Fuel economy and improving it, among other things.

[ggehrke at gmail.com (GGehrke)]

> I looked at my fuel door and it says 91 ron. Pretty sure thats euro. So I still say it's meant for 87 octane gas. Hell a jh is 8.5:1 cr. I think 93 is overkill for the engine and wallet.

Also, it's my understanding that you should run the lowest octane that
you can use reliably without knocking and such.  Higher octanes are
meant for higher compression and advanced spark because the octane
takes more to combust than the rest of the fuel (mixture of other
hydrocarbons) which prevents preignition (my chemistry is a bit rusty
or I'd prove that more thoroughly).  More power can be gained from
higher octane when you need it (high compression, turbos and whatnot)
but on a stock engine it really would just be a waste of money.

Scirocco specific content: I just finished putting my downpipe back
on.  I just removed it, ground off the gaskets and used RTV copper to
stick it back together.  I would have ordered the actual gaskets, but
this was easy, cheap, quick and the flanges would have required more
work for me to feel an actual gasket was worth it.  I am pretty
confident after closer inspection that the gasket was the only part
really leaking, so this one should hold me over until I can buy
headers.  Earlier today I checked my spark plugs (I have bosch super
coppers in good shape) and my vacuum system (making a very steady 20"
Hg) as maintenance type stuff.  I think I'm going to swiss cheese my
airbox tonight.  I am also going to try to borrow a timing light
somewhere to tackle that in the next couple days.

-Grant-