I recently picked up a couple of 2019 Can Am 1000s: a Lmited and a Max XT. Was reading the manuals and manufacturer suggests using 91 octane, but dealer said it's not necessary.Not worried about a few extra bucks for the premium, just wondering which is best for the 1000?

 

Just a few years back many performance machines were required to use a higher octane fuel, but starting in I believe 2018 all motorized standard production gasoline engines were required to run on regular octane fuel (87). Now some brands claim you can run regular fuel but get much better fuel economy and performance by using a higher octane fuel. I would want some assurance from dealer of mfgr that using regular will not harm the engine! Spark knock in an offroad machine is very hard to hear or detect..........

 

I generally go by the compression ratio of the engine. If compression ratio is above 10:1 I use premium fuel, if it is below 10:1 I use regular unleaded. So for your Can Am engines, and my Can Am engines I would use premium.

 

Thanks Guys. Read the manual again and the manufacturer suggests an adjustment if I go with regular or 87 octane. Not exactly sure what it entails, but they say to contact the dealer and they will set the adjustment. I do want to get the most out of the 91HP engines, so it sounds like 91 is preferable. Dunno why the dealer says it's not necessary? The salesman did mention that if we travel to remote areas, regular is more common - though I have hunted and traveled to remote areas, and rarely saw a pump offering only regular without the premium.

 

The adjustment is probably timming, whether manual setting or programming the electrinics. I would opt for the regular fuel, you probably cant tell the difference so save some money, go regular..not many places have 91 so you would need to move up to 92 in my area. That stuff is .60 per gallon more than regular (87).