Fuel grade for M5

[lawpurv99]

No sure if there is already a topic on this, but just curious as to what type of fuel the folks in the US are putting in their M5's since we don't have the 100+ octane like they do in Munich.

I have a lot of pumps around my area with 93, but they are all blended with ethanol. I found a few places with ethanol-free fuel, but it is 90 octane. The ethanol-free 90 octane is way more expensive than the 93 blended with ethanol, so I want to see if it's really going to make a difference as I've heard that we should keep this engine away from ethanol.

Any thoughts?

[AMPowerJ]

93 octane is the best we are going to be able to do and yes most has up to 10% Ethanol. BMW states though that this is fine ... even with up to 10% Ethanol.

[johntomferg]

Racing fuel finder for SUNOCO:

http://www.racegas.com/fuelfinder

If anyone else knows of other "finders", it would be great to start a list.

[Ak3249]

Originally Posted by lawpurv99

No sure if there is already a topic on this, but just curious as to what type of fuel the folks in the US are putting in their M5's since we don't have the 100+ octane like they do in Munich.

I have a lot of pumps around my area with 93, but they are all blended with ethanol. I found a few places with ethanol-free fuel, but it is 90 octane. The ethanol-free 90 octane is way more expensive than the 93 blended with ethanol, so I want to see if it's really going to make a difference as I've heard that we should keep this engine away from ethanol.

Any thoughts?

From what I know, the way fuel is measured in Europe is different than in America. Ive been told that Europe's 100 is equal to our 93. Ethanol is also okay on all cars after 1993 or so. Ive been putting 93 octane with 10% Ethanol in all my european cars since they've been new and they've all been fine. Also the sticker in the gas tank tells you exactly what gas to use, and those are different for every market. And I'm sure BMW Corporate wouldn't tell us to use bad gas.

[thebishman]

Super unleaded in Europe is as stated above equal to our 93 octane and their 95 octane is similar to our 91. Hence you're totally fine running either 91 or 93 octane here in the USA but 93 will always be your best bet if you can find it. There's absolutely no need at all for 100 octane unleaded unless you're running crazy power or at the road course for some extra 'insurance'.
Bish