I'm looking into buying a car. With gas prices these days milage and consumption will affect my purchase. I was wondering if I were to run regular gas instead of premium thru a northstar 24valve engine in a 1994 Cadillac Deville what would be the consequences? Thanks alot guys!

 

Could cause Detonation and pre-ignition which is hell on the motor. Over time, it will start to pit your pistons and wreck the motor. They recommend Premium for a reason.

 

just out of curiosity...how much more is premium over regular there?? if it is lik onl 10 cents more I would not really take the gas into consideration...I know I fill up no more then liket 4 or 5 times a month...and if that is the case I would only be spending an exra 5 or 6 bucks a month...not that big of deal

 

I was under the impression that all Northstar motors have knock sensors. If you put regular in, youll just get a little less performance, because the computer will retard the timing when it senses spark knock.

 

He's right. You will also get slightly less mpg due to the retarded timing.

 

Thanks guys. Well premium is $2.55 and regular is $2.15. Less performance isn't that big of a deal just as long as I don't ruin the motor. I'd run premium everyonce and awhile. Mainly when I have more cash to spend. Thanks for the responses guys.

 

every engine is different. yours may run fine and it may not. the knock sensors are there to protect your engine from blowing. the only realy way to tell is to scan your engine for knock retard with premium and then low grade. Auto-Tap and similar programs will do this. my grand prix was getting knock retard when i was stock. i have a friend in my local car club that gets less knock retard with mid-grade gas than i do with premium. my grand prix is an 01 and his is a 98. you should be fine, just don't ride the gas hard.

 

your's may react different but my wife used to run regular in her auroa all the time with no problem. the engines are pretty close to the same. i've always heard the auroa engine call a baby norstar. it was a 4.0 24valve.

 

At worst, you may have knocking for one tank of gas. If the engine blows on one tank, you had other problems too. At best you save some money. Power loss will be minimal, but if power was an issue, you'd have bought a Vette, right? [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

I guess I'll ask the obvious: Why a Cadillac if fuel cost is a concern? Kind of counter productive, dontcha think?

there are several luxury cars that are much better on gas, and several with great reliability and performance. And most of those burn regular quite happily.