Vs Ecotech 3.08

She's safe to run on 91,
unless its been tuned to run a higher octane fuel. And the vs (3.8) ecotech is actually a different motor to the earlier cars (vn-vr).

In the end, if you can get 98 in your area, use it, for the extra $5 at the bowser, I've been getting an extra 50kms per tank on average. Food for thought, it's cheaper run the expensive stuff, ironic huh?

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I believe you can. Could just get a tune to suit it.
But these engines run best with the higher octane.
Even get a tune for 98.

 

From what I have read I would assume your car is stock as a rock, or maybe the rock is more modified, who knows. I would be happy to stick anything in that fuel tank aslong as it not Diesel and will run happily.

However, 98 is better then 95, and 95 is better then 91, but end of the day 91 will still get you from A to B with no hassles. So do what ever makes you happy.

 

And just so you know, bp is generally a better fuel if you have one close by, and I believe she'll is too, but they're my opinion, I simply won't use anything other than she'll or bp 98.
It's usually 14-15 cents more per litre, but the extra Km's you get and the extra punch you can feel is worth it.

And a tune, is either getting a memcal to suit your car and driving style or getting it tuned on the dyno, the latter is the better option but more expensive, you'll get both better power and economy.


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Not to mention that 98ron has wonderful cleaning properties, I know a lot of mechanics that say if you use 91 every 5 or so tanks you should run a tank of 98 through it. It helps lubricate and clean all your injectors and intake etc.

You may find that 95 is your optimal ron, as your car doesnt actually make more power with higher rons, what it does is recognises that you are using a high ron fuel and wont run the car as rich, this makes it run better and use less fuel etc etc as low ron fuel can risk pre-ignition/knocking etc so it will add a lil more fuel an run the car towards the rich side.

With my VX clubby before I got it tuned, 91 wasnt a great idea as it was 'tuned' by holden and recommended to run 95 but was safe to run 91.. So i could feel a large diff between 91 to 95, and i could feel the diff from 95-98 in that car.. not as much as the 91-95 tho..

but when i had my vs 3.8L v6 I found there was a good difference from 91-95 but not really much of a diff to go to 98, because from factory it was tuned for 91.. So 95 is already in the upper regions of the high ron for its tune, you can retune it to run 98 more efficiently but yeah, hopefully this all makes sense. I ran my vs on a combination of 95-98, but usually 98 because it is better for your car, and end of the day u usually on pay like an extra $2 for a tank lol. (over 95).

so its really up to you mate, I would recommend running 98 in it if you have the cash, if you drive it hard, def think about using a high octane fuel like 98. but otherwise, if it really doesnt bother you how much milage you get, or how many times you refill a week, or anything like that, go 91..

But like we have all said, 98 is better for many reasons. But your car would be safe to run any of the 3 variants.

 

I tend to disagree somewhat, a higher octane allows you to advance timing which in turn gives you a better bang, a little more power, only a little, but it does affect it.


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Something like that, it's like running lower Ron on an old carny engine, to run it, you need to back off the timing, and you lose noticeable power


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The engine management system in these vehicles constantly adjusts the ignition timing to suit engine load, throttle position, ambient air temp, octane rating of the fuel used etc etc. . The engine can take full advantage of any higher octane fuels if used.. The ECU continually monitors the engine for pinging/knocking/detonation via the knock sensors, and if it detects any, it will pull ignition timing out until the pinging/knocking stops.. Usually the higher the octane rating of the fuel, the more ignition timing can be used before detonation/pinging/knocking occurs under power/load. The more timing advance you can run, (to a point), the more efficiently the engine will run, which means better economy, more power, and cleaner emissions and better fuel economy.
To see just how much difference the engine management makes to these engines, You only have to look at the engine bay of a VL commodore and compare it to a VN, the VL has hundreds of pollution pipes etc running all over the place, whereas the VN has bugger all pollution systems, this is all because of the engine management system, which controls the engine parameters way more finely, which in turn, greatly drops the emission levels and increases the engines efficiency etc, so theres no need for all the pollution gear like on the older models.
A tune on these vehicles will basically give the ECU access to higher ignition timing values..
With my VS V6 I used to get excellent fuel economy just with the standard tune and running 98 octane fuel, but over the last couple of years Ive done a hell 0f a lot of experimenting with different timing values in the tune and I have got the fuel economy down even more, around 6 litres/100km highway, and around 8-11 litres/100 km around town. Thats on 98 fuel, and driving fairly normally. The tune hasnt made the engine more powerful as such, but its definitely a lot more responsive than before, especially noticable when accelerating from light to mid throttle.

 

Yes its safe, its not like your car can only read 91 95 or 98, you would get a mixture somewhere between 95 and 98. Your car will measure the octane, and then run the timing accordingly.

 

Unless you are getting your car tuned, if this is the case I would recomend ensuring your only running the octane you want to run, ie run your tank to empty fill with octane you want, run to empty fill.. an you should be sweet.

 

A more technical view of what I was saying basically, I'd like to know what your doing, I'm toying with the idea of a tune on the Eco just for the economy side of things while retaining the power it has.

But yes, all three, 81 95 and 98 you can run, e10 if you like, though not recommended! The higher octane fuels are more expensive at the pump, but in the real world where your getting extra out of your tank, it works out to be cheaper, and as said above, cleaner too, to be honest, I'm not even sure why fuel companies bother with the lower Ron fuels!


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Could be like America, and when your talking really high octane fuels, your talking 89-91 octane :-O

 

I could understand 95 octane being of benefit to a VS but I doubt 98 would be of much, at least running the stock tune given 98 octane only became available in this country in the year 2000.

So I can expect to see power, responsiveness and economy benefits from switching to 95 octane fuel? I have up until now been using regular 91 but a recent move has meant that this fuel is a lot harder to source than when I was living "in the bush"

Brett, do you make your custom tunes available to other people or is it just something you do for personal use? I wouldn't mind a tune that gives fuel mileage of around 11 l/100km in realistic conditions while not sacrificing power. Not to mention 6 l/100km on the open road beats someone I know who drives a Honda Civic...

 

Sure 98 is better, but I noticed when I used 98 a couple of times (I always run 91) that it doesn't fire up as quickly. Is that just mine or does anyone else's have the same problem?