Fuel advice for 4.0 liter new frontiers.

Spend the 20c, or you'll just lose it in mileage and performance.

Buy the premium. It has a knock sensor and will advance the timing, giving you beter mileage and making up the difference in cost.

that I had that was taken from me wwwwwaaayyy before

looking at the truck it's amazing I only had minor

recommends premium fuel. Now everyone knows premium

recommended premium fuel. So I called Nissan and

I may noticed somewhat reduced performance. So I

premium? Get any better mileage with premium? Is it

in there from the dealer so as you can tell I just

it's going to take several tanks to get a real

bought a cold air intake and does it increase gas

I beg to differ. I have a 2006 Frontier. Nissans says regular unleaded is OK, but for maximum power and economy you should use premium. I've tried both. There is no measurable difference in mileage, none nada, zip, zero. And without a dyno, I doubt you can detect the difference in power either. I am sure there is a difference, but unless you are towing something, or have the truck heavily loaded you'll never know the difference. I say, don't be an idiot, use regular, and save the $0.20.

I am assuming your 2007 has the same recommendation as my 2006 - regular is OK, but for maximum performance use premium. Correct? If so, I recommend you use regular unless you have the truck heavily loaded or you are towing a heavy load.

By "cold air intake" what do you mean? If you are talking about an under hood open cone air filter, then it is not going to help your fuel economy. How could it? Except at WOT, the maximum restriction in the intake system is the throttle plate. Nothing up stream from that is going to have much effect on your fuel economy (unless you put a big plug in the intake to prevent you from sucking in more air). And if you are pulling in air from under the hood, do you really think it will be cooler than the air your OEM intake is pulling in?

Regards,

Ed White

That's how it is worded in the manual

By cold air intake I mean something like a K&N 63-6014 here's a link

Thanks for your input about the fuel it was kind of the way I was leaning anyway. I tested one tank on premium and got 17.75 mpg and I'm going through a tank of regular at the moment and so far it seems to be burning at about the same rate, plus I can't tell a difference in performance one iota or the engine noise.

I've had three trucks with knock sensors. In every case the claim was made that if you ran premium fuel you would get improved fuel economy and more power. I ran multiple tank fulls of premium for all three and never detected an increase in mileage (I record all gasoline purchases). There may have been more power, but I could never detect it. I suspect if you checked the vehicle on a dyno, you might have found a slight increase in power. The increase might have been as much as 3% to 5%. For a V-6 Frontier this is only 8 to 13 hp. I know racers will kill for 5 horsepower, but I don't believe anyone can detect a 5% change without instruments.

I do recommend that if you are going to be in a situation where you will be pulling a heavy trailer, or the truck is heavily loaded that you use premium.

I have the following theory on why I don't see a change in mileage when I use premium: The engine's control module adjusts the timing based on input from a number of sensors, including the knock sensor. When knock is detected, the engines computer retards the timing slightly to reduce the knock to an acceptable level. For individuals that drive the vehicle hard for a significant percentage of the time (lots of full throttle acceleration, etc) and run regular gas, the knock sensor is going to detect knock (ping) often and the computer will retard the timing. When this individual uses premium fuel, the level of knocking is reduced, and perhaps they get a little better fuel economy. On the other hand, a person like myself that tends to drive conservatively (I almost never go full throttle) will rarely provoke engine knock (ping) even when using regular gas. Since the engine's knock sensor doesn't detect excessive spark knock, the engine's computer does not retard the timing. Because of this, conservative drivers don't see a significant change in fuel economy when switching between regular and premium.

And finally, even for the aggressive driver, it is very unlikely that the use of premium fuel will increase fuel economy enough to offset the increased cost of premium fuel relative to regular. In the most optimistic case (lots of full power operation), premium fuel won't provide more than a

I believe manufacturers (particularly Japanese manufacturers) are specifying premium fuel in an attempt to achieve the best possible fuel economy numbers in the EPA tests. By specifying premium fuel, they can tune the cars to "groove" the EPA tests, while the presence of the knock sensor makes premium fuel unnecessary for the actual consumers.

As for the K&N, it may very well increase you top end horsepower, but even their dyno chart shows no change at 3700 rpm. Just how often are you going to be driving your truck at wide open throttle with the engine in the 3700 to 6000 rpm range? The K&N is not going to improve your fuel economy, and it will let in more dirt. Is a 7% increase in horsepower at 5,000 rpm worth the risk that your engine will eat more dirt? This is a personal choice. I know I would never make this trade-off. See

Well I'm certainly not a racer and the Frontier has had excellent performance above my expectations on both regular and premium fuel. The mileage is really what I care about more than power and since there seems to be no increase in mileage premium would seem to be quite a waste.

I will definitely keep that in mind because there are times fairly often anyway when I do pull heavy loads or really load down the bed. After all it is a truck and to never use it for truck applications would be a waste of money. I also do a bit of off-roading since I have a 4x4 model. My '04 was an excellent off-road vehicle I've yet to test my '07 yet since it's not even past the break-in period yet but I have a feeling with the 10.1 inches of ground clearance and the gear ratios it will be quite a capable off road performer plus I've read reviews that seem to indicate the latest generation frontier is great off-road.

Well I definitely fall into the conservative driver category. One thing that amazes me is how low the rpms are on the new 4.0 engine going 75-80 mph they're only around 2,000 or so whereas on my 04 they were between

Thanks for the info on the k&n I was wondering if there are any mods out there engine or otherwise that will improve fuel economy? Because honestly the frontier has more than enough power stock for me. I'm much more interested in the fuel economy side of things.

You know you're porbably right, but that's because it's a frontier we're talking about. Being a 4X4 offroad type vehicle, the increase in power maybe less appreciable because

CD