Hey all, I'm from Michigan and have an opportunity to move to Phoenix(hillsdale area I believe) and go to school there! I have a few questions for the people who live in the area: what fuel do you guys run in wrx's? I have a jdm AVCS swapped bugeye and have only run shell 93 and am concerned about what fuel is available. Been thinking about e85 tune is there any of that around? Who's who as far as tuning? Does the increased heat/city driving mean I would need to run an oil cooler? Are there any Subaru specific shops around (I would like to get a job lol) I'm sure I will think of more questions I just cannot think of any at the moment.
07-16-2017 01:12 AM by
DrD
don't think you'll be getting Shell 93 (or any 93...) in Arizona... (there's a reason Cobb has their ACN91 maps (the "A" being Arizona...))
Around the valley the highest grade at the pumps is 91. A station or two had 100 at one point which could be mixed, but I don't believe they exist any longer. E85 is becoming more popular and there are stations that offer it.
Plenty of quality tuning options for the 91 and e85. Oil cooler is not needed, I'm sure helpful but most certainly not a requirement.
I think SubiWorx is the closest Subaru specific shop to your potential location.
We don't have any 93 anywhere in AZ. Our ethanol is no longer E85, it varies in the E50's I believe.
Hey man - just made a very similar move (Chicago to Phoenix) about 18 months ago.
Here is what I did, had an existing tune on 93 octane for my WRX but had the guy write me a map for 91 because if you drive out here, around the time you hit New Mexico the 93 turns into 91 (the highest Octane in Arizona, California or Nevada (hence, ACN 91). So once the 93 disappeared on my drive, I used my accessport to re-flash my map and made the switch over to 91, and yes, you're going to notice the loss of power unfortunately.
So, I would recommend either doing to above, or, build in a flex fuel system allowing for various fuels. The other bummer here is we don't have E85 much at all any longer, Arizona downgraded it to E54, so again flex fuel would be ideal if you want to run ethanol.
Our 91 is actually has about 10% ethanol in it. So you'll need to get a tune. Also... ADOT has deemed that E85 is not needed and we now have E54. There isn't much loss of power actually. I work with Clark Turner Tuning and the dyno results are very similar.
In short... you'll need a tune once you get here.
08-12-2017 05:44 PM by
kos
I'll echo what the others have said, no 93, definitely get tuned once here. Plenty of Subaru shops in town, Snail Performance AZ, Subiworx, etc
Also, you should be aware that it's very hard to find better than 91 from OK/CO on through to AZ.