B190 Enthusiasts

I am curious if anyone has been using high test/premium fuel [92/93 octane] rather than regular/87 octane. About five months ago, I switched to high test and have found it makes a big difference in climbing power. Since the big beast is not my daily driver the extra cost is not that significant relative to improved performance. Now, if gas was $5/gallon rather than $3 things might be different... But, I am wondering whether anyone else has found that switching to premium makes a difference.

I've not tried premium as it hasn't seemed necessary. Next time we take a trip I'll run a few tanks of premium to see if I think there's a difference. Our 1998 van has the V-10 engine with fuel injection.

In general, I'm not a fan of using higher octane fuels than is recommended by the manual. However, there are some caveats to that. This article by Car and Driver sums it up well. It can actually help in an older engine, for example.

Thanks for the replies and the link to the article, Skater, a helpful read. I added premium the first time just to see if it would make a difference and I was struck by the pulling improvement going uphill. I have a '96 with the 460 cu inch. I am also wondering if the big BFG tires and rims and the 4x4 conversion, along with the re-gearing to 3:73, might add enough weight and resistance that the premium helps (?).

On the other hand, all that I have read also says that premium does NOT add more horsepower--so not sure what I am experiencing, perhaps a mind-created improvement... ? The C&D article does make the point that it can help older engines and since this is about 20 years... Fun and games!

We did a 2000 mile trip last summer and I ran mid grade 89 octane ( van is a 92 with 351). Gas mileage improved by about 15% with an extra cost of about 4% as well as, i thought, better performance. Not sure I would run premium but really liked the mid grade results.


Cliff