the protege 5 engine seems to run alot smother with 87 octain gas then the regular 85 octain...just thought i'd let you guys know

 

Is MMT still being used up in Canada as the primary octane booster? If so, higher octane fuel will have more MMT, which is why you find your car runs better with 85 instead of 87.

 

My manual says 87 so that's all I use. 85 isn't even available here.

 

we got 85, 87 and 92 here

 

For those of you who are Americans, please be aware that octane is measured differently in Canada than in the US and the numbers will be lower in Canada.

 

LOL, initially I wrote pretty much the same as thing as what Gro Harlem wrote. . . then I thought, "maybe they use a different standard".

Someone sent me this link on racefuel today. . .
http://www.centuryperformance.com/racefuel.htm
Not the best write-up I've seen, but it does cover a bit more than just octane.

 

I'm in Vancouver, Canada and the octane I normally see are:
87, 89, 91 (or 92.. can't remember), and 94 I believe.

I have never seen 85.

 

Last Summer when I was in Toronto, all the pumps had lower octane ratings. I presumed that they used motor ratings rather than (R+M)/2. But, checking with the Imperial Oil website, it appears that they use (R+M)/2 to advertise octane, and the highest octane gasoline they sell is 92. Canadian standards are the same as American but lower grades of gasoline are available and the highest octane grades are generally not available.

The difference in octane ratings occurs for the EC, where regular is 91 and premium is 95. Apparently, they use research numbers, but I could be wrong here too.

 

I live in canada, (near TO actually) and yes we use (R+M)/2
Lowest you will see over here is 87 usually, I think you can buy 85 but it tends to be in the boonies for farmers and hermits.

Finprof is right though, we cant get 100 octane here either. Not that you need it.
I did an experiment in my old car, did 20 fillups on 87 and 20 fillups on 92-94. Differential in price was about 20%, differential in gas milage was about 10%. Now this was in an 88 supra that got like 18 mpg in the city. But in the end it only cost me an extra $4 to fill up on premium. Better for the car, power, and environment. I have yet to try this in the protege. I doubt much difference will be seen.
Stocker