Premium Fuel or Regular

[CanyonFisherSummitSeeker]

While the knock sensors can adjust the skew, you don't NEED to run these higher octanes. The engine is built expecting 87, and i honestly just like to keep it vanilla. If you flash an ECU tune that expects 91, then sure.

If this was true wouldn’t the manual would say 87 only and not 87 minimum?

Sponsored

 

[cswitz]

this will be unpopular, but you don't just "use better gas" if the engine is tuned to run 87, which these are. the octane rating only determines the pressure required to detonate, so if an egine expecting 87 gets 91 put in it, it's not "better because it costs more", it expects a certain pressure to combust, and you're skewing that value.

Youtube is great! I agree with you (and the ChrisFix video), except dyno shows these engines produce more power on 91 than 87. 91 isn't inherently better quality than 87, these engines just run a little better on it, according to dyno testing. The ECU can compensate for either one. You can have higher quality or lower quality 87, that's the intention behind Top Tier gas qualification with the additives. That's also mentioned in the manual and in your video. I agree these engines run fine on 87, you're just leaving power and efficiency on the table. Whether that's worth it for the cheaper cost per gallon, only you can decide, and I think that was probably the question for this thread. Sometimes the cost per gallon difference is pretty extreme at the pump.

I drive a lot of mountain passes a little faster than I should with the turbo spooled up for long periods of time sucking gas, and for me personally, I think premium is worth it. But that absolutely does not mean everyone agrees or it's worth it for everyone. If you don't use the whole gas pedal you probably would feel less benefit. In Colorado my options are 85, 87, or 91. I ran 85 in my 3rd gen for tens of thousands of miles just fine at altitude. The idea behind 85 at altitude is that there's less oxygen in the air to combust, which impacts timing, and 85 burns easier than 87. Except these newer trucks have turbos to compensate for that already and shove more air in. My 24 is a rocket ship compared to my 19 over the same mountain passes. At 10k+ feet going uphill the newer truck feels like it easily has double the power over the old one.