[Psychwarlord]

Seems to be a gray area - dealer says regular can be used - does that mean "it will run OK but with diminished performance and lower mpg"?

Who here has experience with regular in a T6? I'm still afraid to put regular in.

 

[prienzo]

Seems to be a gray area - dealer says regular can be used - does that mean "it will run OK but with diminished performance and lower mpg"?

Who here has experience with regular in a T6? I'm still afraid to put regular in.

I generally run regular in N/A cars and premium in turbos. I am not sure about the T6, but my S60R will cut timing and run like a civic on regular gas.

 

[MisterDeeds]

Volvo cars are MADE to run on regular 87 octane. However, being a Turbo engine, it does not hurt to give it some premium (91, 93 or 94 Octane if you are in Canada). The higher the octane, the more POWER

 

[Beck]

And the better the mileage. I save about $2 every 100km with 94 over 91.

 

[barrysharp]

Seems to be a gray area - dealer says regular can be used - does that mean "it will run OK but with diminished performance and lower mpg"?

Who here has experience with regular in a T6? I'm still afraid to put regular in.

The T6 will run just fine on regular gas (87). It will run even better (performance) if 91+ used. No harm to engine either way.

 

[apersson850]

On the home market, in Sweden, they are always specified at 95 RON, but often the range 91-98 is listed as appropriate. Anything less than 91 you can't buy here, and most stations don't have anything less than 95.
But then Volvos here are always specified delivering a few more horsepowers than they are in the US, where (I think) they are specified at 91 RON.

 

[GrecianVolvo]

But then Volvos here are always specified delivering a few more horsepowers than they are in the US, where (I think) they are specified at 91 RON.

HP output is the same for all Volvos. However, in the use, we use the SAE rating whereas in Europe they use bhp which always shows 2-4 more in the rating.

 

[apersson850]

Yes, you're right. I know there were different octane specifications some decades ago, but now it's a different reason. But it's actually not the fact that you use the SAE J1349 definition (SAE net) of how to measure the power in the US, while Europe uses 80/1289/EEC (previously hp DIN). The difference is instead that USA, in good company with Liberia, still uses the old-fashioned imperial units, which don't define a horsepower the same way. Thus a Polestar T6 delivers 325 imperial horsepowers but 329 metric horsepowers.
I always learn something from these forums.

Anyway, with the introduction of 80/181/EEC in 2010, kW is now a mandatory unit in Europe (hp being allowed as a supplementary reference only), and as with all other units in the metric system, there's no ambiguity. A kilowatt is a kilowatt, everywhere.

 

[barrysharp]

Personally, I wish the US would adopt the metric system for liquids and various other measurements. I believe they did try some years back but it was such a huge undertaking by industry at large -- so it failed to take hold. I have no clue as to what the go-forward position with this is in the US at this time.

Other countries have taken the plunge and it's taken 2 decades to settle down -- example is the UK -- but their drive-on-the-left still persists...

 

[apersson850]

The United States is going metric - inch by inch.
That summarizes it pretty well right now, I think. Unfortunately, since it doesn't take that much to convert. A lot of the initial unfamiliarity is compensated by the much simpler calculations, since there is always only one unit for one entiety (except for a few supplementary units). Not inches, feet, yards, fathoms, furlongs, miles and whatever for distance - just the meter.
Sweden changed to the metric system many years ago, and to driving on the right side in 1967.

To somewhat return to the topic of the thread, having a well defined unit for power (Watt) doesn't necessarily return the same figure for the same engine, since there could still be different standards for how to measure the power. The metric system doesn't define that, it only defines the unit.

 

[Beck]

Regular if you hate your car, Premium if you love it. Easy choice.

200k on my ultra clean engine speaks louder than words.