Is it worth or recommended to use a higher gas octane rating of 87?

Is there any benefits or increased mileage running higher octane?

Didn't know if I should be putting in a higher octane for more my new 2010?

 

I've always used and had good luck using the recommended 87 octane fuel.

Some people will claim they get better performance using high octane.

It's true that all brand fuels are not created equal. The engine management systems in our trucks are designed to make limited adjustment. Ford builds these trucks to be economical to operate.

There will always be differences of options about which octane to use as there is about which oil, tires, tuner along with other products and accessories.

High octane fuels are designed for higher compression engine and generally for performance engine.

 

Hopefully related to this thread, but in addition to octane, anyone know if gas from Chevron (with Techron) is any better than gas from Shell (with whatever additives they use)?

 

Unless you have performance tunes/mods that require higher octane gas, just use the regular unleaded. Otherwise, it is just a waste of money, because the amount of additives is the same regardless of which octane version you buy.

As for name brands, I have read that they are all the same. There is very little difference between them.

I just use whatever gas station is closest. However, if I want something completely different in the way of gas, I might go out and run a tank of E85, but make *sure* your vehicle is a Flex-Fuel one before doing this.

 

A lot of the time, it will depend on the vehicle. Engines go through an adjustment period after leaving the factory. Your engine actually goes through a learning process and part of that is adjusting to the fuel that's available. If you use Chevron in this case for an extended period of time and then immediately change to Shell, it's possible you could not notice any improvement at all. On the other-hand, someone else that started from the beginning using Shell in exactly the same model vehicle could actually be getting better performance than you.

Some times when drivers change brands of fuel, they don't give the vehicle time to adjust. Mainly because of the additives various fuels use.

 

Do you really think your truck knows the difference between 87 fuel from two different brands? It's gas, people. There may be homeopathic differences in the additives which your truck cannot measure or detect anyways, but the fueling properties are identical.

 

No the truck doesn't know it's a machine. But, if the gas doesn't meet the minimum requirements for the compression ratio of the engine and the timing advance programmed into the pcm you will have performance issues. Such as ping or "spark knock", and a loss of power because the pcm will pull timing to protect the engine. Which brings me to my question.
Is there a way to test or check the gas we're buying meets the minimum octane rating recommended by Ford?

 

My belief is that all brands of gas are the same and come from pretty much the same place. The main difference being the "cleaning" additives added by the various brands. For instance... your run-of-the-mill gas station serves "plain" gas, while Chevron serves gas that contains additives that help keep your motor running "clean". Hence the higher cost of Chevron gas. You get what you pay for, right?

MY question, however, is back to octane. I live in New Mexico and all they offer here is 86, 88, and 91 octane. This rarely ever gets discussed anywhere. Any thoughts on running this octane? New vehicles are sold here obviously, so that means it's not a problem, right?

Gas here is $2.69 right now for 86 octane, in case you were wondering.

 

For the vast majority of time, I run just regular, once in awhile I will put in premium, it does run a little better but not enough to cover the extra expense. My previous trucks would run alot better with premium. The competermagingythingamabob seems to make the truck run well on just regular. However, I did put a new flux-inverter in backwards and that has made all the difference in the world.

 

eh?