2020 Tacoma 4cyl SR 4x4 Review

Glad to help. These "modern" vehicles are much different that the V8's and in line sixes that we (some of us) grew up with. You never needed to rev the old engines like the Jeep 4.0/232/258, Ford 240/300, Dodge 225 slant six (the leaning tower of power) over about 3000 because they made all their torque at such a low rpm, like a tractor most of the capability of the engine was available almost off an idle.

It took some adjustment on my part driving the Tacoma because I'm so conditioned to NOT rev the engine, this thing comes alive around 3000.

I have always put personalities with my mechanical things, find out what your machines "want" and then do that to keep them happy. What it wants is to be in it's useful power band.

With the V6 I have found that if the engine is about 2000 rpm it will pull smartly in any gear, not max acceleration mind you, just fine for my normal reserved driving style. With a little observation you will find just what your 2.7 wants, call it the minimum pulling rpm (like my 2000 above), you will find your enjoyment of the drive and your driving smoothness will improve.

Get to know your rpm between gears, for the 6 speed they are approximately:

6 to 5 -- 300
5 to 4 -- 300
4 to 3 -- 600
3 to 2 -- 1000
2 to 1 -- lots...

So if I'm in 6th at 50 mph and shift to 5th I will gain 300 rpm, 6th to 4th 600 rpm, 6th to 3ed 1200 -- you get it.

Had to get my head around the idea that it wasn't going to break if I cranked the rpm up, lots of fun to drive now.

 

You’re 100% sir.

I’ve found her sweet spot between the torque curve and trans gearing.

1st - shift around 2800-3k (can go higher but feels twitchy)
2nd - shift at 4k (big gap in gearing between 2nd and 3rd,
3rd - shift at 3-3.5k
4th - shift at 3k


These motors are built to rev and make power higher up in the rpm band Like you said. Lug them around shifting too early and they wont be happy and your gas mileage likely won’t be any better as you keep the throttle open wide still (a lot of folks) while under load.

great post and well said!

 

hope you're joking!

 

I'd like to politely, yet firmly, tell you you are wrong truck runs much better and is more "efficient " on premium. Especially uphill, offroad, or with a bed full of dirt bikes and camping gear.
However I misspoke saying fuel economy, when I should have just said mpg. It is not more "economical", my bad.

 

I always ran premium in my 5.7 hemi Ram. It made a difference. Engine was *high* compression.

I've ran tanks and tanks and tanks of regular and premium through my old Sport 3.5L. Couldn't tell any difference. The taco is just kinda slow no matter what you put in the tank. On a higher compression V8, in this layman's opinion and observation, it made a difference. For these little mid liter V6s, not so much.

The somewhat arbitrary hill I will die on though, is using high quality gasoline. I only fill up at Shell or Chevron stations unless I don't have a choice.

 

Our 3.5's have quite high compression, was around 11.8 if memory serves me.

 

Hmmm. Maybe I should start the experiment over again with my new truck.

 

Yeah but the compression cycle starts with valves partially open, so the piston never compresses the air/fuel mixture enough to cause pre-ignition using regular fuel.

 

Its well proven that higher octane fuel allows the timing to advance requiring less fuel for the same performance. Many manufacturers use the higher octane fuel to get better MPG numbers for their press releases.

Due to adaptive engine management, the timing advances slowly and retards quickly to prevent knock. So running one tank of premium will not get the same increased performance that would be lost from running a tank of lower grade fuel. The differences are small, but used to offset the increased fuel price when it was only 10 cents a gallon.