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UPDATE:
After another tank of 92 through the engine and not a lot of performance increase, as well as a few odd issues that seemed timing-related, I decided to go ahead and reset the ECU. I filled it up with Lucas Oil Octane Booster + a full tank of 92 octane Shell V-Power, then pulled the plug on the battery for a few hours.
Upon reconnecting the battery, I drove it 60 miles in varied environments (on and off the highway), then sit it over night, then drove it another 60 miles the next day. The results have been really good. It seemed to be something of a magic bullet, solving numerous small issues I was having with the car.
Issues include:
-Not rough, but maybe.. Shaky idle? A bit of hunting, and the engine just didn't seem to like idling.
-Throttle Delay. Not to be confused with the throttle dead spot you get after resetting the ECU for the first 100 miles, it just seemed that when shifting into second or sometimes third gear, there would be a slight hesitation in the throttle, like a latency almost. It didn't affect first gear or 4th/5th/6th.
-White Smoke coming out of exhaust at idle. It would happen about 75% of the time, warmed up or not. It only came out at idle, and if I was actually moving at any speed beyond 1mph there would be no visible exhaust smoke of any kind.
-Slight "Rattle" noise coming from the engine compartment. It was clearly audible in second and third gear acceleration, but not in first or 4th/5th/6th gear. It would happen about 75% of the time, about the same rate as the white exhaust smoke at idle. It sounded sorta like there was some change rattling on top of the engine... Very odd sound.
I am happy to report that one ECU reset & 150 miles later, ALL of the above problems have been resolved. There is no more exhaust smoke at idle, once warmed up. The rattle has completely dissipated, and the engine feels solid at idle. It does still hunt occasionally, but way less often, and the engine doesn't feel shaky when it kicks in.
The "Throttle dead spot" was definitely there for the first 90 or so miles, but it went away and the car now accelerates very naturally and the engine sounds super clean on higher revs. When shifting into second and third gear, there is no more "hesitation".
Oh, and on top of all that, my fuel economy increased from 23.5mpg average to 29mpg average! WOW!
Just wanted to share my results with others that may face this issue. If your dealer does fill your first tank up with low-quality/low-octane gas, I HIGHLY recommend the ECU reset after you've run a few high octane tanks through the engine. It has breathed new life into my car's performance.
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