Is it true that regular unleaded or unleaded plus may damage a supercharged engine that recommends premium?

Question

I don't know much about cars and I own a Nissan Frontier that has a supercharged engine and it clearly states on the gas cap that Premium gas is "recommended" so I am satisfied with putting Unleaded Plus, but my brother and his friends claim that filling this supercharged engine with anything less than Premium will damage and eventually destroy the engine.

I disagree because a recommendation is only a suggestion...not a requirement.

Can someone help me settle this debate?

Answer 1

With any forced induction engine you want to run 91 or higher octane gasoline. Higher octane is mainly for extra protection so your engine does not detonate. If you use lower octane your chances of detonating will be greater.

A supercharger will add more heat into the engine and the higher octane will help control the heat so your engine does not detonate. Detonation or "knocking" is caused by heat or lack of fuel and it can distroy your engine if left untreated.

Octane rating is a measure of the gasoline's ability to resist detonation. So the higher octane that you use, the less chances of your engine producing to much heat and causing it to detonate.

I hightly suggest you read the following link in my source list so you can get detail information on all of this. This can save you lots of money and headaces in the future.

Answer 2

I own a 2002 Nissan Xterra with a factory supercharger on it. With the cost of premium fuel well above $3 a gallon anymore, I hardly ever use it even though Nissan recommends premium. I have never had a problem with the supercharger (except for a bad main bearing, but that's not fuel related). With the sophistication of modern cars there is no harm done to the vehicle running a lower octane fuel. I only use premium if I'm looking for maximum performance and gas mileage, but with the price where its at, it isn't worth it. Running 87 octane is fine with a super, turbo...

Answer 3

Yes you can put 87 octane in and it will be fine. Since its a boosted motor its power out put will lower. Some older boosted cars you can't do this. The reason why is they don't have a knock sensor. When you put low octane fuel in your truck and loading the motor under boosted, and depending on manufacture air fuel and timing tune it may start pinging. That pinging is detonation and that destroys motors. But when that event happens the knock sensor will sense the ping and the ECU will retard the timing to stop the pinging. You might fell a power loss or you may not notice it. But on the other hand if you put a higher octane like 100 or 110 octane in your truck you will gain power. The ECU will add timing and it increase the power output. Its cheap horsepower when you do that. I hope this solves your debate

Answer 4

You should use the octane for which the engine was designed but no higher. Using a higher grade gas for which the engine was designed will make little or no difference in performance. However, using sub-grade fuel ( or a lower octane) in an engine designed for a certain octane can cause major damage. Using 93 in a car that requires 87 will not hurt anything, but will waste your money. Using 87 in a car that requires 89 octane or above will either cost you power (with cars with knock sensors) or will damage your engine. Good luck!

Answer 5

The ecu has a knock sensor that will pull back the timing and also cut fuel if hears to many counts of knock. If you are just a normal driver you can safely use regular even though it is recommended to use premium. The trade off will be poor performance due to the retarded timing. You are recomended to use premium because you will have better performance which means better economy and it then all boils down to less costs. So it will infact safely run on low grade but eventhough the premium is more expensive you will save money in the long run.

Answer 6

2002 Nissan Frontier Supercharged

Answer 7

Because of anti-knock sensors--no damage will be done. But the ecm by changing timing will cause the engine to not preform as well. Really what is the point---you got the supercharged engine for the power--and now your going to derate the engine by putting in cheap fuel. Kind of like trying to run with the shoe laces tied together--recommended that you shouldn't, but can still be done.

Answer 8

Supercharged Frontier

Answer 9

What a bunch of bs here on this subject. Nissan has always "Recomended" premium in everything except their small fuel saving cars. Both my Maxima's,my I30, my Q45 all said Premium "Recomended" and they never recieved it, never pinged, never had issues related to fuel and all are still on the road today. My first Max was a 88 also "recomended" it and my freind still drives it daily without it I know and it has over 300k. Understand me here, 1st) It says Nissan "Recomends" it, they do not say "Only or Always run Premium fuel" like the cars that "must" use premium now do they? Nissan is all about max performance and thats why they "recomend" it.
2} Ping {spark knock} Listen for that and if it pings a second or two on take off your still fine. As long as it goes away on acceleration you are fine. As a drag racer many yrs we must set timing by hand by advancing until they ping then back it off a hair. A 1-2 second ping at take off is our sweet spot were we run them most often. Your knock sensor will automaticly advance/retard the timing as needed so just run it. All my nissans used it for years without any issues. My SC Xterra has 145k on it and its never seen a drop of high test fuel, never pings.

Answer 10

For the record its a known fact to most experienced gear heads and mechanics that majority of your forced induction powerplants have to run a relatively low compression in order to run properly without running into predetination issues, which is normaly around the lower 8:1 area. Now pertaining to the octain that the car maker recomends is for that vehicle to run at optimal efficiancy without runing into knocking and pinging issues. With that in mind "no" using 87 octane fuel in the car wont hurt it but it sure as hell wont run as well with the recomended fuel being ran in it. With todays technology we have in ignition systems the anti-knock sensors will help with the pinging and predetination if the lesser quality fuel is used.