What kind of gas you feeding your 3rd gen taco

Goodnight my gas loving friends .

 

So far in my experience it is a real improvement in performance. I'm happy, as now I get consistent 18-19 mpg city and 20-21 hwy, and never happened before with cheap fuel.
Luckily, the only two things (until now) that bothered me about this vehicle was first the unexpected low MPG tha was getting compared with advertised and second the annoying engine clattering noise (similar to a "Diesel" engine) something that definitely seems to be mostly erradicated for good now with this simple change in fuel type. So I'm willing to keep using high grade for now on.

However, Today I filled up a full tank with Shell's premium 93 octane v-power brand. I used almost exclusively this brand/grade in my previous car, (a series 3 BMW Sport) with excellent results. See how it goes with the premium gas.

 

Good night sir!

 

Higher octane doesn't burn hotter. It's purely an indication to the resistance of detonation. If there is less ethanol in the higher octane gas you are using (compared to the lower octane you are using), then it may have more power per unit of volume.

Honestly though, if you are having detonation (it ain't valve clatter if octane fixes it), I'd want to know why. My truck doesn't detonate on 87. Most don't.

 

Honestly Woodrow, what I know, is that for simply swapping low grade gasoline and using higher octane, engine's noises are almost gone and I feel the engine runs better.
I don't know, maybe this characteristic noise is common for this Atkinson engine type and its "injector cleaning" cycle, -as other stated-; but for me this simple fix worked.

 

This right here is the only reaon someone would get better mileage or slightly more power when using premium. Where I live the only gas that is 0 ethanol is Shell 91. You can't buy regular gas without it. If we had 0% regular ethanol there would be no reason to buy premium ever.

 

87 Octane Ethanol free.

 

I feed mine top tier Shell '87 octane since new, nothing else needed works like a top and I don't wish I had a V-8

Cheers!

 

See, I don't see it as a fix. If it's really detonating, you are just masking the symptom. Not sure though... we could be talking about something different. I've worked on cars longer than I've been driving and have built more than a couple of engines.... (not bragging, just my background.). I feed my truck 87 with whatever corn squeezins they stick in it (up to 10%). My truck doesn't show those problems. Most don't.

Like I said, we could be talking about something different, but something just doesn't sound quite right to me.

 

Interesting thread. I was curious if there was any gas stations near me that sold ethanol-free, so I started looking it up on google.

I did find a pretty cool App you can download, called Pure Gas. It will show all the stations near your location that sell ethanol Free. There's also a couple of pretty decent websites, that will give you list of stations in your state, that sell it.

Unfortunately, I don't have many near me. There are a couple 20 miles away, but in the wrong direction for my commute to work. Also they are a Rhodes 101, and a Caseys(I will not buy Caseys gas, ethanol-free or not), neither of those stations are on the Top Tier list. A Conoco is the only one on the Top Tier list , and sells ethanol-free near me, but it's way out of the way. Stupid Corn.

I researched this a little when I bought a Stihl M-tronic last fall, I really didn't want ethanol in it either.

It will be interesting to try different octanes and brands, and see if there's any effect on my MPG, or how it runs.

As some one has said earlier, I don't know how much it matters, a lot of stations get there gas from the same place. Around here, there's one company that delivers gas to almost every station around. (In the country though, there's not a gas station every mile or two).

 

I use either:

1. Race Trac 87 ethanol free
2. Marathon 90 ethanol free
3. WaWa 90 ethanol free

I get a 2-3mpg bump using ethanol free vs corn fuel. Its worth it to me based on damage ethanol does to fuel systems.

 

I wish I had access to Ethanol Free Fuel but the closest station is like 100 miles away. Definitely would see better MPGs and i would prefer to use it in my lawn equipment and Generator.

 

The damage comes from any moisture that the gas (actually alcohol) collects when not running. If a vehicle is run often, it probably doesn't matter. I've run engines on hundreds of thousands of miles on gas with ethanol and really haven't had any issues other than a fuel pump on a truck with over 200,000 miles on it.

As far as the mpg bump..... how much difference are you getting in miles/dollar? For what I'm seeing in prices here I'm getting 2.8 miles/dollar more with the cheaper gas.

 

That's correct, I think the main danger of ethanol in gasoline comes from its particularity of atract moisture to the mix. If the vehicle is used frequently as you well said, this consequence is negligible. If vehicle is stored for a long time (with the humidity that we get here in the south), then an accumulation of water in the mix will be undesirable, an can corrode fuel lines an internal parts.
However, we have to agree that 1 gal of 100% gasoline packs more energy than 1 gal of a mix of the 90% of the same gasoline with 10% ethanol. So, 93 octanes ethanol free, actually will get much better run than the 87 octane fuel with 10% ethanol.

 

https://youtu.be/dxAQmj3P8xs

 

Cool that someone decided to actually test it out. It's about what I would expect. Too bad they didn't do a Taco.

 

Everyone complaining of “chatter like a diesel” is because it’s direct injected, like a diesel. All your hearing is the high pressure fuel pump. And the injectors

 

http://www.toyotareference.com/guts/tacoma16_engine.pdf

Just a reference I found.

 

Fuel hauler here.
Gas is gas is gas.
Buy the cheapest gas you can and add your own fuel additive. You've essentially created chevron/shell.