Hey guys.

About three weeks ago, I had my first maintenance due. They inspected the car, tires, changed the oil and all and since it was under warranty, it didn't cost me a thing.

Now, after I got the car, I was like "WOW, they did something to it!", because it was fast. Way faster and much more responsive than it normally was. It's an auto, and the lag I experience when accelerating was also way down, much more fun to drive.

Then, about a week after when I went for a refil... well, it wasn't like that anymore. It was back to it's fast-but-not-more-than-average self. I do notice that, sometimes, the car kicks in and drives awesomely, but most of the time, it kinda struggles to put out some boost.

So, my question is... do you think they added something to the fuel that day? Maybe something to clean the injectors or something like that? I'm definitely not a car expert, this is my first car and also my first year driving, so I could be totally wrong in here. I did some searching in the boards, but found very little information on that.

If it helps, I'm always using 93oct fuel, unless it's my mom who fills her up. Then she uses crappy 87 and I yell at her for a week until I get the chance to replace that thing.

 

if they gave you gas, they put in regular, which is why you felt the difference... 93 is hurting your performance more than it's helping... stop using 93 immediately, and use regular.

also, your car doesn't put out "boost"

 

Well to start off 93 octane is just a waste of money on your 2.2L. It has no performance benifits until you do some serious mods.

As for fuel additives I use the Lucas fuel injector cleaner and upper cylinder lube with every fillup. Seems to work great and I have heard nothing but good things about the company!

 

i seriosly doubt they used any additives... the "lag" is probably coming from using the wrong gas.

 

Don't mock my use of technical therms I have no idea what they mean, ffs.

And, oh shi-. Never knew it'd be doing the contrary of what's supposed to be doing.. I'll go back there and dump that gas back right away. Excuse me.

Oh, alright. Thanks for the tip. I'll go look those up.

 

i wasn't mocking you at all. was just letting you know that it's not putting out "boost". i wouldn't say that to anyone if i was you, either!! i should have put a smilie so that you knew i meant nothing by it, like this but seriously, use regular gas for now on.

 

I know I know, don't worry about that dude

It's just that, I really had no f-in idea what I was talking about.

But seriously though, now I have about a week until I get rid of that 93 fuel. Dang.

I never would've known that it could actually hurt performance, guess I still have a lot to learn :\

 

Well, my car doesn't have boost "yet" either, but the agressive ignition timing from my tune and higher compression requires me to use premium fuel too.

However on a vehicle not tuned/built to require premium fuel it can actually hurt your performance! That is because octane is the resistance to detonation. So your 93 gas is harder to light off and on you particular engine could delay the fuel ignition enough to reduce power.

 

^^ exactly. first stop for this is www.wikipedia.com and look up "Octane". it will help give you a better understanding of exactly what it means. it's a very comon mistake that higher octane = more power.

 

Well, just learned it's that common of a mistake.

Wait till all my dad's friends hear about this! ( J/k, don't want them to stop driving 300 miles to Venezuela to fill their little 1.0l tanks with 96+ oct fuels and get back home saying "IT FEELS LIKE A 3.5 NOW!" ) -> This is a real situation. I was there.

 

yea, octane doesnt' mean power... higher octane is just harder to burn, so if your engine isnt' designed or tuned for it, it's not running properly... any gains are 100% in their head. they probably picked up some speed from lightening the wallet so much

 

Not to change the subject, but...
Isn't gas in Venezuela like $ .25 a gallon or something like that???

 

what kind of cars are they driving?

 

Well, in Brazil, any engine above 1.6 is like "fukken awesome", since the norm there is 1.0. And gas is probably the lowest quality possible, and yet prices range at around 1.20$ a liter, which makes out around 4-5 bucks a galon or more.

Since we used to live close to the venezuelan border, people around would mod trucks and other large cars, so they'd be a complete tank ( the entire car, insides, seats and everything lol ). They'd cross the border, fill up, go back and sell it for more than half the price of what gas stations were charging.

And yeah, gas there's really cheap. At least it was the last time I was there, about 3 years ago. But they were even cheaper before Chavez got in, 8 years or so ago. Can't give you accurate USD figures, but it was like, 80-100 bolivars ( at the time, 1 dollar = 1.2k bolivars ) a liter. I'd say .25$ is accurate enough.

And so yeah, lol, I bet they're gonna be surprised to know 96+ oct isn't "teh l33t" when you're talking about sh*tty cars.

 

Yeah... go here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octane_rating

That article is pretty spot on. I have to use at least 91 in my Mustang because of my cam and my timing, but the Cobalt definitely does not.

 

I put 91 octane in my 2.2, is that too high octane?

 

yes... use regular only

 

its all in your head.

When I used to get the oil changed on my Honda---it alwasy felt different when I first got it back. For a day or two anyways.

 

Buy regular gas, save your money for mods!

 

well i use 91+ octane on my 2.2l....but i gotz nitrous and zex spark plugs...

 

Another good additive is Sea Foam. You can either run it in your fuel, your oil, or run it through your induction to clean out valves and such. However I would not run Sea Foam in the oil on a Cobalt. After running some through my work truck I can't even tell its running sometimes at lights. Its a 4.0 liter V6 Ranger by the way.

 

Lol, that's some good sound-proof engine then <_<

avro206:

You do know the word "Honda" is blasphemy here, right?

Anyway, no dude, I'm 100% sure that there was a difference, since everyone who did ride in the car that period could feel it too. Oh well, still a few more days to get rid of that 93 gas and get back on the right fuel. :\

 

I am just trying to be logical about this. What could the dealer do that makes your car faster?


The only way you can be 100% sure there was a difference was if it was dyno'd or raced at the track. Too many people are satisifed with "thinking this or that" and no testing to back it up. Sorry but thats my rant for the day

 

hey was just reading this. all my ss/sc has seen is 93 since day 1
i cant find 91 anywhere and i dont wanna put 87 or 89 in, what do you guys think?

 

your fine, you can get away with 93 octane

However fuel additives (aka octane boosters) don't do ****. For an entire bottle they MAYBE gain 1/2 an octane rating.

And fuel injector cleaners are junk too, 90% of the time they don't work at all.

And GM advises against any sort of additives to engine oil, gas and tranny's.