I was on a 250 mile trip yesterday, the last 22 miles were off pavement. It was a graded dirt and gravel road with 35MPH speed limit, and last 4 miles were about 10MPH, but no need for 4WD. We hung out at the river for a few hours and on the way back out, the truck started to hesitate while accelerating. I would say between 2k-3k RPM, at 60MPH, there was no power at all. I pulled over and checked for any leaks and didn't find anything. There were no lights on the dash, all temps were good (outside was about 100 degrees F). I started driving again and it went away for about 15 minutes and started up again. Once again I pulled over and turned the truck off and sat for about 2 mins. Started back up with no issues and went for about another 15 minutes when the problem returned. I did the pull over trick again, and restarted, making our way to the hotel. About an hour later we went out for dinner and didn't have any issues.
The only thing I can think of was that I used 87 from a small gas station before heading out to the off pavement portion of the trip. I filled back up with Exxon 91 and had no issues on the trip home this morning. I have read about people having issues with bad gasoline and high outside temps. Has anyone ever nailed this down? Are our motors that temperamental with the octane rating in heat? I never use 91, but decided to give it a try. This is the first time this type of issue has come up.
The only thing I can think of was that I used 87 from a small gas station before heading out to the off pavement portion of the trip. I filled back up with Exxon 91 and had no issues on the trip home this morning. I have read about people having issues with bad gasoline and high outside temps. Has anyone ever nailed this down? Are our motors that temperamental with the octane rating in heat? I never use 91, but decided to give it a try. This is the first time this type of issue has come up.