gas for Regular Price in Chestermere

[THE SCUD]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Good to know. As far as I always knew, you get worse performance from an engine the higher up you go. Not necessarily octane related of course.

You're right - in a normally aspirated car, you do get worse performance the higher the altitude. This is directly related to what I spoke of earlier - There is less oxygen content per unit in the air the higher up you go, so you get less power out of your engine the higher you go.

This is another benefit of turbo charging, it has a static "put this many PSI into the engine" programming on the cars (even older ones, really, the manually set wastegate controlled PSI with the same effect), so it compensates for the lower pressure at higher altitudes by increasing the air stuffed into the engine.

[burn_this_city]

Well speaking of Calgary I'd say outside of Shell and Husky the difference isn't significant. Most other gas stations get their fuel from the Esso, theres a Esso terminal in the southeast.

Shell
Esso
Husky
Others

[Bring_Back_Shantz]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Good to know. As far as I always knew, you get worse performance from an engine the higher up you go. Not necessarily octane related of course.

You do get worse performance the higher you go.
What he's saying is that due to our higher altitude, a lower octane gas doesn't have the same impact it would at a lower altitude.

[worth]

I drink Shell V-Power for breakfast. I've been paying $1.17+ for the past year. Yayyy!

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Table 5

Good to know. As far as I always knew, you get worse performance from an engine the higher up you go. Not necessarily octane related of course.

Lower octane gas has more specific energy, so it also helps counteract (barely) the power loss from altitude.

For example, I run my 93 octane engine management, but fill with 91 octane fuel.

My girlfriend's BMW requires 91 octane but she fills with 89.

[THE SCUD]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Lower octane gas has more specific energy, so it also helps counteract (barely) the power loss from altitude.

For example, I run my 93 octane engine management, but fill with 91 octane fuel.

My girlfriend's BMW requires 91 octane but she fills with 89.

Wrong

octane is simply a measure of resistance to detonation - in fact higher octane gas actually has an immaterially lower specific energy content.

[THE SCUD]

Originally Posted by hulkrogan

Lower octane gas has more specific energy, so it also helps counteract (barely) the power loss from altitude.

For example, I run my 93 octane engine management, but fill with 91 octane fuel.

My girlfriend's BMW requires 91 octane but she fills with 89.

So that my last post is less dick-ish:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

Octane rating does not relate to the energy content of the fuel (see heating value). It is only a measure of the fuel's tendency to burn in a controlled manner, rather than exploding in an uncontrolled manner. Where the octane number is raised by blending in ethanol, energy content per volume is reduced.

[Ducay]

Originally Posted by THE SCUD

Wrong

octane is simply a measure of resistance to detonation - in fact higher octane gas actually has an immaterially lower specific energy content.

But the link you posted directly says that it will have lower energy if the octane level is raised through ethanol. So again, it all depends on the ethanol blend; and the materiality of any ethanol impact would also have to be considered.

At the end of the day, is that all that matters is that octane =/ energy

[THE SCUD]

Originally Posted by Ducay

But the link you posted directly says that it will have lower energy if the octane level is raised through ethanol. So again, it all depends on the ethanol blend; and the materiality of any ethanol impact would also have to be considered.

At the end of the day, is that all that matters is that octane =/ energy

You misunderstood - I specifically addressed the energy content of ethanol in an earlier post, we are simply debating octane rating here, pari passu to blending.