Hey everyone, I have a 2019 3.5 eco and I know they say to run premium fuel when towing but I tow a 6.5ft x 12ft utility trailer with a side by side utv and the combined weight is 2500lbs which I do not consider a lot so am I still required to use premium with such little weight as I do not want to hurt anything , and what about the hot temperature of the summer? Thanks

 

Short answer with that load is simply "No".

Best way to know if you need premium is to listen to the engine when towing, if you start to here a bit of pinging or knocking then you should move up to premium. That being said, I run premium in my 5.0 (I know you have the workhorse 3.5) all the time, find this engine just seems to like it.

 

+1 agree w/ Canon101, run premium all the time. I've had many cars/trucks and never heard knocking when using premium. In my younger years, I used to use regular until the engine was running rough, then would run a tank or two of premium before going back to regular. After many years, iI finally realized it wasn't that much (you decide what is too much) just to run premium all the time.

 

Funny. A gas thread masked as a towing thread. haha

It's been a fun morning catching up.

Not trying to poke fun. it's just this is the 3rd or 4th gas thread in 24 hours.

 

You'll never hear pinging/knocking in a modern engine. Active knock sensors have already cut ignition timing back long before it gets bad enough to be heard. You'd only notice loss of power if it pulls enough due to too high load, and not enough octane.

 

Very true.

On the turbo, if you have the gauge displayed you will see a noticeable difference in boost available (when you are on it) between running 87 and 91 or better. With more boost and timing you get more power. Short answer to the original question is you will be fine with 87.

 

I would have though the same thing, unfortunately the engine can only retard timing so much. The higher the compression ratio, the more likely to knock on lower octane. It will only be a matter of time before compression ratios are high enough to require 91+.

Even the manual states you could hear light knocking:

 

Pinging/detonation tends to be most noticeable when driving up a long grade at part throttle, maintaining a steady speed. If you hear it constantly pinging under those conditions, try premium gas to help make it go away.

Even with 93 octane I still get very brief moments of pinging under certain conditions but nowhere as bad as with 87 octane. I have an ‘18 5.0.

The owners manual says slight pinging is normal.

 

I better turn down the radio I may be missing out on some pinging

 

Are you saying that if I have a tank of premium grade fuel (91 octane), my Turbo Boost gauge will travel further than if I am driving with a tank of lower octane (87)? Given there has been enough fuel burned, blah blah to have the computer recognize and accommodate properly for the fuel currently being metered.

Ideally you are saying I can get 15 psi of boost at 87 octane and 25 psi of boost at 91 octane (numbers are just numbers used for example)

Just trying to get context of what your comment made (I may have missed something earlier but seems this is an octane comment).