Ford Performance tune gas mileage impact?

[Black_Stallion13]

I wonder after the tune if the vehicle will still be able to detect 93 or 87 gas and revert back to lower power if you use 87. I like how the factory tune let's you choose between higher and lower octane. I was thinking about doing the FP tune, then yesterday needed to get gas while towing my SxS in the middle of nowhere. Gas station only had 87... This actually happens to me quite a bit and has me leaning toward no tune if 87 is totally off the table with it.

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[Yeti-X]

In most cases there are selectable maps so you can adjust for the type of fuel you put in and as stated before if you clean up the factory maps it doesnt necessarily require running high octane fuel

 

[Gotdesl]

Okay, so it's repeatable... I didn't respond yesterday as I wasn't positive that it wasn't a fluke. I spent the day running up the highway to Meeker, spending the day offroad, and then running back to Rifle. I drove 152 miles and the trip computer had me at 22.6 mpg. Hard calculated it comes out to 21.08 mpg using 7.212 gallons of fuel. Today, I was able to pretty closely repeat those results. Prior to the tune, my trip computer religiously peaked at 18.7 mpg with real world being somewhat less. These results are not from driving it gingerly. In fact, I'm still in the honeymoon phase with the new found power and offroad in 4wd is notorious for killing mileage. Best guess on how this is happening... I spend less time in the turbo. The engine produces noticeably more power at a lower rpm and I'm not having to wind it out to get or keep moving. This is my experience to try and help answer your question. Hopefully, others will chime in with their experiences to get more of a clear picture.

2 door, Badlands, Lux, optional wheels, and a 7 speed as far as configuration (also, running 91 octane between 5,600' and 8,500' ASL)

 

[The Bronze]

I wonder after the tune if the vehicle will still be able to detect 93 or 87 gas and revert back to lower power if you use 87. I like how the factory tune let's you choose between higher and lower octane. I was thinking about doing the FP tune, then yesterday needed to get gas while towing my SxS in the middle of nowhere. Gas station only had 87... This actually happens to me quite a bit and has me leaning toward no tune if 87 is totally off the table with it.

It still detects Octane Adjust Ratio (OAR) the same as any tune. The problem with OAR is while it can quickly detect knock and decrease timing, it is rather slow to update the OAR value that allows it increase the timing back up to the good stuff. Not terribly long, but I would be gentle with it when octane going into the tank is lower. I have put 85 octane into my Bronco on my highway runs and the OAR was -.4, which is pretty darned good for such low octane. Altitude (even with a turbo) and BARO usually result in less cylinder pressure and thus can run less octane and more timing. Here is a link to help:

https://dizzytuning.com/blogs/technical-documents/what-is-oar

 

[Lex_310]

Wondering if there are any details anywhere on how mpgs are affected with the Ford Performance tunes (I have a 2.3). If mpgs go down much at all I'm not interested as the non sas 2.3 gets pretty good mileage in my experience so far. If mpgs are maintained tho, I deff want to get it done ASAP!

guess im going to follow this thread in hopes of more people responding to it with real world experiences rather than theories. Anyone else with a 2.3 Performance tune seen gains/losses with MPG?

 

[GI_Jo_Nathan]

Mine (2.3 7MT) seems to run about 1 more mpg than before on average. 21.5 mpg vs the 20.5 that I averaged before. This is mostly around town, and I'm in boost a good bit. I have only run 93 since new.

Could be coincidental, but it definitely hasn't lost any. And I could care less either way, as it's much nicer to drive. Especially with the revmatching.

 

[BigBendBW]

I’ve had the time in my Basesquatch since November and it’s actually been gaining on mileage, I’m at 18.2 MPG since I picked it up and have only run 93 with the tune. I got the time for better performance, the improvement to shift points and turning off the auto start stop. It has been well worth it and I didn’t do it yo improve MPGs but seems to be a byproduct to some degree.

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