So with the way gas prices are...nearing $3/gal...what drives you guy's to buy tuners? I browse this subforum more than any other here, hoping to find something to reinforce my gut instinct of buying a tuner, but I just haven't found the answer yet.

Being 20 years old and in college, there is no way I can afford Premium gas on my budget, so I just stick with the 87 octane stuff. Is there any merit to me getting a tuner to hopefully improve gas mileage?

I know that last statement is somewhat subject to driveability, but given the type of vehicle I drive, I don't really feel the urge to "hot-rod" it. I also try and imagine how many tanks of gas it'll take for me to save enough to warrant the purchase of a $400 dollar tuner.

Help me out fella's...
kars

 

No.

 

Don't get a tuner just for better MPG, just not worth it, and I also thought it was going to be very expensive to run 93, its really not, it cost about 6-8 bucks more to fill up. just my .02

 

You can use 87 octane on a tuner and still see gas and performance improvements they just wont be as great as it would with higher octane.Ive gotten about 1 to 1.5 mpg increase but that is with 93 im not sure how much it would be with 87 or a mid grade.Also E-Fans probably would give you better mpg i think there is like a 2mpg increase with e-fans and its also cheaper than a tuner.

 

With fuel mileage concerns it would be better if you drove a small compact car that gets the mileage you want and own/drive a truck later when there is more money to support it.

 

Don't buy one for the MPG's alone. I love my tuner and other mods but they are there for other reasons and any gains in MPG is a bonus.

 

definitely dont go out and buy one just for mpg increases.. There is a huge performance gain as well that will come from it.. I have seen an increase of 3 mpg with the tuner as well...

For performance I would reccomend it
For MPG I wouldnt reccomend it

For both I highly reccomend it...

 

Which if you fill up once a week is an extra $32 a month and $384 a year. So it definitely adds up over time. If he is worried about money right now then it's definitely not the thing to do.

When you break it down, the tuner is a toy. If you have money to buy that toy and incur the "maintenance cost" of that toy (extra $ for prem); then go for it.

There is really no situation where you can say, well I cannot drive my truck or perform "said task" without the tuner. (obvious exception to this rule is racing, but then again if you're racing your truck then it's not a daily driver)

Duke

 

WOW guess that extra money for the 93oct fill up really adds up!

 

Yeah its one of those things that weekly doesn't feel like that big of a deal, but over the course of a year, it can make a big impact. However, to some of these guys $400 a year isn't a big deal. All depends on your disposeable income.

Duke

 

I will never return to the stock slug... never

 

Why do some people think you have to run high octane fuel to have a tuner. I've only had my tuner for a few days but aldeady ran 2 tanks of 87 octane on level 2 through it and the gains are very noticable.

 

How do you get to the 6-8 bucks? Around here the top octane is about .12 to .20 more than the lowest at reputable top tier vendors. Assuming a 22 gal tank that equals $2.64 to $4.40 at the most for a fillup, maybe more if you have a bigger tank.

Let's do some quick/rough calculations and I am not trying to be exact. If you figure gas costs $3.00/gal the extra cost for a tank of the high octane is about the same as a gallon of gas in round figures. Another gallon would get you about 15 more miles at 15 mpg. So with the low octane you can have 23 gal X 15 mpg = 345 miles. To drive 345 miles on the same dollars worth of the high octane you have to figure the 22 gal---So 345 / 22 = 15.7 mpg. To get the % increase necessary for the high octane to be even money with the low octane--- .7 / 15.0 = 5%. So you only need to get a 5% increase to be even money, or 15.7 mpg if you usually run 15.0 mpg. A properly tuned engine will almost always get at least a 5% increase from running the higher octane fuel.

I always run 93 octane. The extra mpg pays for the extra cost of the fuel, without even considering performance, reliability, and longevity of components.

Been doing this for decades on cars, trucks, motorcycles, etc and the math has always worked out to make the better fuel a wise investment.

Just my humble opinion and basic math.

Randy

 

I don't see how runing high octane gas will get you better mileage over 87.... I would tend to believe that it would make your mpg go down, unless you had a tuner, or chip, or something to advance the timing. Please inform me.

 

93 octane generally has a higher btu rating than 87 which allows the fuel to burn slower producing more power with less gas consumtion. Same thing can be said for buying gas from a name brand station(ie shell,chevron) verses (walmart, sams club) when I buy gas from a retail store chain I get about 1-1.5 less mpg verses using shell or chevron. now my tuner is on 93 octane and I am on my second tank and I am getting the same mpg as I was with retail 87 gas but now I have my foot in it more, but when I was young it was very difficult to justify the extra 5 dollars to fill up with gas because for me that was one extra meal I could eat.