I'd like to try out a 94 octane or better fuel in my STi.

I'm not interested in driving all the way to Frederick or RT. 1 in MD to do so.
Are there any stations in the Fairfax/Loudoun/Prince William counties that sell go-juice?

- Janq

theres a sunoco in mclean... i forget the name of the place, but i wanna say its sam's sunoco, but thats what i remember from over 9 years ago...

I routinely gas up with 94 octane at the Sunoco at the corner of Gallows Road and Cedar Lane just south of Tysons Corner.

Also, there is a small Sunoco station on Route 29/50 just east of Route 123 (at the corner of 29/50 and University) which sells 94 octane. Also there is a bigger Sunoco station near Fairfax Circle -- right near Farrish Subaru -- which sold 94 octane but last time I drove by the pumps were closed for remodeling or some such thing.

BINGO!!!

I know the Fairfax Circle and the 29/50 (University) stations you're thinking of. Great!

I've got an empty tank (orange square and reading 'E') and will head out there tomorrow to fill up.

Thank you kindly!

- Janq

You could PM TaiChih, he has a list of every place on the east coast that sells 94 octane I dunno why you need that for a stock RS, but whatever

-john

also, you can buy 5-gallon jugs of toluene at the Sherwin Williams right there on Main Street close to the 29/50 junction in downtown Fairfax.

-Nick "94+ in every tank" Luhr

93 to 94 you won't feel a bit of difference, try a octane booster instead.

One can if octane booster wont even raise 93 to 94. Only raises it around .3 IIRC.

The best place in NoVA I have found for 94 is the Sunoco in Manassas. It is only 3 or 4 cents more expensive than 93.
Mclean sunoco has it, but its ~10c more expensive.

thats where i go too. the snipers killed someone there ritght?

I allways go to either of the 2 sunoco's on 29. Their 94 octane is usually cheaper then most places 93 octane, atleast around where I live.

Brian,

Can you give me directions as coming from the Dulles Expo Center to your 'cheap' Sunocos?

Thanks!

- Henry

try the one by farrish subaru.

Manassas is much closer & easier for me to get to from my house (where the car is now). Especially if its priced the same or cheaper.

Keep in mind I'm a naturally co$t concious guy.

- Janq

from the dulles area take 28 south. get on 66 west, exit 234 Manassas south (that is a fun off-ramp BTW) Sunoco will be on your left near a mcdonalds, then you can go to pep-boys on the right. Then you can go up the roas a ways for a coin operated car wash. On the way back stop by Best Buy or Chipotle.

wow,, thats my saturday exactly!

I beg to differ. I am fairly confident that in the STi it makes a noticeable difference. My last tank before this one was on Sunoco 94 and I could feel a significant difference. Of course, I had also just completed an hour or so of "spirited" driving, so some of that my have been cause by the ECU learning my new driving style. But I'm still pretty sure the gas itself made a difference cause now I'm back on 93 and it doesn't feel as strong.

Too bad the closest Sunoco is about 30 minutes away from me.

There are two ways to get to the 2 sunoco's on 29, which are actually really close to each other. Take 66 west, take the 123 exit going towards fairfax, not vienna. follow that for about 1/4 mile stay in your left lane, you will come to an intersection (123 and 29) with two exxon stations on the left. Make the left onto 29. Go down about another 1/4 mile and you will see the sunoco on your right, small station 4 pumps, right next to the Dodge dealership and Jim Mckay Chevrolet. Or you can go down 29 even further, about 1-2 miles and reach the second Sunoco, which I think is open 24 hours, but it still may be under renovations/repairs. Either way since they are so close to eachother one should allways be there for you

Thanks AaronWRX, KanosWRX & JLMarx!

- Janq

1 point in octane isn't gonna net you 10hp or even 5. what you were feeling was a procebo effect. Hell my car feels so much faster after i detail it, why because I feel good about the car. Besides for your car to take advantage of higher octane you have to tune it to that fuel, since 99% of american cars are tuned to run optimum at 91 octane i doubt there would be any noticable gains with 94.
I've driven back to back from 93-94 octane many times in my turbo civic and feel like 94 is just waste of money. Besides i bet many 94 octanes at sunco is just filled with the same 93, i saw in a fox special report long time ago.

I don't think the people seeking out 94 octane are doing it for trivial reasons.

Don't forget that a lot of us are using highly customized, user configured engine management.

I'm sure i'm not the only one who has had to do some boost/fuel tweaks due to the recent weather/fuel changes

Two things to note about your post:

First, whereas I agree that it may seem unlikely that a single octane point can effect performance enough to feel it, your experiences in your turbo Civic have no bearing on the actual circumstances in the STi. IIRC, the STi has been tuned for 93 octane gas, as well, not 91.

Second, if Sunoco was filling their 94 octane pumps with 93 octane gas, that would not only be unethical, it would be illegal. Not saying that is doesn't happen, but I would be surprised if it hadn't been caught yet.

I don't get why the STi would gain anything from 94:

1 it's the same ECU even in California where they don't even have 93, let alone 94, i.e. I would think it would be basically tuned for 91. Even during the 'knock' days people were seeing detonation on 91 AND 93
2 if it's smart and it tries to advance timing and whatnot, it has probably been trying that for a long time, it has probably "learned" by now (although it constantly learns, or at least that's the rumor)
3 even if you reset the ECU, why would it even think about trying something that would work on 94 but not on 93? i.e. why would it try to take advantage of something better than 93?
4 even if you reset the ECU, and then only put 94 in, so it learned how to properly optimize things for 94, wouldn't you have problems the first time you went back to 93?

I guess it can't hurt, but I think your butt dyno may be deceiving you

-john

the difference between 93 and 94 octane for me is a flashing CE light from my UTEC under full throttle conditions so i wouldn't be suprised if the sti is pulling timing on crappy winterized 93 octane these days.

i'm now using sunoco 94 with a gallon of tuluene for safety sake. i love the smell of that stuff

same here... in the past 3 weeks ive noticed it more.

All i know is I knock with 93 and don't with Sunoco 94....back to back. Although I believe I just got a bad tank of 94 from the Sunoco on 234 by my house cause right now it's KNOCK CITY!!