Is regular gas on the approved list? Then yes, why not, if not towing, or racing it.
From Tibeca's owner's manual: "Regular unleaded gasoline with an octane rating of 87 AKI or higher may be used. "
The human nature is that a change triggers feelings about something working differently even if the change has no effect. I am not saying that there is no effect of diff. octane numbers. But I would expect these to be noticeable when towing and at high loads which none of these are the daily driving 99% of Tribeca owners do.
Claims like " tremendous difference " as made here without any other information make me believe that it is an illusion. Was he towing a boat and the engine was knocking which was fixed by use of higher octane gas? No....
I never said that it runs the same. I questioned you and others wherever you can feel the difference. There is no way you can feel a small difference. So it must make a huge difference which again I questioned.
No one is talking here about race truck numbers, towing, or engine knocking. You just feel tremendous power and get better fuel efficiency.
Then I must be the only one lucky here with the engine that senses regular gas properly, adjusts to it, does not knock, delivers smooth power, and when I flooring it it goes swiftly to over 6,000 RPMs.
You get tremendously more power and better fuel economy and I envy you.
Yes, it is a noticeable difference. Running on regular, it feels like a slow horse that needs flogging to get it moving. On Premium, it feels like a thoroughbred. I run premium.
It is fairly well accepted on the outback forum that the H3.0 on regular is a dog, much better on premium. I think many never notice, but it seems the type of people that spend time on these forums do for sure.
Maybe "tremendous" was the wrong adjective, but there is a distinct difference in accelerating power & response between 87 and 93 octane; however as I said, I don't experience any discernible change in fuel economy, so I'm probably not the guy you should envy
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