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2005 Escalade Fuel Question.

10K views 16 replies 8 participants last post by  caprice man 76 
#1 ·
Hi guys, just wondering does it REQUIRE premium fuel? Whats the difference if I put mid grade or regular? I've always put premium in it. Im just a college guy trying to save some extra money the gas I've been putting in is shell @ $4.01 for premium. Also whats the best gas station to go to? Chevron, Shell, 7 Eleven, off brands like sinclair for example, does it alll matter? Respond ASAp please, before I fill this baby up again.
 
#3 ·
I always fill up with Premium as the engine was designed and tested with Premium fuel. Do you have to?, not sure, but the manual says to only use premium. I buy my gas at Costco. Download the gasbuddy app. It will let you know the price of gas at stations near you so that way you know where to get gas at the best price. Where I live, I have 2 costcos equal distance from me, but they always have different prices on gas, so I check the gasbuddy app to see which is less expensive and I go to that station.
 
#7 · (Edited)
There are two types of fuel determinations. "Premium Required" and "Premium Recommended". My BMW requires premium or the engine can be damaged. Typically this exists in high performance/high demand engines where the compression ratio and cam profiles call for a higher octane fuel to avoid preignition (also known as pinging or detonation) which can jackhammer your engine. I always run premium in the Bimmer. Premium required usually warns you that engine damage can occur otherwise.

AFAIK the Escalade is premium recommended. This designation means just that. The engine is designed to run on premium fuel. You "can" run lower octane supposedly without pinging because the knock sensors are designed to cut power and retard ignition timing to prevent it. I just pay the couple bucks extra and go with the premium which is recommended.

By the way, you gain absolutely nothing by running premium fuel in a low performance vehicle that was not designed for it. I grew up hearing stories about people who would take their car and fill it up at the local small airport with "Av Gas" (aviation fuel) and how the car would "run like a raped ape" on this super fuel. Total B.S. These tall tales involved cars built in the mid seventies to early eighties that had no compression and a ton of newly implemented smog equipment for emissions bogging them down. These are the days when a 1977 Corvette with the "high performance" L82 350 with a 4bbl carb put out a whopping 210 horsepower. The even more pathetic L48 350 4bbl only put out 180 horsepower.

Unless you are building a race engine with really high compression (11:1 - 15:1) and jam your total ignition advance to 38 or 40 degrees or higher, you can not take advantage of race fuel like B33. Modern vehicles have compression ratios and computerized ignition systems designed to use 87 to 92 octane unleaded fuels. We have hardened valve seats in our cylinder heads to allow for unleaded fuel and catalytic converters.
 
#13 ·
Also take into account your driving style.

All my vehicles with the exception of the Escalade show, 'Premium Required' I run midgrade 89 in all of the except the Corvette where I get my best fuel economy. I don't drive my vehicles like race cars and unless I plan on towing I don't plan on running premium in them.

Even my supercharged V gets about 2mpg better on 89 than 93 octane. It accelerates just fine on 89 but most of my running is at 70mph for close to 100 miles each day. I'll fill it with Premium once a month and flog it a bit to keep the insides clean, then it's back to midgrade for a month of my daily highway commute.

Try midgrade, and even regular unleaded if you think your driving style will be compatible. I drive my Escalade pretty tamely and 87 got me about 2-3 mpg less than 89, making the cost of running 87 more than 89. Coincidentally 93 got me the same economy as 87 for my tame driving style.
 
#10 ·
you are 100 percent right when i first bought my escalade i traded in a 07 yukon with 5.3 when i got the escalade home i read the manual and i must looked at 5.3 just out of habit but you are correct and by the way my nine yr old daughter is always reminding it's an escalade dad .i say yukon it's only been 3 months.so my bad.
 
#14 ·
I will agree with wake as my cordoba calls for mid grade fuel but will run on premium fuel

Now if I were to run regular fuel in the car forget it as it gums up the carb like crazy I think when I get it finished I will run a mix of regular and premium fuel to keep it at its peak(runs flawless on premium though)
 
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