In theory higher octane fuel should make the motor less prone to detonation, but my understanding is that would only really be if the det was due to too small a head volume? (I'm certainly nmo expert on this stuff though). Even if runing higher octane reduced the det', if it's weaker than it should be I'd imagine you'd still be down on power over a more appropriate set up. My (limited) understanding is that race type high octane fuel is only really suitable when you are running pretty borderline race type head vols and tuning. Personally I'd be flinging some bigger jets in the detonted motor and keeoping it on the cheap (well not anyumore, but you know what I mean...) stuff.

Cheers

Wb