Should you increase octane rating when towing an 8000# traivel travel. I use 87 all the time towing or not and it works fine. But I’ve read somewhere you should use higher octane to reduce the chance of engine ping when towing.your thoughts please.

 

On the EcoBoost engines it’s recommended to use higher octane when towing. You don’t have any vehicle info listed and didn’t state what you have so I can’t say.

 

Sorry l have 2020 3.5 L ecoBoost with the max tow package rated for 13200#

 

yeah, manual says its good to do so

 

What's key here is what I bolded above. If 87 works fine for you, then don't change.

The manual states:

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.

Yes, you will get a performance gain with 91 or higher. You will also spend more money. You can judge for yourself whether the performance gain is noticeable, and worth the added cost.

The manual also recommends Top Tier fuel.

And, it says "Do not be concerned if the engine sometimes knocks lightly".

I wouldn't change a thing based on your experience.

Also note that you're not going to tow anywhere near 13,200 pounds. You're basically near the edge right now depending on your payload.

 

Yes, you may have read it in the manual. I run top tier mid grade year round, that way I don't need to guess when I might want an added octane boost for better performance and better engine wear.

 

The 3.5 will run with 87, but understand you are asking a lot of it to use that octane while to running moderate levels of boost to pull a sail along with you like that. If you're not going to run a higher octane, don't push hard to get up to speed while entering the highway, or to maintain speed during ascents, and keep your rpm's north of 2500 so the engine is pumping at max efficiency and not relying on boost as much to maintain speed.

Towing on 87 maxes out the VCT, DI and ignition timing system's ability to deal with lower octane fuel, and you're going to be run hotter than you would running a higher octane, so take that into account, you'll want to watch your engine temp during long ascents. The 3.5 eco mostly does a decent job, though, as it also reduces power output by 13% to try to stay within operating limits.

No, I would not tow on 87, and do not recommend, but I keep my vehicles forever and am biased towards taking treating them with white gloves.

 

you realize it uses LESS timing on 87 octane..

 

you realize it uses LESS timing on 87 octane..

_please explain is this good or bad. Sorry if it’s a foolish question

 

if you’ve got an engine that’s got a fuel knock it’s really bad.

since your engine is computer controlled and has a knock sensor in it, it’s kind of “eh.” Neither but both…

Octane is a measurement for resistance to detonation. As the octane increase, the resistance to detonation increases which allows all kinds of fun things to be changed. Increased boost, increased timing (both ignition and fuel), increased compression (kind of hard since it’s a hard mechanical design factor.

so if you run 87 octane, the engine can’t put as much timing or boost to the nuts and you’ll get good performance, but nothing like you could if you’re running 91 octane and the ecm can crank up the timing.

timing is the distance BEFORE a cylinder reaches top dead center that ignition is started so that when the full combustion kicks the cylinder down, it’s had the most time to allow the combustion to get as complete as it can providing all the power it can for fuel economy and power for whatever.

add in a cam phaser to allow changing the camshaft timing for power vs torque…

what we did 30 years ago isn’t squat to what a modern engine can do with computer controls.