Gas Mileage

4

4runner1891

New member
What kind of mileage is anyone getting out of their 2nd gen 4runners? mine is bone stock except for a cold air intake and it seems im lucky to get 15 out of the 3.0 V6. seems kind of low considering i can get 10 or 12 out of my '88 K5 Blazer with a s.b. 350 lifted, etc (which is for sale btw.)
 
Register to hide this ad
Hey,

Driving extremely easy I can get 24 mpg out of my V6 3.0L 1988 in the city however, as soon as you step on it or engage 4x4 you drop. I short shift at about 2000 rpm

On the highway on average (being easy on the gas) I get 27-28 mpg.
 
Gas

15.2 mostly highway for the last tank. V6 AT with AC blowing (Arizona). That's driving it pretty easy and keeping it at 65mpg.
All stock.

Thinking of adding headers. Anyone have good results with improved millage with headers?

What else can be done?
 
mountainman_gz said:
Hey,

Driving extremely easy I can get 24 mpg out of my V6 3.0L 1988 in the city however, as soon as you step on it or engage 4x4 you drop. I short shift at about 2000 rpm

On the highway on average (being easy on the gas) I get 27-28 mpg.
Click to expand...

that makes no sense to me. mine is an at but being newer and proably better tuned due to that fact why am i getting so much worse?
 
mountainman_gz said:
Hey,

Driving extremely easy I can get 24 mpg out of my V6 3.0L 1988 in the city however, as soon as you step on it or engage 4x4 you drop. I short shift at about 2000 rpm

On the highway on average (being easy on the gas) I get 27-28 mpg.
Click to expand...

That's really good mileage. I have a '90 4 cyl 22RE and when it was new I could squeeze out 27 highway if I tried. Probably about 25 now, but I usually get 22 or so. 75+ mph :)
 
mountainman_gz said:
Hey,

Driving extremely easy I can get 24 mpg out of my V6 3.0L 1988 in the city however, as soon as you step on it or engage 4x4 you drop. I short shift at about 2000 rpm

On the highway on average (being easy on the gas) I get 27-28 mpg.
Click to expand...

Dude, I don't know what kind of magic gas you are using in your 3.0 V6...
I am lucky to get 15mpg in my 1995 SR5 4runner, auto, 31"s.

Peace,
Yota Buck
 
I just roughly calculated mine last time I filled up and it came to 15 mpg, almost 16, all in the city. After my tuneup/upgrades I hope to get a bit more out of it.

24 mpg is way better than anything I can get.
 
Hi all,

I just wanted to add a little more to this forum since everyone is wondering why my gas mileage is very high.

I had bought my 4runner from a user who changed oil every 3000 km. I put $5000 (CAN) into it which is pretty much the front and rear wheel components. This translates into the rolling efficiency of the vehicle.

I have 220 000 km on my vehicle so it is lightly used and this helps my gas mileage as well.

As for actually driving, I think most of you shift your trucks between 2000-3000rpm. If I short shift (which I do in the city) at 2000rpm, I can squeeze 24mpg out of a tank (Note: Short shifting means shifting to the next gear when the tac is at a low rpm and the engine is producing little power). If you drive harder for example shifting now at 3000rpm, you'll have mileage around 18 mpg on a very well maintained vehicle. Put in 4x4 and your mileage only goes down.

A friend of mine has at 1987 4runner V4 automatic and couldn't get more then 15 mpg in the city. He has big tires and drove a little harder.

I have smaller mud+snow tired, fairly the same size as stock. If you have mudders on your runner it can be expected that your mileage will decrease a lot.
 
Haha, I just wanted to add that the 4runner burns just as much fuel idling as it does running so if I got stuck in traffic a few times my mileage would plumit.
 
Lucky You Guys....i'm getting 13mpg after the tune up. The stealership told me that after the tune up, it will have a better milleage. BTW I only have 40K miles in my ODO...
 
mountainman_gz said:
Hi all,

I just wanted to add a little more to this forum since everyone is wondering why my gas mileage is very high.

I had bought my 4runner from a user who changed oil every 3000 km. I put $5000 (CAN) into it which is pretty much the front and rear wheel components. This translates into the rolling efficiency of the vehicle.

I have 220 000 km on my vehicle so it is lightly used and this helps my gas mileage as well.

As for actually driving, I think most of you shift your trucks between 2000-3000rpm. If I short shift (which I do in the city) at 2000rpm, I can squeeze 24mpg out of a tank (Note: Short shifting means shifting to the next gear when the tac is at a low rpm and the engine is producing little power). If you drive harder for example shifting now at 3000rpm, you'll have mileage around 18 mpg on a very well maintained vehicle. Put in 4x4 and your mileage only goes down.

A friend of mine has at 1987 4runner V4 automatic and couldn't get more then 15 mpg in the city. He has big tires and drove a little harder.

I have smaller mud+snow tired, fairly the same size as stock. If you have mudders on your runner it can be expected that your mileage will decrease a lot.
Click to expand...

that is still damn good mileage. i am luck to squeeze 15 out of mine. and the only thing different in stock that might harm mileage is that the tires are 265's as opposed to the stock
?255's?
 
