kinda sounds like trail rig gas mileage to me. but 4-5 mpg? that's crazy! try a tune up and look into the oversized tires/speedo conversion.

 

im trying to find the article i read recently that showed that they do not NEED these tax breaks in order to facilitate new fuel technolgies. when i do ill post it up, im searching.

yes, i do think he is INFLUENCED by his friends, family, associates, etc who have some serious money invested in oil. do YOU really think that bush isnt influenced by his own father??!

religious or secular, this is based on favoritism. id also be willing to bet the info he gets is severely skewed, in that nothing ever sounds as bad as it is.

yes, i think we should stifle the economy. clearly not. the point is, stop treating the oil industry as though it is something we must cater to. they provide a service, and government regulation should extend to price caps per barrel in some fashion. im not studied enough to have a suggested plan, thats not my job. i wish the guy who's job it was would do a better job.

liberal shaded glasses? ouch. well you just based the validity bush's oil plan on whether or not he's religious, so i guess yin does mean yang in this case.

it says it hasnt effected the worlds largest economy. YET!

its pretty clear that several facets of the economy could be blossoming if not swallowed by rising gas prices. the cost of production needs to be tended to and SOON. its not terrible yet, but if gas reaches $4-$5 or more per gallon, you'd better believe youll be paying $5 for a loaf of bread some day.

 

so, back to this guy's problem of 4-5 MPG...

 

this isnt the article, but check this out:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl...NG45CDDBS1.DTL

 

Some of you are not old enough to remember when the truckers boycott the oil companies by shutting down the freeways with large convoys all over the nation at the same time and no one bought any gas for a day or two.... When that's done you are talking billons of dollars for the oil companies. The prices came down very quickly!
Maybe it's time to do the same thing today. Mike

 

ok, i guess i got a little feisty there. it wasn't intended... my apologies.

do they NEED the incentives with all the billions in profit that they're hauling in by the oil tanker full? no, but the incentives will give them a REASON to invest in those ventures. when you're making that amount of profits, why spend it on stuff that would potentially reduce your profits unless it would save you some taxes and get you some incentives. it's not a perfect system, but it's a start.

do i think he's influenced by those around him? sure. however, based on what i believe his character to be, i also believe that he's surrounded himself with mostly decent people. in doing so, i feel that he would pick people with similar convictions as his own - wouldn't you? what makes you think his father is tapping him on the shoulder and telling him to artifically keep the oil prices high? he doesn't have any control over world-wide consumption with non-OPEC countires not meeting quotas and the fact that the current US refineries have has outages for verious reasons? do you think he's got the CIA doing some dirty work for him and doing it on purpose?

put pirce caps on oil, and then new exploration and alternatives will be alternatively stifled. do that, and when it get's too expensive to get it out of the ground and refine it, then the companies will simply stop doing it and then the gas pumps would go dry. i would rather have expensive gas than no gas at all. so, you think it's Bush's job to run the oil companies, future exploration, and our economy into the ground?

we've had high prices for over a year now. what has the economy done during that time? GROWN at better-than-forcasted rates.

how can you tend to the cost of production if you don't give them the tax breaks and incentives so that they can become more efficient and expand exploration and production, and thereby meet the expanding demand? that's the only way the gooberment can help - make it cheaper for the companies to make the investments in order to lure them to spend their money in those arenas. they have plenty to spend, but you have to persuade them to spend it. it's all about ROIC - Return On Invested Capital. that's the single-most important factor in profits. that's what you answer to shareholders about.

i agree that somehting needs to be done, but i don't think that's the high prices are Bush's fault. the EPA has such tough regulations now that it's impractical to build new refineries in the US. want cheaper gas, then get the EPA to back off. you can't do that b/c of all the liberals in congress and in the media. there's a tradeoff, and part of that is NAFTA and CAFTA. now that those are in place, we can have the gas produced in mexico and neighboring countries and then transported here. not as cheap as just making it here, but it's the next best thing.

 

i see your points, and like i said its not that i think you are WRONG i just disagree.

i see it differently, in that the oil companies have a responsibility to do more in the way of spending profits to seek better alternative fuels.

yes, they have no profit motivation if you remove the tax breaks, fine. but theres an old saying that goes "if you dont make your own model obsolete, someone else will". in this case, they should make their own model obsolete.

think of the profits that can be realized by a major oil company who both supplies oil and becomes the number one producer of alternative fuel sources!

ROIC? they get more than their fair share of return. the invested capital is so small compared to their return that they could explain it away and realize higher profits when alternative fuel sources are found, and refined to the point where they are used every day in commercial and civilian life.

and for the record, i dont think bush's dad is tapping him on the shoulder.. that was me being feisty

he certainly does have a lot of fingers tapping his shoulders too though.

maybe he should stop taking so much vacation.

 

WERD!

pitm96 - My gut reaction was that your mods are ruining your mileage. NOthing about big pipes/dual exhaust/no cats/no mufflers is good for your engine - not for mileage and not for performance. Not trying to rag on you, just trying to offer an opinion. Unless you engineered that system with dyno runs etc, I would bet dollars to oil barrels that it's killing your performance. Add the big tires and you have a recipe for bad gas mileage.

The math doesn't account for that low a mileage, unless you just aren't figuring it correctly.
Like everyone said, If you aren't doing it already, figure out how far off your odometer is and correct the miles driven before calculating the gas mileage.

But if you are calculating it correctly and really come up with 4-5 mpg something is bad wrong, because your odometer should only be off by about 25% - this for example would cause 15 Actual mpg to calculate as 12 mpg. In your case correcting your numbers by 25% would mean you are really getting about 6.25 mpg - still bad! Very bad. Maybe you need a locking gas cap?

