What kind of octane grade fuel do you guys have most commonly at pumps there in California?

Here in Texas most places have 93 octane (90+% of places).

I was wondering b/c I'm going to be in the area this fall for a month with my car there.

I'm getting my tune tomorrow with 93 octane and may have my tuner make a map with some changes for 91 octane as well.

Thanks.

 

91 is the most common, along with 87 and 89.

 

You could always add a little toluene with every tank.

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

 

Remember the marketing pump sticker is not placed on pump by refinery. It is just a sales gimmick to show that premium is probably better than regular.

"For example, a sample of 92 octane gasoline must yield a field-analyzer reading of 91.3 or better to meet the ASTM standard."............yet because of inaccuracy in field test equipment inspectors just make sure each grade rises in octane to correlate with price................not the exact octane reading.......reg<mid<premium. Premium must be better, even slightly better than the price grade just below it.

In 2001 91-93 grade meets 90.3 octane 97.3% of the time in sampling:
http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/dms/notices/petroleum/P-01-2.pdf

 

^ so Q45Tech

What does that mean for my tune?

If I get it tuned on 93 grade fuel which here in TX has (up to 10% ethanol according to the sticker next to the pump) then should I expect problems when driving day to day on 91 octane fuel when I go to california?

There won't be much "getting on it" when I go there b/c I'm there for a 1 month away rotation for school but I was just wondering if I would run into any problems and what if anything I should let my tuner know.

 

Octane alone is pretty useless spec without individual RON and MON numbers and btu per gallon and a dozen other specs.

The is a rough correlation between octane and ignition advance, such that 2 octane points lower might need 2 degrees of retard especially where peak BMEP occurs [torque peak rpm].

Much depends on the flame speed of the two different fuels.

Find an engineer at the local refinery and pay him to run the necessary tests

 

Just use 91 (you won't have an option here in CA). You shouldn't have to do any changes to your tune just to run 91.

.