Fuel Milage for your 2nd Gen Taco..

So judging from my last fillup, I'm getting 28mpg. Sure to go down as winter gets nearer and as I begin to add more weight. Mostly just my work commute; lots of stop and go city traffic, but a little bit of highway.

 

I think the math is too complicated for most people to figure out that even though they get slightly better mileage on higher octane, they are still paying more for the higher octane fuel per mile.

 

Here in Nebraska you could, until recently, buy 87 octane straight gas, 89 octane ethanol blend, and 91 octane straight gas at most stations.

The suppliers are now bringing in 84 octane straight gas, so they are mixing in ethanol to bring it up to 87. 89 is also a blend. It really isn't clear what is happening with 91 octane - I've seen straight and blended for sale.

I had been running 87 in it for the last year, but have now started experimenting. Over the course of 5 fillups, running 91 octane straight gas yields a cost about $0.02 cheaper per mile than 87 octane blended gas, despite the fact that the 91 costs from $0.20 to $0.60 more per gallon.

I'm early in this experiment, but at the moment it looks like 91 octane gas is cheaper per mile than 87 octane blends...

/rl

 

i have been fueling at the caseys by my home for the last year.

Recently they went from selling 87-gas 89-blend to selling 87-gas 87-blend

the prices are the same (difference) as before

here in kansas almost none of the gas stations sell non blended gas that is NOT premium grade (91 here)

i hated when i moved here and i lost power in the car (supercharged) coming from 93 to 91, not a huge amount but boost cut and timing changed enough that the difference was noticable.

 

It will be going down with the weather for sure, the thin air at high altitude in the front range definitely helps the mpg.

 

Currently stock, unless you count 100 pounds of rock rails.

About 20 miles a day, kind of aggressive (lead foot), city driving, 600' elevation (DFW,TX).

16-17mpg.

Best I ever got was 20 on the highway in Colorado pulling a motorcycle trailer.

 

you can use which ever you want and depending how much money your willing to give up for the extra few octane when ppl can simply use octane booster... in the summer time i usually use 94.

I see lot of ppl get 17-19 thats awesome.. i dont know how they can get +20 but i guess that must have a pre-runner and such... and light foot ha!!

 

Never thought of it that way, but I guess that makes sense.

Yeah, my Tacoma is a work-commuter during the winter almost exclusively (use scooter for fair weather work-commuting). Subject to heavy traffic, potential huge delays (rush hour accidents etc). During nice weather, it stays home or will take me places on the weekend.

I noticed you have pretty nice MPG. Did you do any mods, or just get the nut behind the wheel adjusted perfectly?

 

I have a 2013 4 door TRD sport 4x4 and i have an average of 19.2 and all of it is around town. i use 87 octane no upgrades "yet". truck has about 1500 miles on it.

 

It's the nut, no mods besides synthetic oils in transmission and rear, and 44 psi tire pressure.

 

Cool, that's like me roughly. I prefer synthetic (not sure it helps mileage, but I guess it may depend on the car and type , i.e. 5w30 vs 10w40 etc) and higher air-pressure. Having any kind of PSI preference helps a ton. Just being aware of it. One time, me and some friends were going out of state in his van for a multi-day camping trip. I offered to top off his tires and of course found one or two that were grossly underinflated. I think I put 'em up to 45psi, IIRC.

Anyway, sounds about right. Usually the most gains are found with the nut adjustment.

 

Most octane boosters do little or nothing to raise octane and cost more per point per gallon than buying high octane gas. The few bottles that actually state a point gain say something like RAISES OCTANE THREE POINTS!!! Then somewhere in the fine print it defines their point value to be one tenth point, not the three full points they implied and it's only improving that much on 86 or 87. Once you buy higher octane the additive does even less. So you add a bottle of this to 87 and get 87.3 and paid $5 or whatever they cost, yay. Even if it were the 90 they implied it's still more $ than buying it at the pump. To top it off most of them raise the research octane and not motor octane so it's even more useless for your car/truck/motorcycle. Research octane is cheaper to raise than motor. Then there are "octane performance improvers" which are actually just cleaning additives. Those are based on the assumption that you have carbon build up causing detonation and IF this stuff can reduce it you've increased the 'effectiveness' of whatever octane you're actually using. Those often tout their super effectiveness by saying you only need one bottle every 3 tanks because it's so super bitchen it keeps working even after it's gone. I've tested three different octane boosters that claimed to be 'different' and better than the rest (their prices reflected it too) and none did anything to significantly reduce detonation on either of the test engines where higher octane gas did. If you enjoy putting foreign shit in your tank to achieve unquantified 'gains' through the use of undisclosed chemicals, by all means, enjoy. I'm not trying to start a war, only relaying my findings and opinion on the stuff. If you have empirical evidence to the contrary I'm all ears. If you actually want to raise your octane effectively you could mix in race fuel, but be careful because many are leaded. An often made mistake is to use av-gas (aviation gasoline) because it costs less per octane than race fuel. This stuff is rated in research octane so it's not as effective as motor octane for our use and it'll take more to do the same as race fuel. Don't even think about jet fuel as one of my friends did to his car once, it's basically diesel fuel. The last mistake I'll share is model engine fuel, it's alcohol/nitro methane and very powerful, if you manage get your engine to start on it somehow it won't turn off 'till it's in pieces unless you can stall it; saw that happen too.

I don't believe that octane alone will yield any improvement on these engines. Some higher grade fuels could have other properties that do increase power & mileage, I don't know. I get 20-22 in my Taco on the cheapest 87 I can find. For experiment's sake I'll try some 'better' 91 next tank and see what happens. If you get the specs for some different gasolines the one with the highest BTU/gallon will likely yield the best performance regardless of octane, assuming your engine doesn't require a higher octane.

I you want a cleaner, I've repeatedly proven Techron to actually work and I feel confident that it's been tested enough and controlled well enough to be safe. From what I've read, the same or very similar product is sold and recommended under different names by some OEMs.

 

Honestly ive never really used the octane boosters. until i noticed my truck doesnt have enough power as it use to 10000km ago with 178000 on it, but ive used seafoam last few times, and seems to work well, but higher octane fuel yeah i have used it but i only when towing my boat lol i should really use it to see how it effects my truck just highway driving..

Thats funny jet fuel my buddy did use it in his quad to, and there was some more power. he didnt put much in it he did mix it up and still runs for now anyways haha!!

but yeah i hear you there brother!!

 

lol i know eh who the hell brought up octane?? hehehe... but higher grade fuel does have higher octane which if u wanted extra octane u can put china chemical straight into the fuel if ya like lol

 

I drive 90% highway and get 375 to the tank on km2's.....but thats pushing it a good 30 miles past the gas light.

 

That's not horrible.
I normally gas up at around 350-375. I don't see the light, but if I push it to over 400 I will.

 

Today I filled the tank. 12.7 mpg

 

I average 16.8 with the 6 speed manual, stock right now. My 4runner got 22mpg highway with 170,000 miles, with a lift and bigger tires. I attribute that to the deckplate intake and full exhaust. Does that help mpgs with these newer tacomas?

 

they should just make a sticky for all the threads people make for the mpg issue.

 

According to Fuelly app I am averaging 15.1mpgs, about 85% city stop and go driving. I pump 89 or 93 octane and I drive on the moderate side, not aggressive but if I need to pass someone have no issue hammering throttle. Truck has AFE exhaust, lift, 32" Duratracs, and I run synthetic oil. Air filter is replaced at 10k miles always and new spark plugs. Not sure how the hell guys are seeing 18mpgs+