Premium vs Regular... With some science this time!

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fso119

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If the engine is designed for 87 it will run clean on 87.

I run my cars on what ever the owners manual recommends which with most of my cars is 91 oct premium and i run 93, pretty much all year long because I'm known to run full throttle to the rev limiter pretty often in my sports cars. Come to think of it i am sure i could run 91 on my sports cars at sea level in winter.....

If however my manual calls for 87...i run 87. I might run 89 or 91 in June to September ie.....hot weather.

My trucks rarely see much above 5,000 rpm....rarely much above 4,000.5ffba4b9329d8b8a9d154d2fbc497aa0.jpg

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If you read the last sentence of the first paragraph, "Premium fuel will provide improved performance..." Improved performance is more HP and better mileage. It will take about 2-3 tanks of premium for the truck to re-calibrate its tune if you were running 87 octane before.

I was running 87 octane at first then I speaking with one of my friends who was an engineer on the 2018 Raptor project. He mentioned that the truck will be able to make the full 450hp on 92 octane premium otherwise it'll only make about 390hp on 87 octane fuel.

I switched from 87 to 92 octane then did a road trip (Detroit to DC). I got about 17 mpg on the highway with a tank of 92 octane after switching going there. On the return, I filled back up again with 92 octane again and noticed my mpg was 18.7 mpg on the highway. I ran adaptive cruise set at 6 mph above the posted speed limits both ways for most of the trip. Detroit to DC is one tank each way in range.

Right now, I'm averaging 16.3 in the city on 93 octane. I chalk up the lower mpg due to a couple of factors:
- temps are freezing in this area, gas stations are selling their crappy winter blend. Winter blend has cheaper butane added to prevent freezing. Butane has less energy.
- I let the engine warm up 5 minutes each morning(m-f autostart via FordPass) before driving to defrost the windshield. (0.1 mpg drop each morning)
-and lastly because temps are freezing and there's snow/ice on the roads, I run 4A or 4H which requires more power thus burn more fuel.

I'll have to re-visit this again when the temps are up and Summer blend is available again.
 

allenfrx

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If you read the last sentence of the first paragraph, "Premium fuel will provide improved performance..." Improved performance is more HP and better mileage. It will take about 2-3 tanks of premium for the truck to re-calibrate its tune if you were running 87 octane before.

I was running 87 octane at first then I speaking with one of my friends who was an engineer on the 2018 Raptor project. He mentioned that the truck will be able to make the full 450hp on 92 octane premium otherwise it'll only make about 390hp on 87 octane fuel.

I switched from 87 to 92 octane then did a road trip (Detroit to DC). I got about 17 mpg on the highway with a tank of 92 octane after switching going there. On the return, I filled back up again with 92 octane again and noticed my mpg was 18.7 mpg on the highway. I ran adaptive cruise set at 6 mph above the posted speed limits both ways for most of the trip. Detroit to DC is one tank each way in range.

Right now, I'm averaging 16.3 in the city on 93 octane. I chalk up the lower mpg due to a couple of factors:
- temps are freezing in this area, gas stations are selling their crappy winter blend. Winter blend has cheaper butane added to prevent freezing. Butane has less energy.
- I let the engine warm up 5 minutes each morning(m-f autostart via FordPass) before driving to defrost the windshield. (0.1 mpg drop each morning)
-and lastly because temps are freezing and there's snow/ice on the roads, I run 4A or 4H which requires more power thus burn more fuel.

I'll have to re-visit this again when the temps are up and Summer blend is available again.
Agreed. 100% even with the old V8 there is performance to be had with premium. Just not as much as with the new TT model and yet again not as much as with a sports car.

I was speaking more about whether it does damage or will run particularly dirty if i run 87 in my 6.2.

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IHAVETWO

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Have a 17 scab.run reg.fuel mileage much better than my 14 scab.towes great with reg also.i guess i should try prem when towing camper.
 

johndjmix

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Never ran anything other than 85 in my ‘14. Run premium when I’m doing somthing fun in my new 18, otherwise not worth the extra $.

—John


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