Hmmm...So now I understand how you guys pay so little for your gas. Here in Europe we only have two types of gas...and it has been that way for years:
95 and 98 octane. And yes, it's damn expensive. But I don't care about that, I'm gonna get a rx-8 anyway because it's my dream car . Oh, and in the manual actually reads to -only- use 95 octane gas, which ends up less expensive, fortunately.

Greets,
G

 

I'm in Europe too, and afaik from what experts have told me the rotary is better off with 95 here unless it's turboed. I'm not sure what that's equivilent to in the US, perhaps 91?

 

I will say, the car is worth it, but its not worth it to give my hard earned cash to greedy traders & prince to buy A380 as a private jet.

I've been using 89 (mid grade) for couple of weeks already. Not to mention I got myself a Honda FIT and it uses Regular, can go 250-290 miles b4 I fill it up, each fill up cost me maybe 30 something bux.

 

My 2005 says premium recommended not required. I've used mid-grade and regular on occasion with no noticeable difference. I do however use Shell premium 95% of the time as here in CO regular is only 85 and premium is only 91. I miss Texas higher octane and really miss Texas oxygen levels (low altitude)...

 

You should feel good that your money is also going towards Wall St traders' upkeep of vacation homes. woot!

 

i've done my own experiments all proving that i get better gas mileage with lower octane count. Why? because octane=oxygen and oxygen=burning. With 89 i get better gas mileage than 93 and i pay less. Also, if i were to use 87 the car would make a nasty noise, BUT as long as i was below 4000rpms it was fine and i got great gas mileage. The recommended 91 or higher is recommended as such because of the lowered performance when using 89 or 87 and assuming that you will drive the car hard it will cause less wear and tear on the inner housings when burning.

 

please stop spreading lies

Octane Rating is SIMPLY the gas's resistance to detonation. There are no OXYGEN in your gas (it may have gotten aerated, but that is all). You run higher octane to resist pre detonation, the hotter the climate is, the higher octane you need. The harder you are running your car, the higher octane you need. For day to day driving in normal weather, you can even run 87. if you premix, run at least mid grade for day to day driving. I run premium, but that is because i premix, i run it hard, and i live in Texas.

 

The European 95 is roughly equivalent to the American 91 and the 98 to the US 93 or 94. Reason is the different measurement system (RON vs. (R+M)/2)

 

You have a lot to learn buddy, hope u read sniper's reply.

 

hey man! where in austin to do you live? i'm w/nw.

anyway, i ran 87 for the first 4 years of ownership. just got a new motor (under warranty!!) and i'm thinking about premixing, altho i need to read up on it. what's the reasoning behind the correlation between higher octane and premixing?

 

If you have to ask about fuel costs the answer is you cannot afford them.

 

You get great gas mileage for staying below 4000 RPM's, not mearly because of the octane difference. The "nasty" noise is why you don't use 87.

 

Thats because additives in premix will LOWER your Anti-knock rating/Octane rating, if u just do like 4oz per tank is fine. but anything over 10 will bring ur octane rating down about 0.5 point I think. or around there.

I have been premixing for a long time, I used to use nothing but Premium, which is 93 in NYC, I've been using 89 for the last 5 tanks of gas with premix 8oz, no issues.

 

It all depends on where I go to buy gas. Some gas stations like to keep a 10 cent price different between fuel grades, but others might do a 20-25 cent difference between mid and premium. I like to run 89 in mine and do some 93 once every 3 fill ups. I miss the Sunoco 94 that suddenly disappeared...

 

Unleaded.

 

why does everyone keep saying that?? if i had a civic or a honda fit, i'd still be complaining about gas prices, b/c it's all relative. i can afford my 8, but i'm still not happy about paying so much in gas!! high prices effect everyone, just some more strongly i guess...

 

thank you for explaining! i'll have to read the pre-mix thread to get more insight...

 

+1 i have a 86 toyota corrolla i drive as my dd and that gets great gas mileage, considering it only has about 97 hp. but still gas is just crazy.

 

i made deliveries with my sis-in-law's newer model... 2006 v6 accord? filled with 87 and went uphills in the palos verdes area... it knocked like a bitch. which the ecu adjusted immediately the a/f and timing so it went away.

why chance it with a rotary? do you want to be at WOT and experience detonation first hand?

if you don't plan to drive your car hard, take your fill ups lowering your octane in stages so at least your car has some time to adjust and sense what you're doing.

but that still doesn't make it ok to WOT if you're going to use cheap octane gas. chancing a motor loss when you floor it on a super hot day is up to how big your wallet is.

*essentially all gas is the same, its just the anti-knock additives that designates the different ratings...
BUT, this is a different story with why dealers fill up new cars with 87octane.
1) its cheap
2)it saves them money
3)do you really need high octane when you're in BREAK-IN period?

 

Cars hardly have a break-in period anymore though. Most stuff is factory done. I think it's stupid anyway to risk it with a lower octane rated fuel. Especially as rotary engines are very sensitive to the ping following errors.

 

This is from Yoshi the master builder at Mazda...premium gas is a must and dont be afraid to high rev it at all, the build up is a lot of carbon build up on the side seals(no compression) and the corner seals are also a bitch to get out of the cores due to the carbon build up which is more then likely due to slow city cruising....open her up, she likes it.

It's in this thread...
https://www.rx8club.com/rx-8-discussion-3/thought-some-you-rotary-owners-would-like-see-145558/

Edit: It says they use synthetic oil!

 

I run diesel. No problem here.........

 

I just follow my owners manual.........im still on engine #1 in an 04 at near 70K. Ironic?

 

05, original engine, 41.5K now. 4-8oz premix depends on my mood that day. used to premium-only, lately medium, but last tank I went back to Premium, cuz I was thinking *Ahh whatever, just a buck something differents, my money is going to that A380 anyway, its just that that A380 aint mine*

 

I ran 87 octane in my RX8 when it was my daily driver the first year of ownership. I'd rotate and throw a tank of 93 in here and there, but in all honesty I never noticed a difference. I didn't like using 87 when driving it hard though.

In reality using 87 octane is fine on this car IMO. It's not like those high boost turbo cars the EVO, STI MS3, MS6 ect ect. Those you simply have to use premium. I never noticed a difference in gas mileage either.

It's required to achieve max power out of your car, but definitely not 100% necessary. I would use 87 during my highway commutes to work, then use 93 when it was fun time. IMO, it was a total waste to use premium fuel just on cruise control at 70-75mph.