Hi all,

What is the recommended gas for a MCS ? My other car is a V8 and required 92 octane gas... wonder if I can get by with 87 or 89 on my MCS ?

Thanks

 

Nope, a minimum of 91 octane is required.

 

I have not tried it, but the other day I heard on the radio that any car that is recently made can run on regular unleaded gas. The only thing is you may not get as good gas milage on lower octane.

Jason

 

Jeezus how many times are the cheap/uninformed going to bring up this topic? IT'S IN YOUR MANUAL PEOPLE! The engineers aren't lying to you! Put less than 91 in the engine will pull timing to prevent your engine from detonating itself - as has been posted ad-nasium. Search - it's a wonderful thing, so are FAQs. So are Manuals. I think this has been posted over 10 times this month alone.

 

I have an 05 MCS with 6500 Miles, I have been running 89 octane for the past month, the milage doesn't seem to have dropped off, I average about 28 to 30 MPG, I have a 92 mile round trip comute to work, 70% of it is highway. I was worried about Pinging or Detonation when I made this change. I weaned it over slowly, and have not noticed any bad noises under heavy accelleration or under low rpm load, with the cost of gas now if my milage drops 1 mpg for every tank, I think I can live with that.

Dave

 

Kaelaria...patience!!!

Peeple Puleeze !!! Calulator time:

Drive 20,000 miles per year.

Get 25 mpg (hopefully better but...)

That's 800 gallons of petrol.

Here in NJ, premium is 10 cent per gallon more than mid range.

That comes out to $80 per year!:smile: :smile:

Did ANYONE pay less than $20,000 out-the-door for their car?

Is $20080 THAT MUCH MORE?

HS

 

You need a in there... then it's ready for the Rants thread...

 

No one ever said you would hear anything, or have detonation. As I said - your car is SAVING YOU from it by pulling timing. Sure, your car runs - but you are way down on available power from what you would have with the proper octane. Real simple.

 

DON'T BUY A DEMO FROM A DEALER WITHOUT ASKING THIS QUESTION.
"Do you folks every run this thing on regular?"
You'd be surprised. Some dealers don't care what gas they put in demos.

Regular gas is bad for the engine. Its that simple. I agree with borderline ranters on this subject.

 

When you buy a performance car, particularly one that is not normally aspirated (super/turbo charged) you just need to accept the fact that you have to spring more for gas.

Plus, something that's killing me with people going to lower octane gas as the price gets higher is that the percentage difference between the cost of regular and premium is now LOWER than it was before, so if the difference didn't bother you before, don't let it bother you now. I always run 93 octane (of course the station down the street from me has 87, 89, 93, 94, so I pay 20cents more for 93 than for 87 )

 

I always put 93 octane Citgo in both of my MINIs. Why go cheap on a $20K + auto?

 

This is my opinion....you can use 87 or 89 octane without hurting anything. There might be a slight drop in gas mileage or performance, but I doubt it.

 

You'll be hurting the engine in the long run. Sounds like a false economy to me.

 

the engine will run fine on regular, but will be down on power
since the engine management system will retard the engine
to where it doesn't knock.

let's put this in a FAQ:

regular gas has more energy than premium per unit volume.
premium has more antiknock agents.

a good quality regular gas usually has a better grade of
antiknock and detergent agents than the cheap noname brands.

give the brand name regular preference over a noname premium.

(my best friend from grad school used to do the additives package for texaco
and he got way too familiar w/ the knock test rig)

 

I understand that a MCS will require 91. But for a regualar MC to require 91 is a bit too much. it's only 105 hp and it takes 91...

 

I don't think that horsepower dictates what type of gas to use. It is the way the engine is designed. The car companies don't see any more money by having their cars run on premium. If the manual recommends 91 octane or higher put that in the car. If you are concerned about the cost of the gas buy a car that runs on 87 octane.

 

its 115, get it right

my MC get 4-5 MPG better with 91+ versus 86, 87, or 89. when i run 107 or 110 cam 2, it goes back down to 4-5 less than 91. its not that much money more, 3-4 more dollars a fill up, so it doesnt bother me!

 

i just heard on Dateline news,

AAA says UNLESS ITS IN THE OWNERS MANUAL, use regular.

IF ITS IN THE OWNERS MANUAL, ITS REQUIRED FOR THE ENGINE TO RUN PROPERLY!!!!

 

Same problem up here, if you are worrying about 80 Bucks a year difference why buy a MINI you might as well buy 2 Hyundai accents and put the change in your pocket.PS All modern cars have a ENGINE Management system thats programmed to self protect ie. retard timing if you get bad gas or fill with 89 octane to save money.You should here the SUV owners complaining at the gas pumps here.My friendly response is:If you cant afford the gas why are you driving it DUH!

 

Some people like to be cheap for the sake of being cheap, not frugal. They create false economies and end up paying more in the end.

 

Here in Alabama where we have 89 and 93 octane, I guess I could mix the two 50/50 and save a few pennies. . .

 

For the MC--10.6:1 compression ratio is a lot, aluminum heads or no. But other manufacturers have speced 87 octane with 10:1 compression for 15 years now.
I figure if I have to use premium anyway, I may as well have a turbo or supercharger, which is why I bought an "S."

If you don't notice/are willing to accept the power and mileage losses, then 87 is likely just fine for a MC since the engine will protect itself. But never for the MCS--too dangerous to run forced induction with low octane since retarded timing will make it run even hotter.

 

And on the other hand some people think the word "premium" with respect to gas means better. It only means better with respect to anti-knock additives, nothing else. If, on the slim chance your engine knocks excessively running regular, the engine computer will reduce the timing automatically, eliminating the knock and any chance of engine damage. The reduced timing may or may not have a noticeable effect on engine performance or gas mileage. To know for sure you would need to carefully monitor your gas mileage under the same driving conditions with at least 4 or 5 tanks of gas. The perceived difference from one tank of gas is meaningless.

The reason the "regular" MINI requires 91 octane fuel is because of the high compression ratio of, I believe, 10.6 to 1. The MCS has a lower compression ratio, (about 8.5 to 1), than the MC, but since the supercharger jams the fuel and air into the engine, the effective compression ratio is as high as or higher than the MC.

Neither car will be damaged by using lower than 91 octane fuel. In other words, if you use, for example, 89 octane gas and it seems ok, it is OK.

As a side note, it cost the oil compainies about 2 cents/gal more to produce 91 octane compared to 89 octane. They then charge about 10 cents a gallon more for it.

Gas companies want you to use premium gas.

 

this thread is making me bang my head against the refrigerator door

manual says PREMIUM ... that's what I am feeding it ... we are not driving SUV's for God's sake.

PENNY WISE ... POUND FOOLISH.

 

If the manual and fuel filler door says minimum 91 octane, that's what I will use. $80 more per year seems like cheap insurance to me.