When I still had stock gears (with 35s) I still got around 17 mpg and one 3-tankful trip at 19mpg! This was of course compensating for the odometer being off when I calculated the mileage. (But I had NO power at all, and didn't even try to put my foot in it. If I tried to go fast it would suck fuel at a phenomenal rate, but not much more speed...) Interesting note was that after I changed the gears the first few weeks saw a big drop in mileage until the novelty wore off and I quit putting pedal to the metal all the time, then the mileage came back to the same, roughly 17mpg real world. Occasional tankfuls in the high 18s. I still have to compensate for the odometer being off, instead of 25% low it's about 7% high now with the 5.29s and 35s. For comparison on a trail weekend it drops down to around 12 mpg.

 

allright... back to why 4 MPG is a bad thing for a 3.0...

 

Did you check the timing?

 

Bush did not sell his oil stocks when he became prez, he did put them in what is called "Blind trust". He still make money from the stocks but some one else manages them for him. Still no room for racist remarks.
Back to the mpg of your truck, gears will be a big help. I get 23 MPG with 35" BFG running a 22R. Doing a 22RE swap right now, wonder what kind of MPG I will get with EFI.

 

One thing to note is that 5 minutes is hardly enough time for the engine to warm up, so it is going to be in warm-up mode where extra gas is injected by the ECU to get the engine up to temp. Kind of like driving a carbed vehicle around with the choke on.

While not a fix for your MPG problems, some form of alternate transportation might be in order for a 5 minute drive. Assuming that is a few miles, biking or even walking will not take much more time and you'll not be filling your gas tank every week.

 

I guess you don't understand. Wherever Pres. Bush is, anywhere in the world, he has access to the same information. He can be at his ranch in Texas, and accomplish the same things, as he can sitting in the Oval Office.

 

Hey fellas, let's leave the politics for another time, yeah?
There's a reason why the politics section in OFF TOPIC was closed.

 

Have you measured CO %? I think you have same fuel overdose. Maybe the lambda-sond? I think your mileage should be 12 mpg at least (real miles).

 

Something is causing you to loose extra fuel, wether your burning it our loosing it??? Do you have a MAJOR leak somewhere? How rich does your exhaust smell...it will smell rich due to your lack of cats anyhow... That is just silly low mileage, unless you drive with your foot on the floor.

and what kind of mileage were you getting before the rebuild?

does the engine run smooth?

have you checked timing after the rebuild?

I get 18-21 with my 35's...thats only 4" lift, and 4.88's with a 4cyl...but still

 

A good friend of mine had an issue with an Alfa GTV6 for a long time where it was getting terrible gas mileage. The car was so bad that you could see black drops of unburnt fuel coming out of the tail pipe. We put an in-line pressure gauge (home depot special) on to try and find out if the rail was getting to much pressure. It broke the gauge, so we took it to a mechanic who put on a proper gauge. The fuel rail was getting three times the correct pressure. The mechanic suggested a clogged fuel tank issue and said he didn't want to mess with it.

With no chance of purchasing a new Alfa tank we pulled the tank out to see what we could find. Sure enough, the fuel return line was clogged in the tank. It appeared that the pin hole rusted closed. With a little luck, a six dollar bottle of Muratic Acid (home Depot special) and gas everywhere we were able to open the hole. When we put the tank back it, it solved the fuel problem and the car has been running well since.

If your gas mileage is that bad, and it is not due to a speedo correction, one of the first things I would for is the presence of black soot on the inside of the tail pipe. You should be able to notice it right off…I would think that you would even be able to see it when the car is running especially since you have no cat.

 

I don't think any engine issues are to blame in this case, that kind of mileage isn't much of a stretch for in-city if you have stock gears, 35's, and a 3.0L. the fact that it's such a big 4Runner rules out things like engine problems IMO.

My suggestions, in order of priority:

1) RE-GEAR!!! I guarantee those 35's are killing you with stock gears... you're probably getting something like 7-10 MPG actual (which is definitely a possibility, some guys quote 12 mpg in-city), and paired with the speedometer being off, you THINK you're getting 4-5. Go 5.29's, that will help some anyway.

2) The dual exhaust probably isn't helping things, in fact it could be making things worse. I say go for a single 2.5" exhaust, maximum. Go to summit racing and get a high flow Catco cat, a 2.5" muffler of your choice, and collect those dual pipes down to one. Summit sells stainless madnrel bent kits you might consider using to make things a little easier.

3) Lighten the truck. I don't know how much stuff you have on it, but things like sliders, bumpers, tools, stuff, etc. can really add to the overall weight of the vehicle and make a significant dent in gas mileage, especially in-city where you have to accelerate all that extra weight from a stop. And yes, the added weight of the 35's gets you twice, you have to make them move forward AND you have to make them spin.

My 0.02

EDIT: By the way, isn't this in the wrong area?

 

In regards to the fuel economy question and the need for toyota to import the "oil burners" to the US, we here in Australia have always had the diesels in our Hilux's but the latest D4D diesel engine is a beauty - it produces (in australian measurement) 343Nm or torque at 1600 all the way to 3400 rpm and has 125 kW. My mates have them and they regularly get on the highway 7.8 litres per 100 km. I dont know the conversion to Miles per gallon but if someone here is mathematically smarter than me could you please quote the US figures of these for you guys to see the enormous benefits of the new toyota diesels.

Thanks

Max.

 

I'll help you get the point across
......since in Canada we get all the fun of dealing with metric and english units at the same time!

343NM = about 253 ft-lbs (same torque as a S/C'd motor!)
125 kW = about 170 HP
7.8 L/kM = about 30 MPG

Damn I am jealous!!! I'd import one of those in a second if they weren't all right hand drive. Hopefully North America will finally catch on with what's going on in the rest of the world and let us have the diesels you guys get to enjoy overseas.