Octane rating advice

Price difference from 86 (regular) to 90 (premium) is definitely $1 if not more.

Im sure they didn't use premium but then again they weren't force induction V6s either.

@EmergencyMaximum it's a baseball saying for a double play. Each position has a number assignment so in this case a ball hit to the third baseman (5) throws to second base (4) who then throws it to first base (3) and that equals 2 outs.

 

Where did you hear that timing retard causes carbon buildup? Why do you think the ECU needs to “learn” the octane?

 

Ethanol is always bad. If you can get non-ethanol gas, do it.

 

I’ve been pondering whether I’d rather run 93 octane ethanol blend or run the 90 octane pure gas I currently get. The 93 octane is cheaper.

 

87 octane gas causes slight knocking. Not bad enough for you to notice it, but enough for the knock sensor to pick up on. So your ECU retards the timing of the spark to eliminate the knocking.

Your ECU will then start to slightly advance timing, checking for the threshold of when the knocking starts, because it wants to run the running as close to 0 as possible. But this takes a long time because engines will start knocking under different driving conditions at different times. The ECU can quickly retard timing to stop knocking, but going the other way takes time for safety reasons.

That's why it can take a few tanks of 91+ before your ECU gets your timing where it needs to be.

And yes, retarding timing causes carbon buildup, among other issues. You can Google it if you don't believe it.

 

Excessively retarding timing can cause issues, but that’s not what’s happening. Your googling and watching YouTube videos to draw conclusions/provide proof, some things your good on, but others not so much. There is an advantage to recommend 91+ from a tuners perspective, not sure how many customers would be happy with an 87 octane tune that made no more power than stock. Don’t want to debate anything with you, if I may suggest though - dig into the topic of choice if your passionate about it by actually watching and learning what is going on first hand. You will still get naysayers, but then you don’t have to use random googling and YouTube videos as proof, will have your own to properly support your case.

 

I really enjoy when people on the internet I've never met tell me things about myself that they couldn't possibly know.

No wait, that's not quite right.. It's the other thing.. Annoying.

I didn't get my information from Google and YouTube videos. I actually went to a 2 year trade school and worked as a mechanic for a few years. So I do have first hand experience. Not that any of that matters. Facts are facts regardless of who says them or where the information comes from. If you got colon cancer would you only go see a doctor that has colon cancer himself?

And go back and read what that quote from DAP actually says. He didn't say "Run 91 if you have a tune." He said specifically to run high octane fuel whether you have a tune or are completely stock. Because a completely stock Tundra engine is pulling as much as 12 degrees of timing on 87 octane. That is not a good thing, no matter how you look at it.

If you want to run 87 octane, go ahead. Nobody is stopping you. But don't try to convince everybody else that it isn't better to run 91 or 93 just because you don't want to.

 

Whatever the manual says is what I’ll run. The Toy engineers know best.

 

Three rules toyota engineers speak before sending off their creation off the assembly line:

1. You shall run, walk or crawl to your final destination.
2. You shall retard the timing while doing so if necessary.
3. You shall not fail your master

feel free to play interstellar soundtrack as you are reading this.

 

The engine isnt igniting the fuel at the optiminum time whether its 87 or 94 octane. As I said in multiple other posts, these engine would actually need 100+ octane to full maximize timing which is why you see people make such huge gains on E85 in other GTDI platforms. They can take advantage of the 113 octane the E85 provides.

This is completely false. My Ecoboost adjusts to different octanes after a matter of minutes and would be fully adjusted within probably 20 minutes of normal driving and probably 5 minutes of towing. It depends on how hard you are working the engine.

93 will run better. Ethanol is not bad for these turbo engines. Ethanol has a higher heat of vaporization that gasoline and so even if the E0 and E10 gas had the same octane rating, the ethanol evaporating in the cylinder will cool it more. 10% ethanol isnt super meaningful, but its not this devil fuel that should be hated. At least not in these engines. Some engine from the early 2000's that was operating on a lower compression ratio may not like it as much as staright gas.

And what do you think happens on 93 octane? The same exact thing. It still has to hunt for peak timing. 93 doesnt make these engines magically run at MBT. Not even close.

The only time these engines would operate at or near MBT is at very low loads.

 

How come like every single decently well done video I’ve ever watched on YouTube or article I’ve read about this subject all come to the same conclusion that it literally doesn’t matter?
At the end of the day nothing you can get at the pump is enough to make a real difference.

Even before gas prices got insane, you could probably literally save the damn money saved from using 87 to just buy another engine when (if ever) it even becomes an issue in 300,000 miles.

 

To say Toyota only cares to get these vehicles through the warranty is complete bull shit. A company that builds it legacy on reliability doesn’t do it by squeaking by the warranty periods.

I would venture to guess that a large majority of high mileage Tundras rarely ran premium.

Run what you want. I won’t question that premium fuel may possibly be better for the Tundra but I’ll absolutely call BS that 87/89 is going to be such a detriment that your engine can and will probably live a shorter life because of it.

For the record, I tow and have run 85/87/91 and have seen absolutely zero difference in performance in 60,000 miles.

 

Lmao probably like 90% of them are definitely running 87.

 

The only time I could see higher octane fuel making a difference is if you are towing or maybe running high speed freeway(like 75+ mph) for long periods. Then you would probably see a slight advantage with these engines.

Whether or not the difference offsets the cost of fuel is case by case. For me it probably does since its only 10-15 cents more for 91 vs 88 but if its a dollar then probably not.

 

Yep. You think the million mile parts runner was running premium. I highly doubt it.

 

People can piss their money away however they see fit. We all do it.
Just don’t come on here making baseless claims to justify it.

 

Facts don’t matter to some people.

 

I’ve been running 85 octane all week.

 

Your truck will probably be toast next week from all the carbon buildup

 

I find my Lexus GX likes 88 octane more than 91 due to my elevation. It seems to have a little more power and gets slightly better MPG. I have heard people say that their naturally aspirated cars actually ran like crap at high elevation with high octane and I tend to believe that could be true.

 

Once he's back in the basin, he can switch back to the high octane 87 and burn it off.

 

Only with proper drain and fill intervals, it’s not a good idea to do it all at once

 

I prefer all at once and then floor it it blow the carbon out.

 

The ol Italian tuneup, my favorite

 

I thought it was a hi colonic...

 

From what to what? I’ve seen 38 degrees advanced - you’re saying in 91 octane or more I’d see 50+ degrees advanced? I call bullshit.

 

How much is a bottle of octane boost where you are ?

86 and octane boost should be well cheaper than 88 on tap - no?

 

I hope it's at least French toast.

 

At the very least!