mine specifically says not to use anything but 87. and also to stay away from ethanol-free fuels. so, yes, they can and do tune the engines for a specific fuel mixture.
My turbo K4 specifically says to use nothing but 87. I thought, how odd. Nope, they tuned the Smartstream 1.6T to run very conservatively stock to use 87, any other fuel is wasted.
It doesn’t have another map for a higher octane, unlike Mazda which has some sort of black magic to push timing until it micro-knocks and then pulls back timing. Kinda cool.
It’s required to prevent detonation (fuel igniting in the cylinder before its supposed to due to pressure) which will damage your engine.
Maybe some cars can adjust their tune based on the octane level, but for those that can’t it’s definitely worth it.
mine specifically says not to use anything but 87. and also to stay away from ethanol-free fuels. so, yes, they can and do tune the engines for a specific fuel mixture.
My turbo K4 specifically says to use nothing but 87. I thought, how odd. Nope, they tuned the Smartstream 1.6T to run very conservatively stock to use 87, any other fuel is wasted.
It doesn’t have another map for a higher octane, unlike Mazda which has some sort of black magic to push timing until it micro-knocks and then pulls back timing. Kinda cool.
Shame on Hyundai / Kia. JB4 time soon!