Engine check light came on

ENGINE CHECK LIGHT CAME ON
2010 CHEVROLET CAMARO
Tiny
MIKIE3
FEBRUARY, 3, 2016 AT 6:05 PM

I added a bottle of 108 octane to a full tank of gas.I felt the power but the light concerns me! Should I worry? Mike

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Higher octane doesn't add any power. The higher the octane rating, the harder it is for the gas to ignite. Very high-compression engines suffer from pre-ignition, the same thing that is desirable in igniting diesel fuel. In gas engines it must be avoided. That is the purpose of the additives that raise the flash point. Using a higher octane fuel allows the engineers to to design an engine that will produce more power without the threat of pre-ignition. In any engine that doesn't need that higher octane, not only are you wasting your money, you are likely to get spark-related misfires too.

Yes, you should worry about the Check Engine light. The Engine Computer detected a problem, most likely a misfire, set a diagnostic fault code, and turned the light on to tell you. If a different problem occurs and is detected that could turn into a serious problem, you'll never know because the light is already on.

What are you trying to remedy? If it's the Check Engine light, you must read and record the fault codes to see where to start the diagnosis. The people at many auto parts stores will do that for you for free. Be aware fault codes never say to replace parts or that one is defective. They only indicate the circuit or system with the problem, or the unacceptable operating condition.

Cold air intakes are another scam to separate you from your money. The goal of all intake systems is to warm the incoming air. Liquid gas does not burn. It goes out the tail pipe, wasted. Gasoline must be a vapor to burn. That's why the air must be warmed, to promote the gas turning into a vapor before it gets into the cylinders. You don't want to defeat that.

Years ago we used a choke on the carburetor. That was to force WAY too much fuel to go into the cylinders in the hopes enough of it would vaporize to make the engine run reasonably well. Once the engine warmed up, the choke was no longer needed.

The propaganda of cold air intakes is the colder air will be more condensed so more goes into the engine, then you must add more fuel to go with it. The rest of us do that by pressing the accelerator pedal further.

Diesel engines are wide open to air. They don't use a throttle blade. Engine speed is controlled solely by the amount of fuel that's squirted into the cylinders. When an intercooler is used, it is there to cool the air that has been heated excessively by the turbocharger. Cooling that air is done to return it to normal temperature, not to increase power.