Which fuel to use? 87 or 92????

Waterfoul

Waterfoul

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The original (and only) owner of the sled I bought always runs premium thru his machines. My experience with cars, trucks, and boats is that engines that are not designed to run on premium do not benifit at all from using the higher octane fuel. Any thoughts? Is it at all benificial to run 92 over 87 in a totally stock machine?

My sled is a stock '97 VMax 600 XTC.

'Foul
 

It isn't necessary

You don't have to run 92 octane in a stock machine. The only reason people do is in case you run into bad gas. Less chance of melting down your motor if you stick to 92, since there is room for octane to be missing. However if you run into bad gas on regular, your motor might ping, but not for long. Most of them melt down,when they encounter bad regular fuel. I have always used 92 octane fuel in a stock machine, just for a peace of mind.
 
You should run 92 as much as possible just to even things out if you ever have to get really poor quality gas from a small town station. It will also reduce pinging and possible engine damage.
 
Better Performance From Higher Octane Fuel. Believe Me My 2002 Srx Will Detonate On Anything Less Than 92 Octane. Well Thats What Shes Reccomended For. But Me And The Boys Have Found To Be All Round Better Performance From Higher Octane Fuels...
 
If the engine is not designed to run high octane you gain nothing by running high octane.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no added performance from running higher octane fuel.
The only time you are going to sieze an engine from preignition is by running it really hard on a very cold day.
One of the really cool features about the Polaris I currently own is the octane switch. It has 2 positions: regular and premium. If you are able to find 93 octane fuel that you know is of good quality, turn the switch to *PREM*. This will advance the timing and give you maximum power. If you are unable to find 93 octane fuel or are unsure of the quality of fuel, set the switch to *REG*. This will retard the timing and will safeguard aganst a siezure caused by preignition. Of course, if you have an SRX or a SX Viper the sled does it on its own. If I remember my Yamaha literature correctly, when it recognizes preigntion it will retard the timing by 1 degree untill preigniton stops. At some point if the preignition doesnt stop it will go into a "limp home" mode where it limits the rpm to 5,000. It helps prevent a siezure but still allows you to make it back home.
Hebi
 
Run your stock 97 600 on regular 87 octane only!!! Running premium in a low compression sled is a waste of $$$ & may even slow you down. You want to run the lowest octane fual you can possibly run with out detonation to get the best performance. You are hugely safe running 87 octane in a stock 600 twin.
 
The SRX is made to run on 91 or higher octane because it has higher compression. You can run regular in a pinch but don,t do any hi-speed lake runs on a below zero day!
 
what about the viper? owners manual says 88 minimum. should I run the 89/90 in it then?
 
you can run 87 in a viper without a problem. Its not going to hurt anything, but if you're worried about it, go ahead and put the midgrade in, because that definately wont hurt anything.
 
I know my way around an engine, and was thinking that since my stock 600 twin is a low/normal compression motor that I should be fine with 87. If I were to replace the head gasket with a thinner one, thus raising the compression (makes the chamber smaller) I would run higher octane fuel. But, since I don't plan on making any changes to this motor (learned that lesson the hard way, several times, in my Baja Outlaw powerboat) I'd think 87 should be fine.
 
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