My Study: Simple Tips & Tricks to improve fuel economy on VS

[Immortality]

My VN V6 with 3.45 gears got 7l/100km when driven nicely. If you have a heavy foot then aiming for economy is fairly pointless.

The trick with getting economy is not having to rev the engine to much but not labouring it either.

What most who have spent some time tinkering and tuning V6 engines have discovered is that power/economy actually go hand in hand. My little V6 isn't to bad with fuel but gets up and boggies when required.

 

[monkeys437]

3.45's made my instantaneous consumption at cruising speeds increase. I can't see how that can be mitigated by throttle control.

 

[someguy360]

As said above.

I also used to have 3.45's in my old V6 and went from an avg fuel consumption of 13.5l/100km (50/50 highway and city) to around 15L/100km


Best economy mods I have found over the years are a good service, new O2 sensors and a decent exhaust (and a light foot)

Also if you are doing highway/open road driving 4 Speed transmissions = terrible economy by today's standards....a 5 speed manual I find is better on highways as you can get the revs down much lower

 

[Jonah 101]

At highway speeds you use less fuel with the A/c on than if you had the windows down.

Get you brakes serviced, make sure the sliders a free and the pistons are not sticky.

Remember though after you do all of these things suggested, it would have been cheaper to be a useless bastard and not do anything, but you car will thank you for it

 

[Drawnnite]

just putting it out there.
don't always think just putting a set of extractors on will always improve economy.
I did just that (everything else was standard) and it actually went worse.

also consider a Tune.
someone like the The1 on here should be able to set you up.

 

[Jonah 101]

just putting it out there.
don't always think just putting a set of extractors on will always improve economy.
I did just that (everything else was standard) and it actually went worse.

also consider a Tune.
someone like the The1 on here should be able to set you up.

And $600 or $700 ( how ever much they cost ) buys alot of gas haha.

 

[commodore665]

just putting it out there.
don't always think just putting a set of extractors on will always improve economy.
I did just that (everything else was standard) and it actually went worse.

also consider a Tune.
someone like the The1 on here should be able to set you up.

I had the same problem when I fitted headers on my old VX , ended up getting them heat wrapped as the oxygen sensors were not getting hot enough so it was just sucking more fuel , expensive as it was tuned for 98 RON .

 

[mpower]

And $600 or $700 ( how ever much they cost ) buys alot of gas haha.

I put $110 in 1 tank in the Monaro the other day, so ah - not really.

 

[Immortality]

Also if you are doing highway/open road driving 4 Speed transmissions = terrible economy by today's standards....a 5 speed manual I find is better on highways as you can get the revs down much lower

I think you might need to rethink that. 4L60e OD ratio is 0.70:1 and the T5 is 0.72:1 so almost identical. Both will sit approx at 1800rpm @ 100km/h with the standard 3.08 diff ratio (T5 about 40rpm more). If you have the later getrag manual box than it's actually worse because the OD ratio is 0.81:1 so more revs @ 100km/h ( just over 2000rpm, maybe Holden realised that it likes a few more revs).

If you want decent OD ratio's than you want something like a T56 with 0.5:1 OD but then you still need to increase the diff ratio to make use of it (the V8's got 3.46 standard with the T56).

 

[someguy360]

I think you might need to rethink that. 4L60e OD ratio is 0.70:1 and the T5 is 0.72:1 so almost identical. Both will sit approx at 1800rpm @ 100km/h with the standard 3.08 diff ratio (T5 about 40rpm more). If you have the later getrag manual box than it's actually worse because the OD ratio is 0.81:1 so more revs @ 100km/h ( just over 2000rpm, maybe Holden realised that it likes a few more revs).

If you want decent OD ratio's than you want something like a T56 with 0.5:1 OD but then you still need to increase the diff ratio to make use of it (the V8's got 3.46 standard with the T56).

Sorry got my ratio's mixed up....(was thinking of the T56 not the T5)