Premium Fuel?

[AlpineBike]

I live by a recreational lake and the gas station by the marina advertises non ethanol fuels. Funny that my supercharged jet ski runs on 87 and my truck I use to pull said jet ski runs on premium! Used to be the other way around.

That just means that with proper calibration, you could be getting more power out of your jet ski!

The only engines on this earth that I know for a fact make more power on lower octane fuels are rotary's!

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[Critical Habitat]

In Minnesota, we have non-oxygenated fuel available, but State law says it is not to be used for on-road vehicles (autos).
I use the non-oxy for lawn mowers, chain saws, personal watercraft, and boats.

 

[Asmith]

91 or 93 only for me.

I use it for better MPG and for better engine performance. I'm not racing anyone in this truck but when I put the pedal to the floor for whatever reason, I expect to get the full advertised power out of the engine.

My focus ST had the 2.0L Ecoboost and premium vs regular made a pretty noticeable difference subjectively and according to dyno results. Consensus was you lose about 20HP & 20 torque on a stock tune.

It is also known that low octane gas in turbocharged DI engines can increase chances for LSPI. LSPI has been an issue in ford's 2.0 and 2.3 ecoboost engines.


https://nasaspeed.news/tech/engine/...ion-in-turbocharged-direct-injection-engines/

Very interesting read, thankyou

 

[gdub]

Yes, I never heard of LSPI before. Thank you for enlightening me.

 

[Blue Ridge Raptor]

While I don’t have a 2.7L or I4, heres my 2 cents.
in my RR I run regular (87 octane E10 around here) if I’m just highway cruising. If I’m towing or “spirited driving” I run 93 octane (E10). I do notice a performance difference but haven’t checked if mpg is different.
In my 2017 Subaru STI (stock 2.5L single turbo) I run 93E10 because the manual says to run only premium fuel.
In my 1974 Bronco (with mildly modified 1992 Mustang 5L fuel injected motor) I run 93 octane ethanol free gas. Reason being because I don’t want E10 sitting in a car that’s not driven much. FwIW, ethanol free premium is about 80-90cents/gal more than standard E10 where I live.

 

[AlpineBike]

While I don’t have a 2.7L or I4, heres my 2 cents.
in my RR I run regular (87 octane E10 around here) if I’m just highway cruising. If I’m towing or “spirited driving” I run 93 octane (E10). I do notice a performance difference but haven’t checked if mpg is different.
In my 2017 Subaru STI (stock 2.5L single turbo) I run 93E10 because the manual says to run only premium fuel.
In my 1974 Bronco (with mildly modified 1992 Mustang 5L fuel injected motor) I run 93 octane ethanol free gas. Reason being because I don’t want E10 sitting in a car that’s not driven much. FwIW, ethanol free premium is about 80-90cents/gal more than standard E10 where I live.

one tank of fuel really isn’t enough time to get the full performance and mileage benefit out of 93 vs 87.

if you want proof, I’d run through at least 3 tanks of each and document your mileage and “seat of the pants” performance and then decide which you want to stick with.

 

[John B]

I ran 93 octane e10 in my 800hp gt500, and run 91 octane e10 in my RR. I did a quick cut and paste on an article that says it better than I could, but simply put, e10 works great for high boost engines like the RR.

Ethanol blended fuel is always better for turbocharged (and supercharged) cars. The difference in effective octane between E10 91 and E0 (ethanol free) 91 is staggering when you're tuning a car. Non-ethanol blends are very prone to extra detonation / knock on turbocharged cars even if the octane rating is identical, especially high compression ratio ones like the B series engines. Remember octane ratings are determined against behavior on a research motor / test engine that's very rudimentary and nothing like your modern turbocharged engine.

(An aside and clarification: For folks abroad, 91 octane for us is rated in AKI / PON / R+M/2, so this rating is 95 RON for you. I've found 98 RON and higher ethanol free fuels abroad are generally better than 95 RON E10 that we have here for making optimal turbocharged power.)

The latent heat of vaporization of ethanol is higher as well so it has a greater combustion chamber / charge cooling effect than straight gasoline, which increases power output on a turbo car, and makes up for lack of charge cooling on hot days and with intercooler heat soak.

 

[Clump]

I don't know what the dealer put in mine, but assume 87. I took it on an 800+ mile trip 2 days after I got it and ran 87 throughout. On the way home I ran the tank down pretty low and filled up with 93. The butt dyno noted a nice improvement. The diet has been all 93 since.

Here's an Aussie that did some testing. The results are quite interesting, although we don't know how many tanks he ran through with each grade before testing, the DA for each test, etc.

 

[Johnny 5]

First let me say that I don't want this thread to devolve into a regular vs premium fuel quality thread, or I will delete it.
My question is around the recommendation in the 2024 Ranger Owners Manual's recommendations.

The manual doesn't differentiate between 2.3L vs 2.7L engines. (Note that I'm not referring to the 3.0L used in the Raptor.) The manual states that the truck runs on 87 octane but then goes on to say that "For best overall vehicle and engine performance, premium fuel with an octane rating of 91 or higher is recommended. The performance gained by using premium fuel is most noticeable in hot weather as well as other conditions, for example when towing a trailer."

My questions are, do you use 91 octane? Why do you use it? Do you find it necessary for the type of driving you do?

Thanks.

We use 93 in my wife's Ranger Raptor and I will do the same when I get mine. We have the luxury of her working 2 miles from home and I work 1 mile from home. Every other day we take it up the expressway, we live next to, 3 miles, and then 3 miles back to keep the turnos happy !

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