93 vs 91 octane
Thread Starter
RLX Hybrid #053
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 83
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93 vs 91 octane
From previous experience with turbo charged high compression engines using 93 octane verses 91 will increase the power by 5% and torque by 10% (APR AudiRS7 dyno test). Is it reasonable to expect same results with the NSX?
with 500 hp, 406 ft-lbs engine is it reasonable to expect another 25 hp and 40 ft-lbs using the higher octane?
i do believe so. I think the total power on the new NSX with high octane should be around 600 with torque around 520 ft-lbs. I know it's very hard to dyno the NSX, still I do think such gains are attainable. The one thing that may bring doubt is at what octane was the NSX originally tested with? Which means, following the same logic, we need the higher octane just to get the quoted numbers.
Food for thought.
for reference I own a 2017 NSX but I only feed it 94 octane which is available in Canada and owned an RS7 before.
with 500 hp, 406 ft-lbs engine is it reasonable to expect another 25 hp and 40 ft-lbs using the higher octane?
i do believe so. I think the total power on the new NSX with high octane should be around 600 with torque around 520 ft-lbs. I know it's very hard to dyno the NSX, still I do think such gains are attainable. The one thing that may bring doubt is at what octane was the NSX originally tested with? Which means, following the same logic, we need the higher octane just to get the quoted numbers.
Food for thought.
for reference I own a 2017 NSX but I only feed it 94 octane which is available in Canada and owned an RS7 before.
Do you have any data which suggests Acura tuned the NSX engine to take advantage of the extra detonation resistance of fuel with an AKI of anything greater than 91? If they didn't, then there will be zero difference in power.
Thread Starter
RLX Hybrid #053
Joined: Dec 2014
Posts: 83
Likes: 58
NO!
Do you have any data to the contrary?
I only based my assumption on another car with high compression engine and twin turbos. Didn't mean to open a scientific debate and will not exert any more effort on the subject.
God Bless
The thing is, unless the programming allows more aggressive boost and/or timing levels beyond what would be expected with 91 AKI fuel, then any additional detonation resistance is useless. That said, aftermarket tuners make a lot of their living from retuning cars with forced induction to take advantage of higher AKI fuels. Many Audis for instance, cannot do diddly with better fuel unless they are tuned.
Team Owner
Joined: Jun 2014
Posts: 30,487
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From: In an igloo
Horseshoez is right, though. The ECU needs to be tuned to make use of that additional octane level. We never know which engines are tuned to use higher octane levels... I remember hearing rumors back when I had my 03 V6 Accord, many moons ago... apparently a Honda engineer stated that the car is intended to run on regular fuel, but if you used premium, you would gain about 10 hp and 10lbft of torque. Was it true? No one actually knew (nobody wanted to pay for dynoing a stock car either, I guess).
It could be true for the NSX... but we really won't know unless someone ponies up the cash to throw an NSX on a few dyno runs. Honda hasn't suggested anything themselves (they rarely, if ever would).
Safety Car
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 4,920
Likes: 1,095
From: Kansas City
If someone can afford a 2nd gen NSX, and are curious/interested, and is scientific minded....I'd think they can easily afford a little experiment with 91 vs 93 and dynoing the results....
Burning Brakes
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 765
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From: Northeast
The electric motors on the NSX-2 could also affect and cloud the final result. Acura advertises the V-6 engine has having 500 HP and 406 lb-ft of torque. After adding in the power of the electric motors, the numbers become 573 HP and 476 lb-ft. Now go from 91 octane to 93 octane fuel, and 
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2nd Gear
Joined: Aug 2016
Posts: 2
Likes: 1
From: Vancouver BC
93 vs 91 octane
There is so much more to the NSX (and other cars in this segment) that a few extra hp (or not) is not meaningful.
However carry on with the speculation.
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