Fuel octane?

The hell am I reading here??? This is a 3.0 lol. The reason you run high octane is to prevent detonation, knocking etc. This is specific to high output engines required for that octane, far from 3.0 ecoboost. OR, guys that have tuned their rides which would be required in order for the tune to run efficiently.

My experience with ethanol, is that it needs to be sampled ALL the time in order to be effective. I've got a Shelby GT350R that I was running this through. It's highly corrosive and water soluble. For daily driving 3.0's sure why not, it's when it sits is the problem

Good to see this octane conversation is still alive and kicking.

For anyone who may be reviewing this thread looking for advice on long-term effects of using 87 octane in one of these vehicles: for reference, when I made the post I quoted above in Feb 2021, I was at around 25,000km or so on the clock. Since then I did as I promised, August 2021 I filled up on a tank of 91 (best in my area) when I had to tow a 3700lb camper. In times when I had the trailer off during that expedition, very little noticeable difference in driving performance between 87 and 91. Since that trip of around 500km or so, 87 octane ever since.

Today parked in my driveway with 134,500km on the clock. Zero engine issues to date, runs just fine. Probably a good 80-85% of that is highway driving. Still gets up and goes like snot when I need to fly down an onramp or pass some slow fucker on the highway. No rods through the block, no pistons through the head, no unusual noises, no explosions except the ones that are supposed to happen.

This is interesting. Around 8:50, this Ford engineer just said about 5% loss. Even at 10%, it is still 360hp.

Thanks
The 1st guy is an obvious a gear head. Plus
He was holding back a bit..trying to contain his , let's go racing bug, awesome
It's god hearing real people that are involved do pretty honest talks. He was clearly excited about his project

I filled up 2 times now back to back with 92/93
For me it moved mpg up almost 1

People pay good money to gain 5-10%, and fuel economy is a little better... it tells me it makes no sense to go low octane.

ps, sales people not filling with 93 are shorting themselves on sales

I know it's always tempting to believe certain things, but getting better gas mileage on a modern engine is wishful thinking. This is because if you consider some steady-state operation- like cruising down the freeway- you're only at part throttle and likely at 1500 rpm or so. At that airflow rate, an air cleaner, an exhaust or octane won't make a difference.

But what about "tuning" you ask? The only practical way to increase gas mileage by tuning is to run a lean mixture. But, because of the closed-loop fuel control the ECU will just adjust itself back to stoichiometric. And no reputable tuner is going to do something to mess with emissions and get a visit from the EPA. Another option would be to lower pumping losses by using the variable valve timing to optimize the EGR. Of course, this assumes that the existing programming is sub-optimal and given the impact of fleet fuel numbers, I doubt Ford screwed that up.

I woukd agree somewhat
My experience was two long legs at 75
Even though the speed was pretty much dead on, I still had to slow a few times from slower traffic until passing lane was available,
Also this toll road is far from flat, nor absent of wind from different directions and especially so as large trucks pass you in oncoming lane... it is a 2 lane toll road, yes I know how dumb. It has several cut out of passing lanes, if vehicle in front is at 70 and speed limit is 75, in mile passing lane you still can blow through 80 in gnats eye. My experience simply was vehicle was imo more easily doing taking over with less go pedal applied, thus a slight gain in fuel burned.
It also on the long climbs and headwinds, Didn't down shift as much and was able to stay at 74. 75 without as much effort.
This is another reason a boost and egt gauge should be in at least 2 of the driving modes screens, sport, eco , and towing. Pick 2
If you drive and pay attention to boost and egt, you know immediately fuel is trimmed or your dumping it or your in the middle zone
All of my superduties, I used egt and boost to maximize mpg and such while pulling our heavy rvs. It's not all about mph. Some loads result in middle boost, Low egts at 65 and some at 70, or slower
Most people don't give a crap.
my 40 foot motorhome, 1700 to 1800 rpm with the 8.3 cummins is its sweet spot, this happens to correlate to 65-68 mph, for best fuel burn, egts that are in the 750-900 f range and boost at 20-25 lbs .. since 2009...rock solid 7.5 mpg

But for those of us that like to see differences however small or large based on personal driving habits, it's educational
Just like flying, get to altitude, trim fuel , look at manifold pressure etc and set best rpm,load etc to maximize gains in distance and engine performance
In a car, 0 to speed in a timely fashion burns less than playing turtle at slow to speed
Not wot, just timely

Now about the video
The guy explained the tow ratings change very well
Above 5k your in another zone and truck or expedition or large vehicle is best suited
Yes I agree

