GX460 ECM Remapping for Regular Gas? (4 Viewers)

[re_guderian]

For a trip over the continental divide, I'd go with the expensive stuff. Albeit, that's all I ever use, but especially for the high altitude and probably steep grades, I'd feel better with 91 - 95 octane (whichever you can get).
And again, for myself, I just plain seem to get better MPG from the more expensive stuff, which is a little bit of return on the extra $$ in the tank. So in the end I'm not really paying that extra .20¢/gallon, maybe more like .10¢ or .15¢ per gallon.

$0.20???? Around here it's at least $0.40 more per gallon, most between $0.40-0.60 more, Chevron up to $0.90 more per gallon. That's 9-18% more expensive. You'd have to get 1-2 mpg CONSISTENTLY better to break even, assuming a baseline of 12 mpg on regular. I have found that difficult to achieve on a consistent basis.

 

[BigSwede]

Yeah, it's 50-60 cents more for premium here. If it was 20 cents I wouldn't even worry about it.

As a compromise (in my mind anyway) I have been running 89 octane lately.

 

[Acrad]

$0.36/gallon more @ Costco here north of Seattle for Premium

I give mine Premium

 

[Rednexus]

My GX made multiple trips over the Great Divide last summer, including getting up to over 11K feet, and did just fine on regular fuel. It actually got much better MPG out West than it does here. Less oxygen in the air = less fuel to get the 14.7:1 AFR and results in better fuel economy. Many tanks were 20+ mpg, but it dropped right back down to ~17 mpg by the time we were across the plains. However, less air unfortunately means less power.

My GX has also been getting a steady diet of 87 when towing our camper. Towing is much harder on a vehicle than crossing the great divide (IMO), since the total vehicle + trailer weight increases by something like 60%. If I ever tow the camper across the continental divide, I just might consider putting some premium in it.

 

[vegasfj40]

I live about an hour away from the Divide and cross it regularly driving to our place in Vegas. I definitely put premium in when towing our little Casita trailer.

 

[2023gx460]

2013 GX and I have used regular since day one. 20mpg highway and 15-16mpg city. I can detect absolutely no difference in power. I can detect absolutely 30-40 cents per gallon savings.

Can you post how many miles are on your GX now? Still using regular gas?

 

[jonshonda]

I only used premium on my GX470 when towing or when I knew I would burn most of it on the interstate loaded heavy. I had the GX470 for 120k miles (120k-240k) with zero fuel related issues. I am doing the same thing with the GX460. What I should do is datalog the LTFT of both 87 and 91 octane to see if there is a big difference. My GX470 LTFT was 3% w/ 220k miles on it, my 2017 is 8% with 60k miles.

 

[Rednexus]

I only used premium on my GX470 when towing or when I knew I would burn most of it on the interstate loaded heavy. I had the GX470 for 120k miles (120k-240k) with zero fuel related issues. I am doing the same thing with the GX460. What I should do is datalog the LTFT of both 87 and 91 octane to see if there is a big difference. My GX470 LTFT was 3% w/ 220k miles on it, my 2017 is 8% with 60k miles.

I've done that with my GX470 - zero difference in LTFTs or towing performance, and that was before getting it tune. I watch all my sensors/parameters fairly closely when towing via Torque Pro. My engine is not stock and usually runs around 10% positive - likely due to headers, CAI, exhaust, etc.

The tuned 87 performance - towing or unladen - is quite a bit better than pre-tune, even pre-tune when running 91. I wasted a few hundred bucks in 91 towing my camper to the Gulf and back (pre-tune) and won't be doing that again.