darkglass

What kind of fuel do you guys use? ie octane etc. any real differences here? I have the 3.4 engine.

Sonofmayhem

i use regular on both trucks, thats because i dont have a turbo or supercharger, however i remember hearing somewhere the 3.4 needed to run higher than 87. im not sure though.

Elton

good old 87 in all my rigs ive owned

Yota82

I run 89 in my 22RE but only because I run the timing 8* advanced. I also have a 97 4Runner with a 3.4 and 87 works just fine.

MonsterMaxx

my 3VZE runs like crap on anything but premium

az984Runner

I usually fill up with 87 when I'm in town and then use 91 when I'm on a road trip. It seems to help with the mpg.

rdharper

87 on all machines... And I do run the 3VZE advanced a bit. Nothing pings and should not according to the best sources I have.

I take my best source as Bill Wattenberg, one of the smartest guys in the country (really) who flatly states that all modern engines will run fine on regular, and anything else used in a stock engine is a big-time waste of money (and a scam). He states that this is not just an accident, but a legal requirement.

marko3xl3

I run 91 octane on my rig, because it's supercharged. Nuff said.

Paul H.

87 on all three of ours except when I take the runner into the mountains, then I run 89 to stop the pinging.

keithguts

87 runs just fine in all my cars / trucks

trythis

I run 87 unless I am towing. It pings like crazy towing with 87. I think my plugs might need to be gapped, I didnt pay attention when I installed them....duh.... and the plug wires arent toyota, maybe that will help if I replace them.

BAZ

I try to run premium as often as possible, if I dont the 22r-e runs crappy (in comparison) and pings like crazy. I hear that here in AZ we have crappy-ass gas though. Could be a myth?

surf4runner

ive used 87 in the 22re & 3.4 and have tried 89 and 91 and didnt notice any significant differances, esp mileage.

rocket

iTrader: (1)

Corloados regular gas is 85 octane... which i use(d) in my 3.0 (yota), 3.4 (yota), 1.8 (acura), 4.0 (ford), and 1.6 (honda) with no pinging or mpg change.

CJM

Always used 87 regular octane in all my cars except the vette where that high HP V8 needs that super if not 100 octane race gas for fun.

dwh91102

Hey, you tell bill to come take a drive in my tundra, while pulling my 89 toyota on a trailer. Tell me theres not a difference in octane ratings

typical8o8

gas with higher ethanol content supposed give lower MPG but is supposed to be cheaper and save you money in the end. i use 87 octane E10 rated from 76 in my Runner with a 3vze. the gas station i go to costs the same as the others that have no additives so that's why i go to 76. it's done me good so far.

MMA_Alex

22re's, and 3vze's should run on 87 if theyre all working properly and in spec. There are some performance cars that run on higher grades, as well as anything with a supercharger/turbocharger. Anyonw who tells you that their car/truck gets better mileage with premium is crazy unless its knocking, and the knock sensor is retarding the timing. The higher the octane, the lower the btu's. thats just the way it is.

Pure Gasoline has about 125k btu's/gallon while 10% ethanol gas has about 121k btu's/gallon so you will get better gas mileage with the non ethanol stuff, but a lot of the northeast 10% ethanol is all thats available now.

rdharper

Correct. Its a point some people do not get because it is counter-intuitive. That is, the more expensive gasoline has less energy per unit volume than the cheaper gas. Lots of people just love to feel-good about putting the more expensive gasoline as they feel they are taking the best care of their vehicle.

Most of you know that what the higher priced gasoline does is slow down the burn-rate, avoiding pre-detonation, which is a waste of energy.

But I repeat. All modern engines are required to run on regular gas regardless of what some manufacturer's say in the owners manual. This is accomplished by various sensors that determine optimum air/fuel, timing etc. That includes Hondas VTEC's with high compression ratio (>11), for example.

MMA_Alex

yes all engines can run on 87, however some high compression engines are designed to run on higher grades, and when they run on lower grades they tend to knock, and the knock sensor will change the way the computer is running the engine (fuel, timing, etc.). A lot of cars that are designed for higher grades are actually cheaper to run on the higher grades becase of the performance loss.

Also it should be noted that even though there are less btu's in higher octane gas, the higher octane gas can actually create more power in a high compression engine because it runs more efficiently