this girl i know has a 99 saab 2.0 turbo, she puts 87 octane in her tank, is that bad?

ps-sorry to whore

 

Check the manual. Some stock turbo cars can run 87, others want 91 or higher. Also, detonation is more of issue if you tool on your car, if you drive "nicely" it's not usually as much of a problem.

Edit: The absolute cheapest way (at least up front) is probably nitrous. But you have to keep filling the bottles, and it's not street legal.

 

The Saab 95 Aero in 99 had a variable compression engine that is capable of adjusting from 7:1 to 14:1 by adjusting the pitch of the head against the block. It does this to adjust to varying road conditions, but will also do it based on the fuel it's burning... so, no... it won't hurt THAT car, but it will run a heck of a lot better with 93 octane, and make more power. Not all turbo cars are like that. Most say "Premium Unleaded Fuel Only" right on the speedometer or under the gas tank door.

 

Whoa... I have to look that one up.

 

I got some of my facts wrong. Saab didn't introduce their SVC engines until 2000, and they didn't make it into their cars until 2001. I'm not sure when it made it into consumer lines, or which models in the US have the SVC treatment... It is available in the 9-5 Aero, though (in some country somewhere), because I saw that car road tested with it in 2001. It goes from 8:1 to 14:1, and here's an old Edmunds article about it that was written before the engines made it into mainstream production...
http://www.edmunds.com/news/innovati...7/article.html

Here's popular mechanic's write-up which is always much more detailed than anyone elses...
http://popularmechanics.com/automoti...ession_engine/

Here's Saab's version of it:
http://www.saab.co.uk/main/GLOBAL/en/vepsilon/

Pretty cool stuff if you ask me. It's engineering like this that makes me glad there are so many manufacturers out there. Competition is a good thing.

 

Neat, it took me a second to figure out how it works though. You've been all over the random tech facts lately, keep it up.

 

Thanks! :thumbup:

I try to find at least 10 good things about every car. It helps keep an open mind. I love engineering. It's like Lego's for grown-ups.

 

can I just get a turbo and run it on stock internals??? at 8-10psi

 

At 8 in a b18b, probably. 10 psi you might want to beef up for.

 

What would you think I would have to get>