Bell Performance Blog

The 12 Days of Mix-I-Go: Day #10 - Much Ado About Octane

Written by Bell Performance | Dec 22 2011

Today's installment of the 12 Days of Mix-I-Go is Christmas-themed....or Christmas-shopping themed if you will. This is the time of year when lots of people are strapped for cash, trying to get their Christmas shopping done. Everyone's watching their money.

So it becomes a pain when you have to pay outrageous prices for premium gas - upwards of $3.50 a gallon or more.  It's hard enough to make it through the Christmas season without bearing that cost as well.

Drivers buy premium gas because of the octane content - the real or perceived need for it. But many drivers have used Mix-I-Go in their cars and been able to step down from premium gas to regular gasoline, saving them 20-30 cents a gallon.  That's one of the big bonuses that Mix-I-Go users have always gotten.

Speaking of octane again, did you know that a new car will start needing higher octane gasoline? Automotive studies have shown this to be true.  When the car is new, it has a completely clean engine and it is engineered to be able to run its best on a specific octane rating of the fuel.  Let's say, 89 octane. 

But within the first 5,000 miles of its life, deposits start to build up in the engine combustion areas.  This is even with modern gasoline that is supposed to contain detergents to clean out deposits - it still happens in practice.  And these deposits change the amount of space within the combustion chamber. And that makes the octane rating go up.

Mix-I-Go users have known for years that, in addition to the powerful effect of the combustion catalyst in slowing down the burn of the fuel, they also get a net octane improvement through the cleaning of their engine. They save money both ways.