I recently purchased an 89 Toyota 4x4 pickup with the 22RE engine. It ran great when I bought it, but it started "ticking" after a few hundred miles, and now the noise is getting louder. I've been running E10 fuel and a friend told me that you aren't supposed to run ethanol in these engines. Is there any truth to this, or is it complete hogwash?

The truck has only 95K miles on it so I wonder what this "ticking" noise is. Any help is appreciated.

 

so your runing race fuel in it .....that ticking sound has been beat to death search and you will find your answers

 

You know what else has been beat to death? Telling people that have troubles that the topic has been beat to death! I did do a search, and I found ZERO posts that point to the use of ethanol as a culprit. While a few of the members do mention that they only use 87 octane, they don't specifically say anything about ethanol causing any knocking, pinging or ticking.

Also, E10 fuel is a blend of 90% gasoline and 10% ethanol. Last I checked, it's at every fuel station this side of the Rocky Mountains which tends to make one think it's not racing fuel.

But yeah, thanks for the help.

 

i was just talking about the ticking noise ...i know noting about using ethanol

 

Depends on the tick to be honest with you. When do you notice it most? Your valves may need to be adjusted,

 

these engines would probably run on kerosene if you had enough spark power. ethanol won't hurt the engine, the only parts to worry about would probably be rubber fuel lines and injector o-rings, as alcohol tends to eat them.

 

Hmmm, I always thought higher octane gas was easier to ignite and you need colder plugs to control the burn.

Anyways, E10 won't harm your engine that quickly. I doubt it'll harm it much at all. The name misleads many people because it reminds them of E70, the popular new ethanol idea that's being thrown around. I know some station around my area always have a 10% Ethanol/90% Gasoline blend and I have used it with no troubles whatsoever. If you read in your manual, it'll actually talk about using ethanol mixed gasoline and I think the limit is like 15% or 20%.

So the tick is something else, either injectors, valves or something else. For that, all the topics that you searched and found will apply to you.

 

Thanks for the replies fellas.

In my original post, I failed to mention that I had also experienced significant power loss along with the ticking noise. I had trouble getting up some hills and my truck felt really sluggish.

Since my original post, I filled the tank with 87 octane fuel and drove my nightly 156 miles. About 20 miles into my drive, the engine seemed to be a tad bit more responsive, and 50 miles into the trip she felt like my old 4runner. The ticking noise is still there, which I will take care of shortly, but the power is back and it's running much smoother. I may have just had some bad fuel, but 4 tanks of E10 from 3 different stations makes me think that wasn't the case. Anyway, I'm relieved that my truck is over the flu, now it's time to address the sinus infection.

 

higher octane gas is actually higher to ignite, that's why it's required on high compression engines. colder plugs are often necessary since they don't "glow" as long as a hotter plug(has nothing to do with how hot the spark is) and cause preignition.

as far as the responsiveness goes, remember that alky has less energy potential than straight gasoline. to take full advantage of alcohol fuel, you need a hot ignition system, higher compression, and a richer fuel mixture.

for the ticking, just give adjusting the valves a shot. toyota recommends adjusting them at least every 36,000 miles on these engines!

 

When I used to live in the Seattle area all the stations would run E10, oxygenated, gas from NOV-APR. I always had to step up to the 89 octane in the chevy I was driving or the 350 would detonate like nothing else. The whole point in E10 is to reduce emissions, but it takes more foot to get where you are going, so does it work?

Adjusting the valves is simple, I would start there.

 

Octane does not burn, It is a retardent but not as the non flamible sort.
Eptain is the hot stuff you can assume a Octane rated lvl of 10 but mostly refined to 25 or higher, Octain can be assumed as 100.
Mixed to a level to get 86 or higher.
Knocks and pings are caused by pre-ignition, fuel to hot, Not cheap fuel, just too sensative to higher compression and spark/advance.
If you dont get Knocks and pings from lower octane, I suggest using it since it has a better snap.
I wrote this in Lamens terms, Please dont correct me for details