What octane fuel do you run in your 1GR-FE?

makes sense, I'm no mechanic, and know very little about diagnosing engine issues. It seems you understand what you're doing, so I'm sure I'm not telling you something you don't already know, but running higher octane fuel to prevent knocking is absolutely a "duct-tape and zip tie" fix. If you're planning on swapping the motor out, I guess it doesn't matter, no use spending extra money on something you're about to replace!

 

Not really. Engine knock can cause serious damage. If there's an injector problem, and higher octane fuel keeps it from knocking, then you can prevent serious engine damage. It could be the difference between pulling a V6 with 5 pistons left in the bores out of the truck vs a V6 with 6 pistons left in the bores.

I really want to drop an LS3 in, but realistically, I'm probably going to have to just live with a refreshed 1GR. Maybe lower compression and a turbo or two.

 

I get what you're saying, but at the end of the day, you're not fixing the underlying problem, which is what I meant by "duct tape and zip tie fix." Didn't mean to say it wasn't accomplishing anything.

there's a thread around somewhere of 1st gen with an LS Swap... its as badass as you'd imagine.

 

Yeah. I've got an alternative if my truck needs to stop being driven, just in case.

I'm stupid and crazy, and I really want a LS3 twin turbo setup, but I'm not sure what I would do about transmission. Automatic is out, so I'd have to find something that's capable of handling stupid torque, while also being reliable enough as a daily... I'll have the dealer check the fuel system, maybe the genuine fix to this is to get an injector cleaner kit and do that. God I hope it's not as difficult to find injectors for the 1GR as it was for my Baja Turbo.

 

It might be worth doing a little more than looking for larger pieces of metal. Perhaps spring for a Blackstone oil analysis on your truck?

 

The first 2 or 3 years of 1GR Tacoma production Toyota actually printed something to this effect in the owners manual.....I'm paraphrasing some:

"Minimum octane rating of 87. But for increased performance, use 91 octane of higher"

 

You know, you just got my brain going...

I should have the dealer test my knock sensor. I'm willing to bet it's either faulty, or it's not mounted correctly.

I also recall seeing something to that effect in my user's manual. Would make sense.

 

By '08 or '09, I think they had dropped that verbiage. But that was about the time gas prices jumped during the Great Resession. I think Toyota realized most people weren't going to spend the money on premium and just quietly let that recommendation drift off into the sunset.

 

I was running ethanol free premium in my Baja Turbo. It was around $7/gallon. $5.80/gallon for premium isn't that bad, compared.

 

ethanol gas is a plague, and it should be banished instead of enforced.

Since I have to earn money to pay for gas, I run the cheapest they sell at the pump in my tacomas- 87, 10% - I think. The gen2 gets about 15ish mpg, the 99 flatbed gets 20ish.

I do spend the extra 30% for ethanol free for my small engines, but road vehicles have to suffer the consequences of idiots in government forcing bad ideas down their tanks.
I did just move a bit further away from the city, and I now have an ethanol-free at the pump option. For the past 15 years I've been driving to a marina to buy the stuff for my chainsaw, lawnmower, snowblower, garden tractor...

 

87 always. Unless I hit the wrong button on the pump

 

Whatever Shell regular is. 87 I think. I've ran V power before and I can tell it's a little happier with it, but never any knocking on 87. I get about 18-19mpg. 45k miles

 

Octane can vary depending on altitude. If you go to a gas station in Colorado that's at 11,000 feet, 'regular' is going to be 85 octane. Usually Premium is either 93, 92, or 91, but at that high altitude gas station, you might find 89 marked as Premium. Most vehicles benefit from a lower octane at high altitudes, but turbo vehicles might have problems with EGT's, knock, or overall power output, especially if you fuel up at high altitude and go down to sea level. I ran into this problem with my Baja when I went to Wyoming, especially considering the... Questionable nature of the tune I ran in that poor thing. Easily solved with some octane booster.

 

I read through one of the previous long threads on the subject. I recall it saying something like:

… engine is designed to run on 87 octane. However if you don’t want it to ping, use higher octane.

Typical corporate jibberish.

 

Toyota had a TSB for the pinging on 87 octane. Mine would do the same when it was brand new until Toyota re flashed the ECM per TSB. It improved some but I just run 93 and all is well and no pinging.

 

Been a long time since we had an octane thread. Still using 87 since the last thread, too.

 

87 octane with occasional light pinging on slight-to-moderate inclines when increasing the throttle, but only when the outside temps exceed 90 degrees. It only lasts a few seconds, so I assume the knock sensor is/was doing it's job.

 

Here's my mileage chart for a trip from Saint Louis to New Mexico and back at the end of 2019. The basic profile of lower-mileage-out-higher-mileage-back has held for many trips westward over the last dozen or so years -- probably due to a combination of elevation changes and prevailing winds.

I ran ethanol-free (easily found in NM) for 1000+ miles in the second part of the trip. I judged the difference to be insignificant or just barely significant, given my results for other trips where no EtOH-free fuel was used. Certainly not enough to justify the price difference to me. That really big drop midway through was a drive through the mountains near Cloudcroft in a wicked winter storm, so lots of 4WD.



For reference, here's another trip where everything was 87 octane and ethanol (or whatever octane/alcohol was in "regular" at the tiime).

 

I run 91 octane because it's the only gas with no Ethanol where i live. I started to put 91 in 2008 in my last vehicule. I calculated at the time that i had more mpg with 91 than 87, i don't know if it's still true with the 1gr-fe. She like it and i don't care. I can push near 600km with a full tank on the highways running E rated KO2 with a 3 inch lift. City driving is another story and very situational.

Petrol compagny rip us off anyway so i choose the preminum package

 

Just change it. It's bad. If you are losing a bit of antifreeze every now and again, you may find that problem too when you change the manifold gasket.