Posted: Jul 28 2004 at 9:28pm | IP Logged

What grade of gas do you put in your Titan?

87, 89, or 93 octane

Posted: Jul 29 2004 at 12:44pm | IP Logged

I was watching a reputable auto show and a comment was made that ALL vehicles are made to run in ALL countries.  Many countries don't have premium gas so manufactures must tune their vehicles to run on the lower octane fuel.  They used the $200,000 Porsche as an example.

They said that you should ONLY use higher octane if you are getting an engine ping.  Otherwise, you are wasting your $$..

Posted: Aug 15 2004 at 9:14pm | IP Logged

Unless you have found a way to advance the ignition timing and alter the fuel mapping, premium fuel is a waste of money and a reduction in horsepower. The timing curve in the ecu of these trucks is mapped for regular unleaded fuel. When using higher than the recommended octane, the timing is not advanced far enough to get a complete burn of the fuel charge. The lower the octane, the faster the fuel burns. That is the reasoning for advancing,(starting the burn sooner), the timing for premium fuel, it requires more time for a complete burn, so you start the ignition earlier. I have not had the truck long enough to experiment and map the learning ability of the ecu. It could be possible to run premium effeciently, if the ecu can change the ignition mapping and the fuel mapping for the higher octane. If this is possible, it is the first and only vehicle with an ecu capable of altering the parameters that far, no other in the US is capable of this feat, and we have tested quite a few. I guess the moral of all this ranting is to save the extra 4 or 5 bucks per tank and use the recommended fuel grade, until a programmer or any other method of re-mapping the timiing and fuel curves.

DT