How much of a difference will a high octane perfomance tune be compared to a lower octane performance tune? (for example....87 vs. 91)......i noticed the diablo tuner offers both.

 

well to reply to my own post....i did a little research on octane ratings and i understand that lower octanes burn faster than higher octane fuels......i still would like to know which performance tune would get the most power and be better for my car.

 

DO ALL 3 DO AN 87,91 AND 93 AND YOU WILL KNOW THAT THE 93 BLOWS THEM ALL AWAY. I HAVE ALL THREE AND THERE IS NO COMPARISON BETWEEN THEM

 

Where is there 93 Octane? In my town of Mesa, AZ the highest they go is 91? I've heard of people putting octane booster when filling up there tank with 91 to boost it to 93 but that's got to take some ware on some of the internals over a good 6 years. Not my style but if they have 93 Octane in other towns and states why the heck not mine!! I'll use 93 Octane instead of 91 heck.
Now Im mad!!! lol I want the extra 5-10 Hp (if that) lol that the 93 Octane holds.

 

Calm down cowboy if you come to the big apple you can get 100 octane time to take that beast for a ride lol

 

lots of non us places have it, like 95 and 97 at the pump...

 

Well, here is what I've gleaned over the last few months....

While most tuners offer tunes that have increasing octane settings, it seems that the octane rating is not the only thing being changed in the tunes. Often the tuners make other settings more agressive (shift points, TC changes, etc.) with the increased octane tunes. So, it's hard to compare the effect of only octane setting changes.

Another way of looking at this---a really GOOD, tweaked out tune for 87 or 89 octane might be better than somebody else's 93 octane tune. How do I know? I've used tunes from three different places Lidio's 89 octane tune outperforms by far the 93 octane tune I got from JMSChips or the 91 "canned" tune I got directly from SCT. And Lidio doesn't even supply a 91 or 93 octane tune, 'cause it's not needed for the "typical" end user.

Now, if you take the really GOOD, tweaked out tune for 87 or 89 and change the timing for 93 octane gas, it might be MARGINALLY better...but there is MUCH more to good tuning than increasing the octane!

 

well i'm in Southern CAL and all we have is 87, 89, & 91....so i guess i will use the 91 tune supplied with the tuner........so are all you saying that you "USUALLY" get more power out of a higher octane tune?

 

correct

 

Well, I'd prefer the term "MIGHT" instead of "USUALLY"...it all depends on the man (or woman, heh) behind the tunes!! Where are the tunes from?

If I were you, I'd experiment! Try them all out. But be careful about mixing octane ratings of gas---you need to nearly empty out the tank if you want to go up in octane. Otherwise, you're a bit low and your engine might ping.