Suburban

Just bought a 2001 Suburban LT with the 5.3 engine. Does this use regular or premium gasoline? No manuals came with this used vehicle.
PJ

If it runs alright with regular, then use it. In many cases the owners manual may "recommend" premium, but that's often insurance to the manufacturer that the engine will run with no pinging or minimum loss of performance regardless where you buy your fuel. We have a variety of cars/trucks and seldom do we run any of the late model computer controlled vehicles on premium, including a 2002 Camaro z-28. What happens is that you may lose some ignition timing if the knock sensor reads any pinging and the computer pulls the timing back a bit.
The bottom line is see what lowest grade of fuel the engine will run smoothly with and use it.

I thought they posted a label somewhere under the hood as to the octane requirements?

Thanks for the advise, will continue to use regular until I see a problem starting.
PJ

Without getting into a rant about people who remove owner's manuals from vehicles, I'll say this. You can order one for your vehicle through your dealer's parts department. Go ahead and flip through it when you get it. You'll probably learn a lot of things about your vehicle you don't know.

I have a '99 Silverado w/ the 5.3 - they've done a little tweaking since then but nothing drastic. I started out running premium, but when the prices jumped to 2.00+ per gallon for regular a couple of years ago I started just putting that in it and haven't looked back. Haven't seen (or I guess heard [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] )any problems. Haven't notice a drop in fuel mileage either - well at least for octane changes but brands do seem to make a difference.

Just bought owners manuals on ebay. Should have them in about three days.
PJ

I have that engine and it does not require premium gas. . . 87 octane is just fine according to the owners manual.

I have the same vehicle with the same engine (except mine is a Yukon XL). The owners manual says 87 octane and it works fine.

I don't know about GM, but Ford owners can download a .pdf version of the owners manual from the Ford Owner Connection website.

//bruce
'00 Ford Excursion Limited 4x4