you can use reg. octane w/ the 1GR-FE, no problem.

[C5Drvr]

Is this true? Would Toyota support a warranty if you did this? Why does Toyota recommend Premium Gas if this is the case? Is anyone else running regular? I am so confused now.

[nickw]

I know Land Rovers do this too.
Roverheads have discussed it.

How it works in a Land Rover is:
The engine is high compression, so it requires a high octane fuel to run correctly. If someone does run a low octane fuel the engine's knock sensor detects it and retards the engine appropriately to stock the any possible knocking/pinging. The computer corrects for this well before we as humans could notice. So to us it appears to run well with no noticeable difference other then a slight loss of power (which we might not notice).

So the question then arose, would running regular not cause damage? And if does not cause damage (which most believe it doesn't), is it cheaper to do so?

What they found was, the engine consumed more fuel to run in the slightly retarded state required to properly burn regular fuel. They found they got better millage (and better savings) and power (noticed when under load) to run premium.

Not sure if this carries over to Toyota, but I think it would.

Hope this helps,
Nick

[bulldog-yota]

Same engine as on the V6 Tacoma and 4R. Both states regular with premium recommended. So far most have said they see no difference in economy or performance with regular on the V6. No problems either.

[FirstToy]

You should use premium if it starts to ping- like high altitudes, towing, etc
the engine has ping sensors so you will not hurt the engine w/ low grade petrol.

I ran over 3 years on the 1GR-FE. 90% of the time on regular octane. I used premium occaisionally (crappy gas stations, was at costco, etc)

High alt, city gridlock, high heat, etc. never any problems or noticed any real difference between premium & regular.

also,my understanding is that regular gas has more "power" per gallon than premium. Premium has more octane which takes more energy to combust, thus it won't pre-detonate. (non-scientific description here, some fuel expert can clarify this)

[PASON21]

The only difference I have ever noticed is miles per tank and it was about 40 50 miles different

[RokCrawlinToy]

The performance ratings are also based off of using premium gas. I know that there have been times when the West Coast Trail Team have only had access to 85 octane in our travels and have had no problems using that grade.

[terahex]

I actually get better gas milage on plus gas. There are a couple of threads on http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/ that are having the same results.

[Blues Dawg]

my experience has been as noted above that with the computer controlled ignition the biggist difference - except maybe under a heavy load and/or altitude - is in gas mileage. Cost wise it ran about the same as a result. Hope it can run on lower octane, otherwise I'll have to carry octane boost to mexico...

[Commando]

i found premo for about 3.05 over here (other places were charging 2.99 for regular) so i figured, "Eh why not". 93 octane. i felt like the engine ran much more smoothly.