as opposed to the consequences of ethanol laced junk at 95 or less that eats your cylinders and exhaust and has less than stellar burn rate and produces more tar that increases oil change frequency and cylinder ring wear?
what kinds of engines run on shitty fuel better than good fuel exactly?
is the negative consequence a loss of power or a loss of durability, be specific
Lower octane fuels are just more volatile, they aren't really dirtier, they actually burn faster. Higher octane burns slower & can withstand more pressure. So you can actually end up with a more complete burn using lower octane, depending on the engine.
Higher octane is better for higher heat & higher compression. Lower octane CAN be better for lower compression & large combustion chambers (like rotary engines). But there are a lot of variables. Cooling is a big factor too.
If you put 110 race gas in your average road going consumer car, you are just wasting money. The tune will be too rich & it will likely be worse for the car. But you cannot run a 13:1 compression race engine on 87 or 89 octane, it would likely blow up from pre-ignition or detonation.
Modern cars will generally advance or retard the timing & even adjust fuel maps based on the fuel you choose, so as long as you choose between the normal 87-93 or maybe 95 octane then the car should adjust & the power & fuel mileage may change a little, but it won't be significant. If you have a high compression honda or something turbocharged it may make a bigger difference because the computer may have to actually retard things to protect the engine from low octane gas.
