Any benefit to running premium
 

Is there any benefit to running premium gasoline in the non-flex fuel versions of the 5.4L 3 valves? I have the 2006 model year F-150 and was curious if I might see any benefit from running premium gas.

Once in a while to help clean the injectors. But normally, no.

Oh, ok, I was just curious. For one thing, premium fuel is at least 50 cents a gallon more than regular where I live.

I found mine gets better gas mileage on the mid-grade than it does on the low or high.

I need to do a bit of experimentation with midgrade, premium and ethanol free gas to see which I get better gas mileage on. I found out my tires were overfilled (by 5-10psi) when Wal-Mart installed them last year, so my fuel economy dropped by up to 2mpg. (Cooper Discoverer AT/3 255/65R17 tires)

Over inflating tires will give you better fuel mileage, but could lead to uneven tire wear.

You could spend several thousand dollars experimenting with different fuels trying to determine how much, if any money you save on fuel and still not reach any verifiable conclusions. There are just too many factors for the average Joe to factor in. I think it is best to just look at the experimentation that has already been done in controlled lab conditions. Premium fuel in most vehicles does not have any effect on power or fuel mileage. Some are tuned for that fuel and if yours is then use it. In those vehicles it matters. If your engine isn't tuned for premium fuel you are wasting money. Regular gas has the same injector cleaners as premium.

They don't make mid-grade fuel, only premium and regular. The tanker driver just dumps a little regular and a little premium gas into the same tank and you don't know what you're getting. No reason for it to exist except to charge more money for it. Your vehicle either needs premium or regular not something in between.

Technically you should see better fuel mileage with non-ethanol gas. But you'll not get enough better fuel mileage to justify the added cost. Locally it is only available at a handful of stations and the price is just too much for me to justify paying for it. Last fall I drove from GA to CO and stopped for gas in MS. Gas was dirt cheap there compared to home and I bought a tank full of non-ethanol there just to try. It was still a lot more than regular in MS, but about the same as regular at home so I tried a tank full. I got the worst fuel mileage of the trip on that tank.

Not sure why, but my guess is that the gas was old. Being more expensive they don't sell as much and there is a greater chance for it to go bad. I've never gotten bad gas from a high volume station that gets resupplied on a regular basis regardless of the price or grade of gas. It is the small mom and pop places in remote areas that don't sell a lot of gas where I've gotten bad gas in the past.

When I was in Durango, CO last year, I tried two tanks of ethanol free fuel. Didn't really see any difference. I did like the fact that it was the same price as regular gas. Here in Texas, ethanol free gas is more expensive than premium 91 octane.

I thought midgrade was mixed at the pump itself. That's why the pumps only have two small counters for total gallons delivered.