I applaud you for actually looking up the info in the manual.
Incorrect. First line clearly says it is designed to run on a minimum octane of 87. There is a BIG difference between "required" and "recommended" most of which is attributable to marketing (fanbois are eager to spend money on premium fuel because it sounds better than regular fuel, a truck that runs premium is better right? BMW has been doing this for years), and fine print to give Ford wiggle room in potential law suit defense down the line.
The manual also recommends a bunch of other stuff such as type of oil and air filter and disallows any mods, do you follow all of it like its the bible? Just curious.
There is definitely a debate on this. Instructors at Raptor Assault aren't running 93, you think they know a bit more about these trucks than Internet warriors on FRF? I think so. Look, I am not starting threads asking everyone to run 87. I choose to run 87 in my $71k truck because that feels better to me.
Again, there is no debate on this at all. None whatsoever. Ford recommends 91 octane fuel, explicitly stating that it will give you the best performance. You can run the engine on lower grade gas (at reduced performance), but only as low as 87 octane, which I agree is the minimum required grade. So I have no problem with you or anyone else running 87 octane, as long as you are willing to sacrifice a little performance, and especially as long as you are being very careful to listen for detonation, as Ford recommends. This has nothing to do with feelings, by the way. It has to do with performance and engine longevity.
And no, I really don't care what the guys at Raptor assault said. For all I know they are a bunch of high school dropouts.
---------- Post added at 04:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:17 PM ----------
I posted this once before.
Just for the record:
from 2017 F150 Owner Manual:
from Ford F150 Raptor Supplement Printing:
I am not debating that 87 is the minimum required grade and I never have. But that is irrelevant to the topic I am commenting about, which is that higher grade fuels will give you better performance.
I really don't have any idea why anyone thinks a relatively high compression, relatively high boost motor would make the most power on 87.