Does premium gas make a big difference over regular?

[EFI]

can too much octane make less power because the fuel isn't been completely burnt?

Octane has nothing to do with how much of the fuel is burnt or not.

Octane is purely the fuel's ability to resist knock, not how much it burns. So 87 octane will burn just as much as 100 octane in a single power stroke if everything else is the same (fuel type, amount etc).

The only time this would become an issue as you suggested is if the octane is so high that not even a spark plug can ignite it, but I have not heard of such a fuel especially available to consumers.

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[BlackEB2019]

Sorry, I meant if you run too much octane in your engine, you can lose power because the burn is too slow. At least that's what I read when I researched octane boosters.

 

[EFI]

Sorry, I meant if you run too much octane in your engine, you can lose power because the burn is too slow. At least that's what I read when I researched octane boosters.

Eventually yes, you would when you get to an extreme situation.

But not in the general sense with these engines and limited octane available. If you were running a stock low compression NA engine with 116 octane maybe. But the coyotes are pretty high compression and octane booster is not going to get you that high of octane where it becomes detrimental to engine power.

 

[TexasRebel]

It depends on how you define "efficient."

efficiency = energy out / energy in There is no other definition, but this gets you a percentage that isn't an obvious indicator as to its meaning. I could tell you that your car is about 2% efficient... but that sounds really really bad and the implications aren't obvious.

In the case of fuel mileage in a vehicle, the "energy in" is a product of the volume of fuel used and energy density. Fuel has a known energy content (ft-lb/gal). The "power out" part is a product of the average weight of your vehicle and the distance it's covered; in other words ton-miles or ft-lb.

Since we want some kind of unit that makes sense to hear (ton-miles per ft-lb and xx-percent doesn't really resonate with too many people) and has a decent precision (light years per ounce would always be rounded to 0.0) you find a good way to express efficiency... ton-miles per gallon.

Since the average weight of your vehicle stays relatively the same you don't even have to normalize for the weight... freight companies do care about that part though. A train could get 7 miles per gallon one trip and 4 miles per gallon on the next, but both trips could be 150 ton-miles/gal.

Incidentally, the conversion factor between miles per gallon and lunar distances per foot-acre is around 1.4

 

[tcman54]

Filled up today with 93 octane instead of 87, car seemed more powerful and smoother, could just be me wishing it though, lol.

Here in the Daytona Beach area 93 was a $1.00 a gallon more than 87 awhile back but now the difference is only about 60 cents, I feel better about that.

Some people on this thread have stated that the cars engine program is limited to 121mph because of the radiator, so question..

Excuse my ignorance but is the intercooler the same thing as the radiator?, I do have a upgraded intercooler.

If the intercooler is the same as the radiator, then along with my 168mph speed rated tires I should be good to go with a tune to unlock the limiter and reach 148mph, correct?

Thanks
Terry

 

[IPOGT]

Why not just strap a solid fuel rocket engine to the roof of the car and throw it in neutral. LOL. Then you can tell us what the speedometer goes up to.

 

[NoVaGT]

Excuse my ignorance but is the intercooler the same thing as the radiator?, I do have a upgraded intercooler.

Two different things.

The radiator is a heat extractor for the engine's coolant. The inter-cooler is a heat-extractor for the engine's incoming air/atmosphere.

Your radiator doesn't effect top speed.

 

[FruityJudy]

Two different things.

The radiator is a heat extractor for the engine's coolant. The inter-cooler is a heat-extractor for the engine's incoming air/atmosphere.

Your radiator doesn't effect top speed.

His radiator doesnt effect top speed from an aerodynamic stand point but another member suggested it is the reason his car is governed at 126 or whatever mph due to insufficient cooling after that speed from engine load to maintain the higher speeds

 

[NoVaGT]

His radiator doesnt effect top speed from an aerodynamic stand point but another member suggested it is the reason his car is governed at 126 or whatever mph due to insufficient cooling after that speed from engine load to maintain the higher speeds

Speed limiters are due to tire ratings, AFAIK.

If you have concrete Ford based information concerning top speed limiters and radiators please share it.

 

[Andy13186]

If you dont use premium gas you are a stone cold retard and should be driving an insight.

 

[Bikeman315]

Speed limiters are due to tire ratings, AFAIK.

If you have concrete Ford based information concerning top speed limiters and radiators please share it.

As noted in an earlier post, directly from the horses mouth.....
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...-can-t-wait-for-people-to-drive-it-74692.html

 

[Bikeman315]

If you dont use premium gas you are a stone cold retard and should be driving an insight.

Having a bad day?

 

[Qcman17]

I usually run 94 in my GT. I've also run 91 on occasion. Does anyone know what actual difference in power the 3 points would mean power wise on a stock GT? I just wonder if I'm wasting money on the 94 octane. My old Camaro SS was tuned to run on 94 and I could feel that compared to the 91 tune on it in my butt dyno. On the other hand its only about $2.50 more per tankful or so for the 94 over the 91 octane........

 

[ALLSTOCK]

please run premium in your 5.0s

 

[Deleted member 35644]

Octane does not equal power, UNLESS your engine is tuned to require higher octane. Putting 94 in an engine tuned to run 94 will put out less power if you dump in 91, due to the knock sensor having to intervene when a knock event takes place.

If your GT isn't tuned, you will experience maximum performance your car is capable of while running octane as low as 91, due to the knock sensor just being along for the ride, never having to cut power. The octane itself is not producing more power.

Make sense?

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