Octane Level Does Matter

To very briefly recap my Gen 2 experience, I took delivery of my 2017 Raptor on December 26th and it has been in the shop on two separate occasions for 8 days each due to irregular acceleration (light surging when hitting the gas). Late last week I got to drive another new Raptor that was just delivered to the dealer that was working on my truck and, to my surprise, it drove the same way. I was somewhat pleased that my truck probably wasn't defective, but I was also disappointed that it wasn't driving anywhere near as smooth as anything else that I had ever driven. Based on the test ride, the service department released my truck and I happily took it home.

To get to the point, I had been running 87 Octane in it from Shell. Yesterday I ran it all the way down to empty (with only 12 miles left until I would be pushing it) and refilled the tank with 93 Octane. I can't 100% say it fixed the problem because I am basing my feedback on about 50 miles of driving, but my truck drove 100% different this morning (no surging, jittery acceleration, etc...). If you are feeling anything irregular when accelerating or even maintaining a constant speed and you are running a low octane gas, you may want to completely run it out of the system and try something with a higher Octane. I can't say that I noticed any difference in performance and the gas mileage seems to be running about the same, but the truck is running 100 times smoother. I will continue my test and report back when I am 100% convinced of the results.

My slightly-educated guess is the surging you felt was the ECU pulling timing due to the knock sensors reporting some knock because of the 87 octane. This is just the ECU doing it's job correctly to protect the engine. The way to test this theory is have someone datalog 87 octane vs 91/93 octane and look at the ignition advance/retard.

I've ran 93 octane exclusively since the first fill up, and I've had no kind of issues like you described. I'm really curious if my theory is correct.

My question is why would you even think about running a lower octane gas in a Raptor?

BRAAAPTR said:

My question is why would you even think about running a lower octane gas in a Raptor?

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MONEY!!! If everything drove fine on the lower octane gas which is much cheaper, I saw no reason to spend an extra $20 something per fill up. Even though I am far from poor, we only make so much money, so I try to spend it on things that matter; looks like it now matters.

Interesting. I've been running 87 with no issues. Look forward to your assessment after a couple of tanks.

2 things. The nod Raptor you drove, did it already finish pdi and dealer already filled with 87, or was that gas from ford? And second, data log timing and knock, it's the best way to verify.

I started on premium for a few thousand miles, and then switched to 87 Octane and the truck is running the same with another couple thousand miles and 3 or 4 tanks of fuel. My business has cardlock fuel but only 87 is available, so if I run 87 it's free. It is very good fuel though, and also 0 Ethanol.

But that's good advice, if it's acting up, try different fuel first. Temperature, altitude, humidity, engine load can all effect your octane requirements .

Jeff-Ohio - I have had the same improvement with 93 octane. So far only 2 tank fulls, but will report back after more experience...

@Jeff-Ohio you may see better results in the summer on 87. Your area of the country may have winter blend gas like we do in MI. this time of year. I know its a different animal but I have had the same experience in my Gen1. I would personally run 91 or better in it as I do in my Gen1. Shell is great gas but I think they charge to much for the 93, I try to buy top tier gas only, look at Toptiergas.com they use to list on Gas buddy app but not now for some reason maybe its just my app. Shockingly Costco is top tier gas!!

I'm sorry but with twin turbos and a high output engine there's no way you should run anything under 91 octane. Always run premium on this truck. Safe 87 for a naturally aspirated truck.

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