What Does The Octane Rating Of Gasoline Mean?

To understand the concept of octane rating, we look at how gasoline is made and at how a car engine works.

At the end of the day, please refer to your car owner's manual or your manufacturer to find the best octane rating for your specific car.

If you enjoyed the video, please like, share, and subscribe!

[burakhanhekimoglu]

I watched videos about the octane number on multiple channels and yours was the most revealing one, thank you for information.

[feynstein]

Great video. Definitely deserves many more likes and views.

[Manzplained]

I’m not usually “that guy”, but I need to draw a correction to your attention:

Modern cars will get better fuel economy with a higher octane rating fuel. Let me explain why. Modern engine control modules (c. 2014) use a very complex stream of data to continually attempt to advance the ignition timing as much as possible with the goal of producing as much power from the available fuel/air mixture as possible. The ECM is receiving data from the EVAP system telling it what hydrocarbons, as well as ethanol percentage etc are in the fuel. Timing feedback is limited the most by knock sensors and vibration sensors designed to detect any pre ignition and adjust the ignition timing accordingly.
Thus I submit to you that higher octane rated, more stable fuel will allow for more advanced ignition timing before pre ignition and knocking; which allows for more power to be produced with the same fuel. So it follows that a driver would not need to open the throttle as far to achieve the same result in available power. Additionally you can conclude that obtaining the same power from an engine with the throttle closed farther, is indeed more efficient than opening the throttle and burning more fuel with later (retarded) ignition timing.

Thanks for thinking about this!; if you’ve read this far, you’ve given it much more thought than most folks already! Cheers!

[TheDude]

Modern engine with knocking sensors and all sorts of other sensors can benefit from higher octane fuel with mostly advanced ignition timing.

[TheSpyFromTeamFortress]

So if the fuel has a higher octane rating, how does that affect to the energy produced by the ignition? Does it even affect it at all? I came here from a Koenigsegg Jesko video and thought it was weird how 100+ octane fuel increased it’s horsepower by 400, so I would LOVE to see something about that. Still, this video taught me something new and I thank you for it.

[syedrafiqkazim]

Here in Malaysia fuel prices are RM2.05 per liter for RON95 petrol which is about USD1.67 per gallon for "Mid-grade" gasoline. The prices are fixed throughout the entire country and it mostly comes from imported sour crude oil. It's interesting seeing people talk about how expensive fuel is in the US and how dufferent the prices are.

[EricJonas-bi]

I love and like YouTube Learning and Educational stuffs so much! 😊❤❤❤

[themadscientest]

Read your owners manual, use the octane rating that it says.

[mr.anonymous]

I just bought a new Camry and I can’t put 87 octane on it. It causes knocking on the engine. I now put 92 octane from sams club and it is gone. I might have been able to get away with it at 89 octane but want to play it safe since I only pay 2.79 for my 92 octane.

[joshmusic]

So just to be clear:

1. Is higher octane rating is lower it’s harder for the combustion to continue without more compression and input energy?

2.Do high performance cars produce more compression for each stroke of the piston?

I presume this is either horse power or torque and how are those two words related to compression of the gasoline?

3. Why not just load up a ton of pistons to make a ton of power? As in how do they balance the cost/power efficiently ratio of making an engine more powerful vs cost efficiency?

[Maxfli]

Does octane degrade if left in for a few months, that is if I purchase 87 octane and leave it in a fuel tank for a month does it slowly go down to 86, 85, 84 octane etc.

[iDiGuy]

What runs on 87? In europe the minimum is 95

[qo]

What about ethanol? Wouldn't that be a reason to purchase a higher grade, to avoid it?

[IDtent]

can we do something with this? like this has potential for clean energy and we need

[jefffch]

Do GDI engines require a higher octane? I have a Hyundai Sonata 2.4L with 11.3 to 1 compression.

[jedijoe]

I had a 99 Dakota that did not like the cheap shit. rattled bad, the dodge mechanic said to run higher octane gas and it never did it again.

[isni]

I heard 1944 spitfires sometimes used a 150 octanes fuel... Is that even possible ?

[opener]

Help me on this. I have a Hyundai i30 1400cc turbo gdi with 140ps, 2020 model. Do i need premium gas or not?

[gregmf]

It’s not sold like that in TX and we’re the petroleum state

[henrytoledo]

Than why do I get 5 more mpg with 93 versus 87? I thought you said they're the same?