Quote:
Originally Posted by signes
Not sure where the car was in NV, but certainly for Colorado you need to take elevation into account. A mile up the air is a lot thinner. Less air going into the engine effectively lowers the compression ratio meaning less chance of detonation. I saw an estimate once that the 91 we have here at 5200' of elevation is comparable to 93-94 at sea level.
|
I am fully aware that due to elevation, there is less of a need for the higher octane. But still, 91 octane is 91 octane. I'm not going to discount that fact that it represents another failure in a state with 91 octane just because in general there is less of a need for higher octane with elevation. I can think of a few possibilities: Maybe:
a) A colorado car doesn't need 93, but 91 is still too low (i.e. needs 92)
b) I don't really know CO, but I assume they sell 91 statewide, and I assume not the whole state is highly elevated. Perhaps the owner did most of their driving in lower elevation.
c) As RG suggests ealier, perhaps the issue isn't detonation, but something else somehow correlated with the lower octane gas