Not picking on anyone's observations, but consider that differences in atmospheric pressure, temperature, vehicle mass (more passengers or cargo), grade, and wind velocity can have a big impact on your fuel mileage even over what might appear to be two identical routes. Also, is the cruise on at the same time, did you pass more vehicles, etc? In general F=MA, so your fuel mileage is "F". Acceleration and Mass are the multiplicands, so the faster you wish to achieve a certain speed, the more. fuel it will take to do so.

oh i agree, the variables are constant and never the same both ways, but for me the additional small boost in mpgs was noticeable
i am happy i am finally breaking higher than 19.5 at real highway speeds
not sure how folks are getting 22 plus at 75???

i took a trip to Florida back in 2022 with the family. All 6 of us in the ST along with luggage, etc. On the trip there and back, I measured at every fill up and also with the ST's gas mileage. Over the course of about 1500 miles I averaged 25mpg (hand measured) while the ST posted ~26mpg. I believe I had a post at the time in which I said I thought my ST was a bit optimistic, but who knows- it's not like I could absolutely guarantee I filled the tank to the exact same level every time.

I don't understand how you think that highway driving, and limited piston use is the de facto reason why gas mileage does not increase with high octane/tuning.

Let me make it simple.
Hybrids function during initial take-off from stops because that is when vehicles are less efficient, right?
Specifically, defeating inertial issues and ignition timing.

High octane fuel doesn't directly change how your engine runs. What it does do is protect against pre-detonation or "knock" when conditions are unfavorable; high intake temps (duh, shitty OEM intercooler tries to help, but turbos make HOT AIR), lean fuel conditions, etc.

So how does higher octane help?
You can run "any fuel you want" because the ECU thinks for the driver.
When the knock sensor detects pre-detonation that is imperceptible to humans, it automatically takes measures to make the engine perform in a way that brings the variables back into acceptable range - things like retarding timing, etc.

Here's the thing. Even if running higher octane did not "increase fuel mileage" (My experience with tuned vehicles is that I have), if you just break even on fuel mileage, but have all the power the vehicle can make available and safer for you to use, why would you not spend an extra $.10/gal?

People act like they go into the poor house buying top-grade fuel and that "there are no perceptible benefits" - that's a load of crap.
The hundreds you spend to get the horsepower they mention you lose in this article makes you look foolish. (And you are)

yes for me, filling the 19 hmm gallon tank with 93 or 92 is not going to kill me,
i am all about the comfort and feeding of the drivetrain.
but at same time, its nice to beat 19 at 75

$.10 ?

Haha. It's like $.75-.85 between 87 and 93 here in FL when I fill up my F150 with 93.

That is the most outrageous gap I've ever heard of.
I live in CA and never seen a gap like that. Thanks DeSantis!

I would, of course, forgive the use of 89 in such terrible conditions. (I imagine 91 is a big jump too)

91 is hard to find, but it is about the same at Wawa as 93 is at Costco

And people say CA is bad... this is some sad sh**.
(At least you can buy 93, but still)
I hope other things in the state are good.

At brookshires grocery stores here we can get 93,
ExxonMobil has 92
The marina store you can get 92 non ethanol..it's pricey.
93 was 3.14 here after my 20 cents off per gallon. Normally I get 50 cents, but this month we didn't buy many groceries???

Here in MD, the jump to 93 is like 60-70 cents more. I wish it were closer to 50 cent difference but I don’t drive a ton fortunately.

I’ll be taking a trip to Florida this coming week. Was tempted to flash my FP tune back to stock for 87 use but now that I’ve used 91/93 so much, I hate the idea of reducing my performance. I’ll just eat the cost and maybe the gap between regular and premium will be less severe in other states.

I'm sad to hear 93 is so costly in some states.
However, $3.14? I'll pay that ALL DAY. That's a piece of ... Pi.

Even in PA when I drove through, it was $5.34.

With regard to fuel, my personal first rule of thumb is to always use Top Tier fuel in any vehicle I own, high-performance or otherwise, and regardless of any incremental cost because, well, yeah, it makes for a "happier (very subjective)" and cleaner (not so subjective) engine, even if I don't notice it. My second rule of thumb is to always use the highest grade Top Tier fuel available as recommended by the people who designed and built my vehicle (aka engineers), which is typically 91/93 in my part of the country. Thus far, over the past twenty years or so, those two rules of thumb have served me pretty well, including with my current ST.