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

[Jonah 101]

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

Thats not what i mean't lol

 

[Pollushon]

Mod type inclusions....

# Consider installing some VX injectors??? True or false??

# Add Manifold Spacer too?? True or false??

Injectors = False. Made no difference to mine and I don't see why it would, the ECU will continue to deliver the fuel required based on all the other sensor inputs.

Spacer = True, minimally in my experience. The insulator keeps the plenum cool so the air measured by the air temp sensor is closer to accurate as it enters the runner, closer to combustion. Plus cooler air is more oxygen dense.

As long as everything else is spot on, then a decent memcal tune will give the best fuel economy benefits.

This. The tune makes it all work.

Funnily enough my blower has made a huge difference. An extra 50-80 kms per tank. All that relies on it being out of boost so it's a ridiculous endeavour for fuel savings but **** tonnes of fun

 

[Drawnnite]

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 .

heat wrapped you say.
do go on.

(I need something to do to the car and it sounds interesting)

 

[Immortality]

I will happily admit that in my case, the manual VN uses less gas than the auto VS and I think that is what Holden have always said in their advertising literature as well. I think it's only with the ultra modern 5 and 6 speed auto's that your seeing the same fuel consumption between auto and manual vehicles.

I will add that the thing with diff gears is that it's very easy to rev the engine more, if your at all inclined to use the new found acceleration than diff gears will hurt economy. With my VN I can almost let it idle down the road at 55km/h in 5th gear with only the slightest pressure on the throttle.

 

[PlenumBiscuit]

Whats funny is just as i post the fuel economy thread, my fuel guage sticks, and i have to bang the dash to make it go up lol

Changed sparks today, they were shocking, the previous owner should be banned from driving, im already gonna save fuel with the new sparks, how much i wonder hmmm

Being an easy at home & cheap job, im really interested in this fix....
Oxygen sensor has a bad earth

anyone tried this, is it true and worth a shot?

 

[Immortality]

Only if your car has an issue, if it doesn't than leave it alone.

One way to check it to remove both sensors and see if they look the same. If your sensors are more than 100,000km old then I would recommend that you replace them. Being a VS they are probably considerably older and are most likely the original items. Only replace with genuine Bosch/AC Delco etc can be found on ebay fairly cheap.

The spark plugs would look terrible if something else is telling the PCM to add more fuel. The most likely culprits are O2 sensors, the temp sensor (if faulty PCM thinks engine is still cold), the MAF can also contribute if dirty.

 

[aussie bob]

Gotta give my car a full service as I'm only getting 350-380km out of a tank running shell premium

 

[commodore665]

heat wrapped you say.
do go on.

(I need something to do to the car and it sounds interesting)

It 's like a thermo wrap , goes round the headers , another option to heat shields

 

[Immortality]

Gotta give my car a full service as I'm only getting 350-380km out of a tank running shell premium

It's not great, but then it's not to bad (I think the OP is probably one of those guys who uses about 17litres/100km and gets 300km from a tank at best), it really depends on what sort of driving you do. The other thing a lot of folks forget is that the VS V6 only has a 57 litre fuel tank where previously sedans had 63 litres standard and after VS the tanks got even bigger. It's not good to compare vehicles by what you get from a tank of gas unless your talking about identical models.

My missus gets about 400+km from a tank of gas (VS 57litre) but with only an average speed of about 38km/h so that is a lot of stop/start driving with a few short stints on the motorway (and she has a heavy foot).

 

[WazzaV8]

A lot of them things are unnecessary and will cost more than the fuel savings for example the auto trans service every 20,000km, with the trans service kit and oil it will cost what, $100 all up plus your time in labor, will it save quarter of a litre per hundred kilometre, at $1.40 a litre for fuel that's a 35 cent saving every 100 kilometres or $70 every 20,000km so you will be spending $100 to save $70 when your trans may only need a service every 50,000km.