87 octane vs 93 octane

[Randy Schmidt]

Since May when I bought my 2018 Expedition Max Platinum I have been running 87 octane fuel. Have read from many on this forum that they felt that the perfomance from this 3.5 EB was impressive. I kept my mouth closed because I really like mine and just tried to enjoy my "slow" Expedition...

For the past 3 tanks of fuel, I changed and put in 93 octane. Holly crap! It is a completely different animal. It does actually have some balls. It's no Porsche... But it's not slow anymore.

Pleasantly surprised.

 

[JExpedition07]

Since May when I bought my 2018 Expedition Max Platinum I have been running 87 octane fuel. Have read from many on this forum that they felt that the perfomance from this 3.5 EB was impressive. I kept my mouth closed because I really like mine and just tried to enjoy my "slow" Expedition...

For the past 3 tanks of fuel, I changed and put in 93 octane. Holly crap! It is a completely different animal. It does actually have some balls. It's no Porsche... But it's not slow anymore.

Pleasantly surprised.

Ford rates the power output on premium 91 Octane fuel, so a difference will be noticed. Anything under and power is lost.

 

[Artie]

Ford rates the power output on premium 91 Octane fuel, so a difference will be noticed. Anything under and power is lost.

This and the fact that saving $5 per tank just isn’t worth the loss in performance IMHO.

 

[Randy Schmidt]

This and the fact that saving $5 per tank just isn’t worth the loss in performance IMHO.

Would now have to agree with that. Just was very surprised with the performance difference.

 

[Habbibie]

This and the fact that saving $5 per tank just isn’t worth the loss in performance IMHO.

$5 difference? The difference between 87 & 93 out in the Chicago land area usually is a $1.20 between the two grades... that's a decent $30 paid more per tank

 

[aggiegrad05]

$5 difference? The difference between 87 & 93 out in the Chicago land area usually is a $1.20 between the two grades... that's a decent $30 paid more per tank

It’s about $0.50/gal extra here in Texas. So $14 extra each fill-up over the regular stuff.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[5150 pops]

Gas prices are dropping. Crude oil had also dropped to near $50/barrel recently, not sure where it is now.

I mentioned it before, from everything I could find, there is zero difference between the Platinum and the Limited/XLT engine specs or even the ECU tuning. The difference is solely in the "requirement" of premium fuel in the Platinum pkg to get 400hp., with Ford's OAR built in to their ecu strategies, the so called "requirement" is nothing more than a marketing gimmick, imo.

 

[Artie]

$5 difference? The difference between 87 & 93 out in the Chicago land area usually is a $1.20 between the two grades... that's a decent $30 paid more per tank

Here in Georgia it’s about 10¢ per grade so about 20¢ from 87 to 93. $1.20 sounds outrageous to me. I guess the further away from oil ports and refineries makes a difference idk.

 

[Habbibie]

It's a 10-20 cent here between 87 & 89 octane too but 93 for some reason is an additional $1 spike from 89 octane price, if we had your gas prices out here I would fill up my EcoBoost work truck with 93 everytime.

 

[Mike Wolfe]

FYI
When I took the truck our to nearest pavement for the first 5 mph rolling start WOT run there were 3 passengers in the truck along with me
One weighs 350 lbs
I weigh 255 lbs
The other 2 about 200 lbs each
So that added 1005 lbs to the trucks weight
Truck has 36 gallon tank & was full with E85-Gasoline blend
Still broke tires loose on every shift until about 65 mph
Goes like a bat outta H---
Love it
Well so happy with the E30 5* tune installed on my F150 going to order it for my EXPY as well
E30 produces way more power than 93 octane performance/tow tune from 5*
E85 is $2.4999 here & premium is $3.499
So even though fuel mileage is about 80% of gasoline, it is still lower cost per mile when blending E85 & 91 octane E10
about 65% E85-35% 91 octane E10
Much higher octane than 93 E10
Can easily change back to 93 octane tune if I plan to travel where E85 is not available
With the 5* calibrations there is no need to use manual shifts, trans shifting is vastly improved, so stomp on the go pedal & let the trans do it's thing

 

[NyackRob79]

Yup, turbocharged engines require 93 octane or higher in order to use higher boost levels to prevent knocking. It'll run on 87 but the sensors detect low octane and lower the turbo's compression (resulting in reduced power). Fill her up with 93, and you get the advertised 400hp on the Platinum.

