87 vs 91 Octane?

Will you be filling up using 87 or 91 octane moving forward?


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Osco

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91 for max horsepower and most of the time ethanol free for best mileage. Not much difference in price once you factor in the mpg with ethanol free 91. Win-win!
Let me see if I can get this right.
If I pay $2.90 a gallon for ethanol free as opposed to $2.05 my 27 mpg Baby Bronc will get 33 mpg ?
I really doubt that.
I did finally try a tank of premium fuel.
Felt no diff in power, even in sport mode.
Unless I mashed the gas harder dropping my avg mpg some...
Not science, only one try of a half tank but:
Tank of 87 octane. 26.1 avg mpg
Tank of real gas, 91 no eth, got me 26.3 avg mpg. But The roads were dryer meaning less rolling resistance during that fill up.
,
As. Forum group we owe it to ourselves to do a mileage thread based on octane and non ethanol vs ethenol.
In several of my older 4 and 6 cylinder smaller engine vehicles I saw no gain in mpg or felt better response with premium.
The slower flame propogation of higher octane that is simply more anti knock compound can help in very hot weather and or heavy loads as far as I can tell. A bit of this is in the owners manual....
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Wyo

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Wow you have quite the difference in price! My difference is only 20c between 87 and 91. After 7 years of playing with my Raptor, I averaged a good 1 to 1.5 mpg better with my Raptor when using 91 non-ethanol gas and of course it was 10 horsepower more with 91 octane as stated in the manual. Didn't go through our entire manual yet to see if it's in there, but I would think the 91 octane is only worth another 5-6 horsepower. Certainly not noticeable. I'm anxious to try the 91 non-ethanol as I'm getting this mileage with regular 91 right now. One thing we all know about these ecoboost engines is the mileage varies widely depending how you drive. If you like to play a lot and get on it, mileage will be a lot lower. If drive normal on the roads, you can pull off some impressive mileage. And of course every motor can be a little unique too. I know I've been impressed so far and this are calculated at the pump with real mileage not using the trip computer.
 

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Don't Raptors have big engines ?
I always understood that larger engines are more knock prone and can better benefit from premium fuels.
I am new to turbo's...
I did the K&N air filter thing once. They claimed an 800% or some such number in better air flow.
My electronic air fuel system that keeps things at the optim settings dialed back my air intake and readjusted the fuel/air ratios and put me right back at optimum. No performance change.
I followed the directions to the letter when cleaning the filter. It took TWO complete throttle body cleanings to clear out the mess that oil, gauze filter made...OEM for me.
 

realworld51

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Ford states in footnotes that the hp rating for the both the 1.5L and 2.0L is determined using ā€˜premiumā€™ fuel.

ā€œ1. Horsepower and torque ratings based on premium fuel per SAE J1349Ā® standard. Your results may vary.ā€
 

wiyeti

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Don't Raptors have big engines ?
I always understood that larger engines are more knock prone and can better benefit from premium fuels.
I am new to turbo's...
I did the K&N air filter thing once. They claimed an 800% or some such number in better air flow.
My electronic air fuel system that keeps things at the optim settings dialed back my air intake and readjusted the fuel/air ratios and put me right back at optimum. No performance change.
I followed the directions to the letter when cleaning the filter. It took TWO complete throttle body cleanings to clear out the mess that oil, gauze filter made...OEM for me.
Strange on the K&N. Been running them for years in all my vehicles (cars and cycles) and never a problem.
 


McBrideless

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Don't Raptors have big engines ?
I always understood that larger engines are more knock prone and can better benefit from premium fuels.
I am new to turbo's...
I did the K&N air filter thing once. They claimed an 800% or some such number in better air flow.
My electronic air fuel system that keeps things at the optim settings dialed back my air intake and readjusted the fuel/air ratios and put me right back at optimum. No performance change.
I followed the directions to the letter when cleaning the filter. It took TWO complete throttle body cleanings to clear out the mess that oil, gauze filter made...OEM for me.
Size of engine doesnā€™t matter. Only compression ratio and turbo/supercharger pressure will affect what fuel you can use. Higher compression ratio or turbo pressure yields more power but requires a fuel less prone to auto ignition.
 

Osco

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Strange on the K&N. Been running them for years in all my vehicles (cars and cycles) and never a problem.
Yeah I had used them before with good service. The very first one I used was great till 320,000 miles then would not pass air, choked my engine down bad. A new one went in and things were fine. Had one In my Harley that develop many small holes before the first cleaning at 6500 miles.
That was very ugly, K&N sent me a new one.
But that last one made a real mess so I stopped using them.
 

JamesT

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Size of engine doesnā€™t matter. Only compression ratio and turbo/supercharger pressure will affect what fuel you can use. Higher compression ratio or turbo pressure yields more power but requires a fuel less prone to auto ignition.
Talking to the technology guy at the dealer, he said 87 or 92 did not make discernible difference for most driving conditions
 

Freeskierdude

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summing up this thread so far.
So essentially if your foot is leaded beans and your driving style is GME to the moon, plus everyone on the road with you is double checking their dashcam is working then 91 octane might be something to think about?
 
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Remotecellphone

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summing up this thread so far.
So essentially if your foot is leaded beans and your driving style is GME to the moon, plus everyone on the road with you is double checking their dashcam is working then 91 octane might be something to think about?
That is a very good observation lol. Well according to the poll it looks like 87 has the slight advantage. Reading the posts, it seems to be split in the middle....which still leaves me undecided hahaha
 


Osco

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That is a very good observation lol. Well according to the poll it looks like 87 has the slight advantage. Reading the posts, it seems to be split in the middle....which still leaves me undecided hahaha
I tend to not follow the mice over the cliff when the pied piper does his thing.
Just sayin'
 

Osco

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That is a very good observation lol. Well according to the poll it looks like 87 has the slight advantage. Reading the posts, it seems to be split in the middle....which still leaves me undecided hahaha
Easy as pie.
Run five tanks on 87 and five on 93, then five tanks on 91 non ethanol and report your findings.
But I think it should be done in summer weather where Ford says it's most noticable.
If you do I'll do it.
 

Jaythor74

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Iā€™ve trie both in my Big Bend. Iā€™ve noticed a little better performance climbing hills on 93 but identical mileage on both. Definitely not worth the 55 cents more per gallon we pay in Screw York. IMO
 

tRex

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All you're trying to do with 91+ octane is stop knock, and allow the engine computer to advance the timing further (and possibly adjust other inputs) for higher output. The timing is continually adjusted due to RPMs, load, and fuel (propensity to knock under different conditions). The computer will automatically adjust things for 87 octane, but then you will not get the maximum "as-tested" performance. My bet is, we can save a bunch of money driving in Eco mode with a light foot and on 87 octane. The 2.0L maxes out at 125mph and goes 0-60 in anywhere from 5.7 to 6.7 sec. (according to various reports) -- presumably on that 91+ octane, do I really need that? If you do, go ahead and spend the money, it's a free country!
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