Hey,

I was talking with one of my buddies about the mileage issue and I forgot about US gallon vs imperial gallons.

1 Imperial Gallon = 4.54609188 Liters
1 US Gallon = 3.78541178 Liters

So apparently I was using the imperial gallons. I ran the numbers again and my mileage for US gallons would be 20 mpg with the best conditions.
 
I've got a 90 T4R 3.0L V6 AUTO 4x4...

Door plate says G294... which should translate to an 8" gear with a 4.10 gear ratio. 4 Pinion Open Differential. (all greek to me)

The truck came stock with P225/75R15's, but currently has 31x10.50's.

My gas mileage SUCKS and I have very little power going down the highway or up a steep climb.

So, looking around here, I think I need to change my gear ratio to 4.56 to get the best balance out of my new tires.

QUESTION > Will the 4.56 ratio give me better gas mileage or better power?

QUESTION > How do I change my gear ratio... that's one I've never done before.


Thanks :)
 
8" gear is the standard size of the differential, nothing special there.

4.10 means that for the wheels to turn one revolution, the driveshaft must turn 4.1 times.

Open differential means if you put one wheel in the mud, its going to spin uselessly and the wheel on the other side will not get any power. Since the front diff is also open, you're gonna get stuck even in 4WD. I'd opt for a nice LSD (Limited Slip Differential) for driving around in the snow. That way if even if one wheel starts to spin uselessly, the other will get some power. I hesitate to recommend an automatic full locker (both wheels spin at equal power) because those can actually induce a spinout on slippery surfaces when they lock up. Unless you get an ARB locker, those are not automatic. They are open until you flick a switch. For Alaska, an ARB might be the best bet. That way you decide when and where to lock the differential so both wheels get equal power.

Since the tire/wheel combination's diameter was increased, you now have higher gearing than the OEM combo, so yeah you'll lose a bit of power. Going to 4.56 gears will compensate for the larger tires. But since the engine will have to turn the driveshaft an additional .46 revolutions to achieve the same ground speed, your gas mileage is going to go down.

As far as changing gear ratio goes, never done that myself so hopefully someone else will chime in.

Unless you have some great need for those 31's, might be easiest to go back to the 225/75's (equivalent to running 28.3" tires). Solve your gearing problem w/o any mechanical work or a detrimental effect on mileage.
 
Last edited:
As I mentioned in a different thread, you can get slightly better mileage by replacing the mechanical fan with a thermostatically controlled electric fan. Also, the OEM intake is very restrictive (hense that loud sucking noise when the engines running) un-restrict the air box, she'll get better mileage.
Also, a dirty oxygen sensor can cause poor mileage as well as a dirty catalytic converter.
 
Good points retro, thanks.

I have a K&N filter in my airbox, but you mention "un-restricting" even more. How would you suggest I do that?

I prob should check my O2 sensor. Any idea where that thing is?

There is currently no fan on my truck... of any kind. lol Here in Alaska, it's no big deal as long as I don't sit at a light too long. I think the original fan blades broke off or something... the metal thing in the middle is still there, and the belts are turning it, there's just no fan blades.

And yeah, I have a leak in my exhaust system. Somewhere behind the driver-rear tire. I haven't crawled under there yet to look. That's probably hurting me a bit in gas mileage... and you're right, that cat-converter prob needs a swap out too.

EDIT: I took a look under the truck during lunch, and it looks like one of the seams in the muffler is opened up. Guess I need a new one. Any recommendations?

------------------

So if I go to the 4.56 gears as mentioned in another post on Pg1, I'll get better power for highway driving and hill climbing, right? But I would actually LOSE gas mileage by doing so? My current setup with the 4.1 gears yields about 12 mpg... and I certainly don't want to make that any worse!! lol
 
Last edited:
you have two oxygen sensors, I think. They will be on the exaust pipe.... one will be between the engine and the catalytic converter and one will be after the cat. Where I live in So. California ....I could never get away without ANY fan (over heat in 2 sec) or a split muffler (cops would pull me over and cite me for "Excessive noise emitting from muffler" in about 2 sec). ......... I think your mileage is going to suffer simply because of the frozen enviroment you live in.....because everything (like wheel bearings, gear oil, etc.) is frozen and dragging ....at least before everythings warmed up..... and that is going to HAVE to take a toll on mileage. But, that said, you can and should go through everything and make sure your wheel bearings arent binding and your brakes arent adjusted to tight and your tyres arent under inflated...little things that will rob you at the gas pump......... Do they "smog" you up there? If not I'd just pull the cat and knock out the element (DO NOT BREATH THE DUST!) and get that sucker free flowing as possible...Or they also sell cats that are more free flowing then the OEM one. Keep in mind that each little thing you do might add on one or two miles per gallon and dont press hard on the gas pedal.
 
gas mileage

I have 95 4 cyl 5 spd. I get 10L/100km in the summer. That is a lot of highway driving with some bush driving thrown in. I drive like an old man though 90 km/hr.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 357 (members: 4, guests: 353)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,307
Messages
3,554,048
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top