[ACE-OF-ACES]

AOA,

I noticed in one of your earlier threads you stated that higher octane ratings tranlated into more horsepower, please explain this statement. I thought higher octane ratings just reduced the chances of PING and untimately the possibility of detonation of the fuel air mixture.

Short answer increasing the octane raises the level at which a engine will ping, thus higher octane enables you to run at higher manafold pressuses before the engine pings, thus more power. Put another way if you tried to increase the manafold pressure on lower octane fule, it would start pinging sooner and thus less power. A ping in a low compression engine like our cars today results in an anoying sound.. where as with these high performace engines the ping sound can be and typcailly is followed by the sound of the engine comming apart