 

[Artie]

Ok,so I got gas today and I’m clearly out of touch. At the particular station I was at there was a 50¢ difference from 87 to 93. So that’s twice what I had thought. That’s roughly $12 per tank.

 

[Habbibie]

I'm gonna start filling up my EcoBoost van with 93 till I hear something about it from my employer, on page 130 in the owners manual it recommends using 91 or higher especially for towing and theres a trailer hooked up to my van 5 days of the week!

 

[rjdelp7]

I believe the Expedition EcoBoost has an 91 octane tune on the PCM. The same as my Mustang GT and Lincoln Intech 32v V8. My owners manual says, use of lower grades, will reduce performance. For the EcoBoost, they just flipped it. Something like...Premium recommended for towing. Using 87 in this engine, will rob power. The 'knock' sensor pulls back timing and enriches the fuel mix. Ford was aware of owners complaints, of having to use premium fuel. It eats up any savings, from the smaller, expensive engine. Using Premium in a Mustang is par for the course. Most Lincoln owners, will not care. On a F150 or Expedition, its an issue.

 

[JohnT]

What happen if you dump some octane booster into 87? or even 91?

Asking for a friend

 

[JohnT]

For the last 5000 km I have been commuting 50 km a day round trip for most of that distance and averaging 14.1 l/100km (16.7 MPG)

Thats 2 cold starts each day, 15 km of highway and 10 km of urban twice a day.

I was getting 13.9 earlier in the year but winter is here and -20 C starts hurt fuel economy but you can take that as a pretty reliable number.

Currently Costco premium, which I believe is ethanol free so factor that in, is 10 cents a litre more expensive and I'm going to run that for a few weeks and see what the difference is. Same commute, same driver probably colder.

I'll post back with the results

 

[5150 pops]

What happen if you dump some octane booster into 87? or even 91?

Asking for a friend

Most of them have lead, even the ones that claim are unleaded have a healthy dose of MMT, that stuff can be a problem to the average Joe, who doesn't find flushing his entire fuel system clean, a task worth endeavoring.

There have been many "tests" posted online of various brands, the near unanimous recurring results are...
They ratio recommended does not raise octane to the projected amount.
It's best to use in small quantities, and completely, as in Dragstrip duty, or Dyno pulls, then go back to not having it present in the tank.

The last thing, is pouring the booster straight into the tank, as most would likely do, is the least favorable method of effectively mixing the booster with the gas in the tank. RaceGas (the actual brand, not aa generic reference) strongly recommends mixing in a portable container, completely, then introduction into the fuel tank, for best results.

 

[rjdelp7]

I add

Most of them have lead, even the ones that claim are unleaded have a healthy dose of MMT, that stuff can be a problem to the average Joe, who doesn't find flushing his entire fuel system clean, a task worth endeavoring.

There have been many "tests" posted online of various brands, the near unanimous recurring results are...
They ratio recommended does not raise octane to the projected amount.
It's best to use in small quantities, and completely, as in Dragstrip duty, or Dyno pulls, then go back to not having it present in the tank.

The last thing, is pouring the booster straight into the tank, as most would likely do, is the least favorable method of effectively mixing the booster with the gas in the tank. RaceGas (the actual brand, not aa generic reference) strongly recommends mixing in a portable container, completely, then introduction into the fuel tank, for best results.

I add a couple ounces of Lucas fuel treatment at each fill up. I buy it by the gallon($25) and it treats 400 gallons. It keep injectors and intake valves clean. It eliminates the need for higher octane(Lucas claim).

 

[JohnT]

I had heard bad things about MMT before particularly with O2 sensors. Ok, so thats a hard no then.



I used to be a fan of Lucas but they seem to have wandered into snake oil territory in recent years. I say that as someone who pured a lot of upper cylinder lubricant into a diesel as per Lucas recommendations until someone pointed out why mechanical diesel pumps survive happily in diesel and grenade in gasoline. I had a bit of a "Doh!" moment.

 

[BillAlex]

I usually fill up at a Costco here in Mesa, AZ and the todays price was $1.58 regular and $1.88 Premium or 30 cents per gallon difference. Mine is only a 5.4L 3V but since I dropped a new ReMan engine, I thought I would up grade the gas to clean out the old injectors and I ran a bottle of Sea Foam through the tank as well. Really does run better on Premium and I have to admit that 30 cents a gallon or about $7.50 for a full tank is worth it to me. I like the performance.