2018 Toyota Tundra 5.7 L CM 4x4 with HpTuners MPVI2

Hi All.
I understand buying a Toyota Tundra means not the best Gas MPG on the planet and it's known and understood to me.

I tried real hard to do extensive research and apparently didn't ask the "right" questions. Now I have an MPVI2 unit unopened and not in use; because I feel over my head in its installation and use. IE installing the wideband sensor etc.

I am very confused on how to tune my truck. I feel misled and noobish that I listened to HP tuners rep on the phone. HPTUNER rep said I only need the MPVI2 unit and nothing more to tune for performance or mpg. I now feel this statement is wrong and he lied to me. Or at the least it will take much longer without the additional wideband sensor logging. If this is true I'd be ok with that as I'd most likely learn more about tuning.

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I'm going to try real hard to explain myself. Bare in mind I know very little about this topic aside from what I learned on YouTube and reading online posts. Still equates to near ZERO IMO

I however now wish to improve this MPG issue as best I can without going nuts on buying stuff at some point it becomes moot. I moved to a higher altitude IE Colorado. It seems I notice a huge MPG loss. Well HUGE to me!

I want to start out by tuning my 2018 Tundra 4x4 CM to produce the best miles per gallon possible. Much later tune for performance as my skills improve. Do not need to discuss performance at this point atm.

Seems that I now need a wideband 02 sensor and the pro series upgrade? I say this as I understand the Pro Series upgrade allows the adding of the wideband sensor for data logging? I wanted to know if the tuning can be done without buying anything additional or not?

I have no understanding of how to integrate the sensor into the HPTuners MPVI2 IE wiring options. Apparently you can buy units that are plug and play that cut out the installation hassle. But still need a steel piece welded into the exhaust pipe prior to the cats?

My question I think can be summed up to this.
1.Can I tune my Tundra without adding this sensor? Understanding tuning will take longer as in trial, error and testing?
2.If so can someone help me understand how and the process to do this? I will of course do the work behind the scenes researching more after this thread progresses.

Thanks so much for all your responses in advance. man I hope I made sense of this for all you guys.

 

You'll probably get more answers if you post this on HP Tuner forums Toyota section.
https://forum.hptuners.com/forumdisplay.php?88-Toyota

 

You don't need a wideband, especially for a naturally aspirated truck. The tundra already has two air fuel ratio sensors it pulls data from (one per exhaust side). You do not need the pro upgrade, that just lets you datalog more shit. Right now you can hook up your laptop and datalog with it plugged in to your hearts content and not have to add anything physically to the truck.

There's a thread on the hp tuners Toyota forum called Tundra Repository and I would start there and read that thread a few times. There's also a thread on this forum under performance and tuning called "Tuning with HP Tuners" that VictorG started and it has some additional information (I made a post last week summarizing a few things in that thread).

If you have the mpvi2 then you have everything you need to tune the truck, so the hpt rep wasn't lying. Though tuning is it's own animal, and frankly I'm not sure how much mpg gain you can get, but you'll also be able to override other restrictions (not mpg related) so there's other benefits too.

Here's the threads I reference actually:
https://www.tundras.com/threads/instructions-for-custom-tuning-the-truck-with-hptuners.70590/

https://forum.hptuners.com/showthread.php?81934-Toyota-Repository

 

Do you know what knock threshold is? Do you understand table resolution? Are you aware of how a Load x RPM table works?

If you have answered no to any of these questions, I would HIGHLY recommend taking the MPVI and your truck over to a reputable shop and having them tune it, or find someone that knows how to tune and learn from them.

IMO, if you have the cash to window a block and shrug it off, by all means have fun experimenting. Experience is the greatest of teachers. But if you're not familiar, there's some real damage you can do here.