Is Premium gas worth it?

[M3sparky]

I've always said if you need to calculate the gas savings in 87 vs Premium fuel then you probably bought a vehicle that was too expensive for your current income.

LOL well sad.. I never cared for my mpg. It's smiles per gallon not miles for me

 

[Edbert]

You can tune the engine to run just fine on 87 or 91 with no risk to internals or detonation/ping. There will be a loss of max power, and probably a little across the entire RPM range too. So if a little less power is worth the cost savings to you then do it, if you want full power without a tune then I think you should put 93 in there are FoMoCo says.

If you buy a tuner you can have your cake and eat it too. Load the 87 one for your daily commute in heavy traffic (if that is what you are doing with your raptor), then load up the 93 for the weekend at the offroad park or wherever you play. All you need to do is time the fillups

But if you have the stock tune I think running 87 can be dangerous unless you have the willpower to keep your right foot on the light side.

 

[jzweedyk]

The best gas is the no ethanol premium gas. I found some in Colorado this summer. It increase my mileage in my Jeep by a couple of MPG, and it ran better.

 

[avalanchegrey]

Back on topic...

How many of you have actually driven your truck on 87? I did for about 3 months just to see what it would be like. My truck is my daily, and for that use, it’s fine on 87. It is definitely a little slower, but put it in Sports mode and it’s still fun. Slower than 91, but 90% of the time, there is no noticeable difference.

I have since gone to MPT tunes, so I must run 91, but the timing and boost has increased a lot, and the truck is significantly faster. Even when I drive it normally, it’s easily to exceed the posted speed limit without noticing.

If you are stock, and you use your truck as a daily, my opinion is that you can run 87 and it’s fine. 91 gives you a bit more, but to me, it’s probably not worth the increased cost. If you are tuned, it’s definitely worth the extra cost.

I’ve been driving my ‘17 on 87 octane and no trouble what so ever. This Raptor have been thru a lot of fun remote places. After 39,851 miles it’s still kicking hard.

 

[FordTechOne]

I’ve been driving my ‘17 on 87 octane and no trouble what so ever. This Raptor have been thru a lot of fun remote places. After 39,851 miles it’s still kicking hard.

Nobody is saying it's going to be an instant problem.

The engine is designed for premium (91+) octane. Low octane (87 or less) requires the PCM to see knock before it changes strategy (retard timing, dump boost, etc). By the time that occurs, detonation damage to one or more cylinder may have already occurred. It's a high performance vehicle; for the extra cost of 93 I'm not taking that chance.

 

[Mbdurham]

Yes


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[Donovan]

Bang! Most overrated state in the union followed closely by New York.

Agreed.

California is the last place I would live in the US of A. How did we get on this topic?

But yeah, put good fuel in, for ***** sake. This has been discussed on every forum ever in the history of vehicle forums.

 

[quikag]

I have a company gas card, so I put 93 octane in all of my vehicles. They actually all are designed for premium, so even if I didn't have a gas card, I'd still put in premium with my own money.

You drive a truck with a 450hp 3.5L turbocharged engine. That is 128.5hp/liter. It's not exactly an understressed engine and yeah, it might run okay on regular, but just put in premium and enjoy the horsepower gain and slightly better fuel efficiency. Otherwise, you should just trade it for a normal 2.7 or 3.5 ecoboost or some other less performance oriented truck.

 

[Hdaniel85]

So 91 or 93 for a stock Raptor?

FYI I live in Cali, make good money and not a huge fan of SoCal, NorCal is awesome though!

One of the cool things is playing in snow, then heading to the desert to Baja, then swim in the Ocean all in the same day, not many places like it.

I would definitely retire in Washington/Oregon though, love that weather and terrain.

 

[PlainJane]

I’ve always said the USA should divorce California and everyone who lives there

We would be happy to go, but we want everything west of the Rockies.