I own a 2001 4x4 Dodge Ram 1500

It has a 360 5.9L V8

I know since its a V8 I should be using premium fuel, but most of the time I just use regular unleaded since gas is so expensive. Is this hurting my vehicle, and would premium fuel effect the performance of the vehicle?

 

just because it is a V8 doesnt mean you need premium fuel.....I use 89 on my 05 Hemi. You should be fine with the same.

 

Depends. If you wanna race, use a higher octane. Otherwise regular is fine. That's why they call it regular.

 

87 is fine

 

Is it smart to run a higher octane tank through the truck every once in a while? Or run some kind of octane booster? I have the 4.7 and only run 87 octane through it. 15,100 miles on it and average 13-14 mpg.

 

I wouldn't worry about putting in fuel additives. I've known people to run 87 octane on a variety of vehicles without any problems. I run wih 89 octane personnally because that's what the owner's manual recommends. However it also states that 87 is ok unless you have a knocking sound coming from the engine. I have an 89 Dodge Shadow with just over 173000 miles on it and never used anything but 87 octane and no additives.

 

"Back in the day" there was not as many fuel additives and part of a higher octane included extra fuel additives. Now days, there is plenty of fuel additives to keep hard gas varnish from forming and all of the 'bad' things that can happen as long as it doesn't sit thier for eons. Some claim that abc brand is better than xyz. I personally try to stay with a reputable name that has good business. Never had a problem with any gas that has gone into any of my gasoline motors from any gas station. YMMV.

Normally I just run a bottle of generic fuel treatment at every oil change for extra piece of mind, even though it is probably not going to help anything. Regular maintainence is what pays a bigger dividend here.