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Tech Question
shane b., williamsport, PA, 2000, Plymouth, Neon, 2.0
I recently put a custom exhaust system from the cat on back, an Iceman cold air intake and Bosch "Platinum plus 4" spark plugs. My question is: With all that, even though the factory says use lowtest octane gas, with the modifications that I made and I am going to make more should I switch to premium gas, and will I get better performance? thank you.
Shane-
When you get right down to the cold, hard facts, you haven't done anything that makes much more HP - only more noise! The largest restriction in the exhaust is the catalyst itself, and the stock air intake was already fresh air. The plugs are nice, but as long as the originals weren't misfiring, there's no gain there, either.
So you really haven't done anything to increase cylinder filling efficiency. You also haven't raised the compression ratio or advance the spark timing - key "octane" factors. Therefore, for now, pump regular will be fine.
The simplest bolt-on for more HP is one you've overlooked - a new (reprogrammed) engine controller. We tested a couple recently, one from A/FX Manufacturing Corp. provided solid HP gains and more mid-range torque across the board. And, yes, it does require premium fuel!
Rick
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