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Great video, thanks for sharing. I'm checking out all his others. Trying to see if he did the BK44 or MOA tests.

One comment on this video pretty much sums up my thoughts. Don't know if it's true so much, but it's how I always approach these products (which is why I only buy them at Costco when there's a deep discount or at Autozone for $4 a bottle when they have a special)

 

For a long time I was able to run my 2000 V6 5-spd with 87 octane year-round. No pinging.

Then I noticed occassional pinging in the summer with the air conditioning on, climbing a hill when it was pretty hot out. I started using 89 octane in the summer and it almost never pinged.

Then it got to the point where it even started pinging in the winter. For a couple of years now I've been strictly running 91 octane year-round and the problem just seems to be getting worse. It occasionally even pings in second gear now, no a/c, cool weather! I've never owned a vehicle that pinged in second gear.


Engine operating temp has not changed (according to my ultra gauge, anyway) and I have not made any mods.

 

You may have an air leak causing an ultra lean situation. That easily can cause pings. Whats your fuel trims say? I bet upward towards 20% rich

 

Or your fuel filter is old and clogged. Or both. Or fuel pressure regulator is bad

 

Pardon my cluelessness...but can I get that info from my Ultragauge?

 

No CEL or pending codes, BTW.

 

You should. check the manual or browse the pages and look for LTFT and STFT, or long term fuel trim and short term fuel trim.

 

Thats ok. Fuel trims can be off as high as +- 25% before throwing a CEL they should hover around 0

 

OK. Found those and added them to 'page 2' on my Ultragauge. I'm guessing I'll need to record those readings at idle, with the engine fully warmed up?

 

ST was 0 and LT was -20 with the truck off.

Only one bank for V6?

 

I have a pinging issue too, actually. No other problems except an audible pinging under load. Let me know if you find a fix!

 

What octane do you run?

 

Usually 87, I occasionally switch to 93 and notice a decrease in noise. But once the ECU recalibrates, it comes right back. And I've been pretty damn religious with the use of Techron. I guess it didn't do much in the way of preventative maintenance. Maybe for the fuel injectors but not the entire system.

 

I have done a lot of personal comparisons with regular vs premium gas and the general overall results across the board said there was little to no "real" monetary difference in using either since the better mpg and slight power gain of premium was canceled out by its higher cost so in the end I would be paying an average of 6-10 cents a gallon more in fuel to use the premium.

on paper, it makes more sense to use the premium but once an engine gets used to running premium for a long time, then when you go back to regular gas it will almost always ping under load. for this reason I don't use it because I don't want my engine to ping if I want to stop using it.

ethanol vs non ethanol is a different question altogether and everything suggests it would be better to use non ethanol gas. I do know if a lawn mower starts out using ethanol gas it will always run fine on it, but if its been using non ethanol gas and you put ethanol gas in it, then it will constantly surge rpms and not run very well.

so my overall opinion on ethanol vs non ethanol is, if you are going to use gas with ethanol, then just run the regular grade gas and the only time you need to use premium gas is if you have a SC or turbo, if you can afford the price difference and truly want a better gas, then run non ethanol gas

 

haven't read everything said but did you ever have your valves checked recently? sounds like its time to get them redone

 

Truck has about 160k miles, I was planning on getting this done within the next year or so. Not sure how I feel about taking it to the dealer here though, as they said the culprit of the pinging was a "cat heat shield rattle".

 

I need to know live readings at idle, under load, and cruising. how bout making a new thread for your issue? might as well since its a different subject from the posts title.

quick rundown though. your fuel trims at idle and cruising should be around 0% (+-~3%) (a.k.a. stoichiometry and/or perfect 14.7:1 air to fuel ratio) . however, when your truck is under load or is decelerating, the fuel trims really don't matter unless they're waaayyy high or low, like around 20% off.

only reason you need higher than 87 octane fuel is when you have turbos or super chargers increasing your compression ratio above 10. stock compression ratios under 10 (roughly) only need 87 octane to run properly without knocking. at higher compression ratios, low octane fuels will actually self combust from the standard temperatures in the cylinders. higher octanes will make up for this issue.

air leaks can also cause knocking if the O2 sensors aren't compensating for the extra air, or the injectors aren't delivering enough fuel to compensate for the extra air. air ratios in the combustion chamber higher than 14.7:1 will get hotter than the lower octanes can handle. that's probably why you going to higher octanes has been working so far.

i mentioned before to change your fuel filter and/or check your fuel pressure regulator. have you done this yet?

 

Started a new thread as you suggested. Also posted Ultragauge readings there under several scenarios.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...load-and-hesitating-from-idle-no-load.406638/

 

Ethanol also likes to eat your injector seals. Less btu for more money? Sign me up!!

 

edit: not ethanol free. just only says that it has 10% ethanol at the counter inside and not at the pump.