Simple Question. Do the Ecoboost motors require Super unleaded or are they engineered for regular unleaded gas?

 

Regular unleaded, unless heavy towing, then premium recommended.

 

Thanks. My F-250 HD may be on to a new owner.

 

Please see attachment...from Owner's Manual.



biz

 

Yes, so 87 works just fine. No need to waste your money unless you are on the extreme end of the use spectrum.

 

I had breakfast with a friend today who was just back from a trip to Arizona/New Mexico. He said that regular fuel there was posted as 86 octane. Is this a difference of measurement technique, or do they actually use a lower octane fuel there?

 

See the pic post from Biz4Two. Higher elevations sometimes sell lower octane

 

They do but you'll be ok since the oxygen content is lower as long as you don't drive like a maniac. I run it in mine when I go to Colorado but I drive pretty conservative.

 

Yes, actually sell lower octane rated fuel. Here in most of NM the fuel octane levels at the pump are:

86 = low
88 = Mid
90 or 91 = High

It appears FORD does not recommend a lower octane than 87, therefore in NM and other areas that sell the 86, it would be better to use the mid 88. IMHO.


biz

 

Curious on the part in the manual that recommends higher octane for hot weather. Has anyone tried a switch in those conditions and noticed a difference? It'll hover right around 100 for a couple of months in the Summer where I live, but I don't do many long drives at home where I might notice a difference.

On my break-in road trip last August, I spent six or so hours in ~110-115 degrees driving through Nevada and Southern Utah. I didn't notice any performance issues with my 2.7 (in fact I kept getting more and more impressed with it), but of course the truck was still new so I had no baseline.

Maybe when I take that same trip next Summer if I remember I'll put a tankful of premium in and see if I notice anything.

Tangent - is the engine recognizing the change in octane and adjusting performance, or is it just performing better with the higher octane gasoline?

 

Nearly all modern engines do this. They use adaptive ignition timing that uses feedback from the knock sensor to adjust for conditions. This way they are running as efficiently as possible riding that hairy edge of preignition. Premium fuel means the PCM can advance the timing more without knock, which results in a bit more power. You can see this by hooking up a scan tool that reads ignition timing...you'll notice greater timing advance under most conditions with higher octane fuel.

That being said, I've never felt much of a seat-of-the-pants difference. My '13 EcoBoost truck pulled in the OH meet a few years ago on 87 octane gas. Wide-open throttle for nearly a minute while dragging 15,000 lbs up the steepest hill we could find. Coolant temps peaked over 240 degrees, and the engine never missed a beat. I don't spend the money on premium fuel, it's not worth it to me...my truck already has far greater performance than I need.

 

That's a horrible attitude!

 

Question - will the cylinder run hotter with premium fuel? I'm not a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination, but if it runs hotter could that be better for something like carbon build-up? Just throwing ideas out for discussion...

I ran 3-4 tanks of premium last summer. Didn't see any differences (average of 10 twenty-mile commutes) in MPGs, power or throttle response. I've got a mixed tank right now and decided to switch over for a few months just to see if a long term switch is noticable. Not sure I have enough info for comparison, but fuel is cheap right now...

 

Winter fuel blends suck, I can already see an MPG difference after just one tank.

 

Don't know, it's hard to find much information on this. Here's an interesting tidbit from an article in Road and Track:

Premium Gasoline ? What Does Premium Fuel Do for Your Car?

I have yet to read of the EcoBoost-powered F150 with carbon issues, and there are some now with over 300,000 miles with nary an issue. Why's everyone so worried about carbon anyway?