Bad gas or something else?

[Dirt]

I've never seen 85 Octane at the pumps in Canada. that said I think the min recommended is 87, I throw some 91 in during long trips and this engine loves it.
How many miles or kms do you have on your truck?

FWIW, 87 is the low here, also. Some of the areas in SE ID, UT, AZ sell 85 as the gov't says it performs like 87 in the climate/elevation. I've used it in all my travels whether a 5.7 V8 in the '07 Tundra towing RV's or 4 or 6 cyl cars or pickups when passing thru the areas.
This pickup has about 19,500 miles. (I was putting so many miles on this gem so quickly I bought a little run around rig last fall.)

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[GPTaco]

58kms, it’s a baby. I’ve never seen anything below 87 here in Western Canada either. I plan on running 91 Shell top tier gas, but wanted to know if there was a problem. Sounds like it’s just injector noise, which I’ll get used to. The 1GR in the ‘06 had lifter tick, and I had to think about it to hear it after a while.

With 58km on it it's still breaking in, if you check your manual you are supposed to take it easy for the first 1500 or so km no heavy throttle. You will find massive improvements after 5000k and it just keeps getting better.
I'm at 30,000k and the engine is smooth, powerful and mostly very quiet.

 

[The Dude]

FWIW, 87 is the low here, also. Some of the areas in SE ID, UT, AZ sell 85 as the gov't says it performs like 87 in the climate/elevation. I've used it in all my travels whether a 5.7 V8 in the '07 Tundra towing RV's or 4 or 6 cyl cars or pickups when passing thru the areas.
This pickup has about 19,500 miles. (I was putting so many miles on this gem so quickly I bought a little run around rig last fall.)

Yeah, I’m not talking full dyno pulls, just a little half-throttle from a stop. You’re right though, I should definitely go easy on the truck, I want to keep this one for another 20 years.

 

[TheBandit]

I've never seen 85 Octane at the pumps in Canada. that said I think the min recommended is 87, I throw some 91 in during long trips and this engine loves it.
How many miles or kms do you have on your truck?

85 octane is really common in mountainous states in the US. It's just to offset decreased air intake at high altitude. It's deemed to be equivalent to 87 octane at sea level and I (living in Colorado) almost exclusively run 85 without issue 11,000mi. 87 is the minimum recommended assuming sea level, but things get fun at altitude

 

[Texas Bob]

These engines are a bit noisy. They quiet down after a while. I noticed a difference after a few tanks of premium fuel. It’s proven via dyno that the engine is happier on higher octane gas, but 87 is obviously fine. I’ll pay more for a smoother engine and a cheap HP boost

Can you send a link, please, to this 'proven via dyno' information? I am very interested in what form this happiness will be: better mileage, more power, less noise, what? It would be unusual for a properly-operating engine to benefit from octane higher than what the manufacturer recommends.

 

[BAQ717]

Can you send a link, please, to this 'proven via dyno' information? I am very interested in what form this happiness will be: better mileage, more power, less noise, what? It would be unusual for a properly-operating engine to benefit from octane higher than what the manufacturer recommends.

The ECU detects the octane and advances timing accordingly. 87 is the minimum but there is power left on the table if you choose to run it. The OTT guys also confirmed this.

 

[Tacohunter2024]

Good grief. The power train is heads above the 3rd gen. No more gear hunting and the torque nearly reaches that of the naturally aspirated V8 Tundra engine. It pulls my camper much better than my 2016 Taco. I've driven trucks since 1985, and the suspension is fantastic. I've never seen a truck that can take washboard like this does.

The list goes on.

The list of issues goes on too. Why do some of the people in the forum get so defensive when someone has a different opinion about these trucks? I think they're average on a good day. Glad you have had a better experience, doesn't give you license to be rude.

 

[Texas Bob]

The ECU detects the octane and advances timing accordingly. 87 is the minimum but there is power left on the table if you choose to run it. The OTT guys also confirmed this.

Thanks for the Stillen link, Brian! I'll admit I'm surprised by their result, which implies that Toyota is leaving that extra power on the table. I think Stillen is a reputable company, but don't lose sight of the fact that their business is to sell higher performance for your vehicle. Any tuning they sell you will require the higher octane as a starting point. I also wonder, since 6MT trucks like mine are already detuned by 8 HP vs. the automatics, if their ECUs would allow a higher output with higher octane. It would be great to see a lot more dyno results on multiple examples of manual and auto tranny '278 hp' trucks: multiple fuel changes from 87 to 91 and from non-Top Tier to Top Tier. More data! And let's not muddy the water with the base '228 HP' trucks. Obviously Stillen should be able to get a lot more power out of those even on 87 octane.

 

[stuckinsocal]

Thanks for the Stillen link, Brian! I'll admit I'm surprised by their result, which implies that Toyota is leaving that extra power on the table. I think Stillen is a reputable company, but don't lose sight of the fact that their business is to sell higher performance for your vehicle. Any tuning they sell you will require the higher octane as a starting point. I also wonder, since 6MT trucks like mine are already detuned by 8 HP vs. the automatics, if their ECUs would allow a higher output with higher octane. It would be great to see a lot more dyno results on multiple examples of manual and auto tranny '278 hp' trucks: multiple fuel changes from 87 to 91 and from non-Top Tier to Top Tier. More data! And let's not muddy the water with the base '228 HP' trucks. Obviously Stillen should be able to get a lot more power out of those even on 87 octane.

I don't think they are de-tuned in the traditional sense, they just have a 900 RPM lower redline (and thus don't get the last bit of power on the top end). I've seen automatics in videos shift early sometimes at the same redline the manual trucks have; I think it has something to do with the conditions at the moment and since the manual has no way to force us to shift early it just makes us do so all the time. I also recall the chief engineer talk about driveline vibrations, maybe the heavy flywheel contributing to it? My memory is a bit fuzzy about it but personally, I don't mind shifting early, less stress on the engine and it isn't a sports car anyhow (nor does it shift like one).

 

[Texas Bob]

Good points! I'm about as fuzzy on what "Sheldon the engineer" said, too. I should go rewatch some of those videos. But you reminded me that I need not feel much guilt about banging off the rev limiter in 1st gear: when you're accelerating hard (not often but also not rare for me) it runs out of revs in a hurry. They have already given us a lot of headroom with the lower redline, so seems unlikely to mechanically overstress anything. Definitely not a sports car. Here's what maximum acceleration from a stop seems like to me: Start out gently to avoid vaporizing the right rear tire (no limited slip diff); once rolling and you flatten the accelerator, prepare for nothing to happen for a second or two; then the boost comes on and you are now MOVING; one second later you are out of revs. Jump off the throttle while flattening the clutch pedal, wait for revs to drop, lose all boost, rinse and repeat. Heaven forbid anyone ever thinks about drag racing one of these...

 

[Sagebrush]

doesn't give you license to be rude.

Rude? I spoke the truth. But you can call it what you want.

 

[CrispyTacoLover]

I ran nearly five tanks of Quicktrip 93 octane gas through my truck. When I filled up on 5/29/2025, I put Quicktrip 87 octane back in the tank.

It runs fine on 87 octane. It runs better on 93, but I really can’t decide if the extra $9.00 per tank is worth it. It isn’t a hugely dramatic difference for my city driving.

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