I recently purchased an 04 quad cab Ram 1500 with a Hemi, The previous owner said all he used was regular 87 octane, manual says 87 or 89. What experiences have people had with using the higher octane, if any. Gas is pretty pricey in the Northeast.

 

People ask this question quite a bit and everytime people have different opinions. I use 87, and usually fill with 89 if I know I'll be towing my boat. You won't get rated HP with 87, but in my experience the engine runs fine as the manual states it will.

 

Ive had the best results with the 89. It tends to last a bit longer than the 87 and the truck just performs better. Do your own tests with it, run it on 87 till its empty and hand calculate your mileage and then do the same with the 89. Thats what I did

 

I switched to 89 for several tanks and didn't notice any difference in mileage or performance in any way. Some say they do but I didn't notice anything at all except a bigger price tag at the pump.

 

I just went through 3 tanks of 89 after using 87 for the first couple months. (just bought my 04) I noticed a big difference in mileage. It was worse!! Performance was a bit better but I was shocked that the mileage got worse with 89not better. I went back to 87 & my mileage went up.

Sean

 

Cost wise 87 is the best. Mine is a 04 Quad cab 4x4 hemi and when I use 89 it's only used to pull my boat. If I'm not pulling a load the mileage drops with 89. I bought it new and it now has 17,000 miles on it.

 

93 all day.

 

ditto on this experiment - i switched to 89 for a few tanks and then switched back. No real performance gains, higher price at the pump, and MPG went down on the digital display (not by much, but like by .2) Saw no reason to stay at 89. I agree with another poster too, saying only if towing.

 

This is a miss leading question with miss leading resaults..

First, your driving habits are going to indicate your MPG, not octane.
The best way to decide this is try booth 87 and 89 and decide for your self,

When I use 87 octane, mileage and performance is drasticly down from 89, I tow and drive a lot on the high way, the extra octane helps maintain highway speed when towing, basicly the truck works less do the job.

Rear end gearing and city/higway driving also inicate MPG, not octane, thiers no differance betwean 87 and 89 when I'm driving in the city empty, but I do find performance is better with 89.

If I ran 87 and drive slowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwlyyyyyyyy yyyyyyyyyyyyyy with out towing, MPG is no worse than if I ran 89 and Drive Fast!!!!!!1

Higher octane means cleaner combustion and becaue 89 is recamened by Chrysler I can justafy the extra expense. Runing 92 the truck is a rocket, mileage is worse because I have my foot in it..

 

people that say gas is too expensive and buy a full size truck with a hemi. doesnt make sense to me.

when filling up at a gas station using 89 octane over 87 will cost you 30 cents more for every $20 you put in. so if it cost you $60 to fill up, then using 89 octane you will loose 3/10 of a gallon over 87. my point is 89 is really not that much more. i think that you make up for it with better mpg's. maybe only .5 gain is what i notice but i have a 5.9.