The Value of Octane

[Brenton]

My friend works for a chemical enhancement company with all kinds of neat things. One of their products is an Octane booster. He`s given me some of this because it saves gas (which I want). I`m a little hesitant, though, to put a higher octane gas in my car.
I`ve got a 2001 GMC Jimmy which is working fine now except has awful mileage (13mpg/18mpg). Is this a wise thing to do?

[GearHead_1]

Use the octane rating that is recommended by the manufacturer. It`s a myth that a higher octane rating is automatically going to help your vehicle. Unless you have a problem with pinging or the vehicle has been chipped (or other computer recalibration) or had a modification (such as recurve your ignition timing) that requires a change in ocatane, chances are you are throwing money away (I know you said it was free). It may also be producing extra deposits on the valves, pistons and cylinder heads.

[Brenton]

Use the octane rating that is recommended by the manufacturer. It`s a myth that a higher octane rating is automatically going to help your vehicle. Unless you have a problem with pinging or the vehicle has been chipped (or other computer recalibration) or had a modification (such as recurve your ignition timing) that requires a change in ocatane, chances are you are throwing money away (I know you said it was free). It may also be producing extra deposits on the valves, pistons and cylinder heads.

Those are the kinds of things I was worried about.