Regular 87 or 91 Premium?

[Hamstuh]

I was wondering what fuel type is really the ideal one to choose ?
With gas all around now containing Ethanol from regular unleaded to even premium. (At the very least everywhere where im at). Does it matter if I went the 87 route over 91 ? Seems like some people just say youll lose some performance and gas mileage. What risks come from 87 as opposed to 91 now that it also has up to 10% Ethanol?

[lkchris]

Use premium fuel as Porsche specifies.

[tcoradeschi]

My 2003 986 daily drive has about 194k miles on it, and all but the first 22k are mine. It gets a steady diet of 87. That will cost you some power (cuz knock sensors), but that is it. If this were a car I autox or track, and I were a good enough driver to exploit the difference, I’d use 93 for those events. I don’t and I’m not, so 87 it is.

One data point.

[10/10ths]

….You can run 87 with no problem. You will lost roughly 15ft/lbs of torque below 4,000 rpm and about the same amount of horsepower at peak.

I would avoid running the cheapest “no name” fuel you can find.

Do NOT use wal-mart gas, for example.

Stick with Shell and Mobil/Exxon, a “Top Tier” detergent fuel, Google it, as you really need high quality fuel for these fuel injectors. They tend to get dirty and clogged easily and that leads to big problems.

I’d also run a bottle of “Gumout All-in-one”, Techron MARINE, Redline, or Driven brand fuel injector cleaner in your car every 3,000 miles.

You want a fuel cleaner with “PEA”, Google it.

But yes, if you just cruise around for style purposes, 87 octane is fine.

Enjoy the drive.