Mid Grade gas vs High Octane gas - better performance??

[dswalterwi at gmail.com (Don Walter)]

My son's 1.8L 16V swapped engine was running pretty good but he felt that it
was lacking power a bit in the mid to higher RPM's  Initially we thought it
might be either running too rich or too lean.  I haven't had a chance to put
a meter on it to find out.  Today he filled it with Mid grade (89 octane)
gas and claims that it pulls strong all the way through the RPM range.  Does
that sound right?  Does that support that it may have been too rich to begin
with and the more volatile fuel is burning better?  I don't want this to
turn in to a science project discussion either so let's keep it at the 5th
grade level.

-- 
Don Walter - Waukesha, WI
1986 8V Black Scirocco (Daily Driver)
1984 8V Audi 4000s (RIP 2/14/2006)
1986 2.0L 16V TEC 2 Black Scirocco (see progress at
http://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/708939)
1986 2L 16V Toronado Red Scirocco (Ben's Car)
1988 1.8 16V Toronado Red Scirocco (sold on 3/29/04)
1984 1.8 8V Pewter Scirocco (sold years ago)
1971 Karman Ghia (sold)
1969 Karman Ghia (sold)
1969 Beetle (sold)