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MPG and Premium Gas

rvitek

Elite Explorer
Joined
March 12, 2002
Messages
652
Reaction score
3
City, State
Wauconda, IL
Year, Model & Trim Level
2001 XLT 5.0
Why is it whenever I run premium gas, I get terrible terrible terrible gas mileage?

I did a 250mi run this weekend, and I thought I'd have the Apten chip in so I was all filled up with premium. On the way there, my average speed = 59mph and I only received a MPG = 14.99.

On the way home, my average speed = 63mph and I received a MPG = 17.20.

I can't think of anything other than the premium was from the Chicago area, and the regular on the return trip was from south east Iowa.

Any ideas?
 



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Yeah, your stock engine is designed to run on regular.
 






Yea I know that all the octane might not fully burn off, but that shouldn't kill the MPG...
 






That extra octane is whats killing your gas mileage, your engines tuned for regular so by running premium w/o a chip your basically choking it b/c it not it tune right now to burn premium. Throw that chip in and you'll see it increase.

My friend did the same thing with his mustang, put premium before he had his chip installed, and his mileage dropped to 13-14mpg driving the same way. Put the chip in and it was back to 17-20 mpg in the city.
 






The gas isn't burning completely and efficiently. It's probably not burning at the correct point in the engine cycle, producing sub-optimum power and efficiency.
 






When I got my alignment my I got a 5 MPG increase. But you said it was good one way and not the other so that cant be it.
 






Originally posted by 98FordX24
When I got my alignment my I got a 5 MPG increase.

that may be possible... maybe your tires were low on air and maybe they were out of alignment enough to make the tire contact the road oddly enough to produce more friction than it is supposed too
 






I have been running Mobile Premium 93 octane for the last two weeks ( in antipication of my Apton chip ) and I have noticed no difference in gas mileage with the 93.

The only difference that I noticed was the PRICE.
 






in my old 1996 ohv v6 x, i used to use premium sometimes for a while, and then regular, but i thought i got better mpg wtih the premium. not exactly sure, but ive been putting in only $5 at a time of regular hoping for my arrival of the apten chip.
 






maybe cause Iowa has ethanol :)
 






ethanol will reduce mpg, maybe that has something to do with it?
 






I have a '93, and when I use Premium I get about 2-3mpg better. I always fill up (Gas guage is broke) and figure my mileage each time. I am not using a chip or engine mods. Also I notice I get the best milage on Exxon so far.
Mark
 






when i use premium on my basically stocker, it seems to last longer..... but then i look at the mileage i put on, and its the same as the cheap gas per fillup....
 






what do u mean last longer?
 






This might be a stupid question but were you going uphill one way and downhill the other?

I asked this question because i live in Rhode Island and i routinely drive up to Vermont and N.H to ski. Not exactly sure how many miles it is but its about 3 hours away going up hills the whole way and i usually waste more gas going up there than i do coming back since is completly downhill the whole way.
 






Iowa had better gas! :D
 






Interesting comments!

I thought about the ethanol question and thought exactly like Alec did, but... I just hit 310 miles on my tank and I never hit that, only when I fill up from Iowa. When I filled up tonight, I noticed, no 'ethanol added' signs like in Iowa. I wonder Alec, maybe it does help?

As for the uphill / downhill question.

Chicago altitude = avg 800fasl
Iowa altitude = avg 500fasl

... so, I would be driving downhill to Iowa, and uphill to Chicago ...

What about this?

Would East to West and West to East have anything to do with it? The wind was basically the same on both trips, but I was traveling in opposite directions.

Thoughts?
 






91, 92 and 94 Octane

We have quite a few types of gas in town to choose from, the Petro-Canada 91 Octane Super-Clean, the Esso 92, the Shell 92, the Pioneer 93 and the Sunoco 94 Octane beastly stuff with Ethanol. I've run 91 or above in my EX since day one, the odd time I've run regular she just doesn't seem the same, the Petro-Canada stuff has a fuel system treatment put in it, and thats what I run the most, the Esso seems to last the longest but the truck feels like it pulls stronger with the Petro Canada stuff, also, I got 0.0002 on my emissions test, which is insanely good, the mechanic was freaked out considering it had 205,000Km on it. Mine is a '97 OHV with Bosch +4's and she runs insanely clean, you could eat off the end of my tail pipe and its the original one. Could it just be the fact that I've run the stuff from day-one and its used to it???
 






I know a lot of people do not like ethanol. I on the other hand use ethanol exclusively and have NEVER had any fuel/drivability problems with any of my vehicles, both foreign and domestic, that was blamed on ethanol. Have used it for over 15 years.

This is including my current Explorer. Seems my Explorer likes ethanol better that regular gas without it. I found this out by accident, my regular station I go to all of the time was out of ethanol, so I filled with regular gas. Ran kinda crappy, not REAL noticiable to my friends, but I noticed it. You know your own vehicle.

I used up all of the regular gas and re-fueled with ethanol, and my baby smoothed out again. Could it be that since new, that is all I have run in it, and it is use to ethanol? ( And no my X is not drug addicted to ethanol) :)
 



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Originally posted by VOATMJ1
Could it be that since new, that is all I have run in it, and it is use to ethanol? ( And no my X is not drug addicted to ethanol) :)
Yes, the computer is constantly monitoring the emissions of the exhaust and adjusting fuel/air mixture etc to improve performance. When you switch fuel, it would need to go through a learning process for awhile to adjust to the properties of the regular gas. I think it would eventually adjust and run fine. My X manual says to take off the battery cable and reconnect to make the computer start the learning process again.

My '02 X manual says to run regular gasoline but not premium since it was designed for the lower octane. Thats a bonus, since I usually always use a higher octane in my vehicles, but hey, I'm not going to argue with the designers if I save money too. My friend has a Jetta, and it requires ONLY premium and won't run right on anything else. It's a turbo charged 4 cylinder.
 






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