Hoping all you HHr buddies have your machine all buttoned up somewhere in a garage and you and your families are safe. Praying for all of you. My HHR is in my garage and the door is double braced with add-on vertical steel braces.

 

Batten down the hatches! Stay as safe as you can! We'll see you in April, if our condo is still there! Hey, FMG, it looks like Irma is headed your direction!

 

Gregg and I survived! Aside from a few fallen dead branches from my oaks nothing damaged the house. Lost power for a good 14 hours but other than that all is well!

 

Good news, thanks for checking in.

 

Good to see you didn't get much damage...

 

Very lucky. I have had to mix some 87 into greggs tank full of 93, and curiously I havent noticed any change in performance. My rough guesstimate is that the octane is now floating around 90 due to the mix, so maybe thats why. Have I been lying to myself running 93 octane this whole time? Maybe Irma taught me something. I might fill up with 89 next time and see what happens.

 

Arad, if these cars can run on E85 with their VVT top ends, why would they require high octane gas, more than 87, I mean?
I have put nothing in my 09 2.2 but 87. Runs like a little top...
Am I poisoning my little doodlebug?

 

Well, E85 is very high octane. The lower the octane, the more the timing is retarded, and you can lose performance on a(relatively) higher compression engine. The 2.4 is 10.4:1 compression, the 2.2 is 10:1. So a 2.4 will benefit a little more than a 2.2 will from higher octane.

But certainly experiment with midgrade, Arad, you may be quite happy with the results!

 

Oh, I get it. The cars will run but lose a little performance with the retarded valve timing.
I see.
Thanks!

 

just got power back last night since Sunday. Not fun "camping out in a hot humid House" no other damage except everything in the fridge