2004 Forester 2.5X High Altitude Octane requirements

I live 25 miles Northwest of Denver Colorado and I just bought a 2004 Forester 2.5X. I have only had it a few days, but so far I really feel good about my purchase. It's my first car that doesn't carry a US brand, although our 91 Acclaim(157,000 miles), which I traded in, and 93 Daytona(145,000 miles), which have been quite reliable, both had

3.0L V6 Mitsubishi engines.

The Forester owners manual says that I need to use 87 Octane unleaded gasoline. Normal regular unleaded here is 85 Octane. I have seen statements on web sites that would appear to be fairly reliable indicating that somewhat lower Octane rated gasoline can be used at "High Altitude" if the engine is not equipped with a turbo and is not high compression (>11).

I have been looking around on-line and have found that Nissan/Infinity says that it is OK to use 85 Octane gasoline in their engines rated for

87 Octane when operated above 4000 feet, which is my situation.

Has anyone seen a similar "High Altitude" exception from Subaru permitting the lower Octane gasoline?

Reply to
Ken Wampach
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