Milage RANT

[snootsies]

Ok I have been trying to understand how some of you are calculating your milage... than I figured I was right the first time I calculated it. I have discovered terrible results. I am talking about 16 miles per gallon, or 6.8 km per liter or 14.5 liters per 100 km. From the look of this no one has as bad as milage as this, or at least your not bragging about it. I am not a happy camper. I know everyone says there are so many element involved in your milage efficiency. I may have soft tires, I may have a 6 foot rack on my roof, and all my seats in the back... but I think this is absurd. Something is not right and if you have a clue about what I need to do, please handover some advice. I don't want to sell my deli, but!!! I think something is wrong with it.

[jrman]

I've found that mileage really varies depending on the type of driving. I believe the small displacement engine is very sensitive to mashing the accelerator. In the city - I've been averaging 7.5 Km/L and don't tend to care about taking off slowly from the lights - I do tend to drive moderately hard I guess. When driving out to Chilliwack and return, I've noticed significant improvement to that - potentially as much as 9.5 Km/L (hard to accurately tell since I don't just run Nvan / Chilliwack return till tank is empty). But recently I went to Vernon & return via Coquihalla and found I averaged 8.0 Km/L - which I blame on the long hills with my foot pounded to the floor. So...it's my humble opinion that if you're in Richmond or Edmonton - you're bound to get better mileage compared to stop & go traffic in North Van or driving the Coquihalla every day. Just my 2 cents.

[Duffman]

Does it smoke a lot? Is it hard to start? Is it automatic? If it is Auto what are the shift points (in rpm) under normal driving. What elevations are you usually driving up or around?

There are too many factors to try and figure out the problem. But if you have the answers to some of those questions some improvements can probably be made. If you transmission shifts at too high an rpm the 4d56 engine will burn excessive amounts of fuel. If you run your engine above 3k for long periods it will burn more than you think. The ideal are for these engines is 2200-3200. Anything above and below is outside the optimal operating range. If your engine smokes then it is dumping too much fuel into the cylinders and wasting it which could be timing, injectors, air leaks and poor compression.

Hope that helps.

[TardisDeli]

Hi Snootsies, good to meet you at Last Friday's Deli-Meat. Are you able to make it this Saturday to the CONVOY to stave lakey, we can compare fuel mileage during the trip, and listen to the sounds of your deli as it runs. I found it really really interesting last week driving beside Falco on the highway in two delicas, and in radio contact, to ask what his rev and tach showed on various hills, and whether his gas pedal was floored etc. As a result I checked my tire pressure yesterday, and found it quite low (31 psi, so filled it to 38 psi -- valid for my BFG 30 tires). How's your oil level, some diesels "eat" oil. And you're using decent diesel , and the filter was replaced in the last year? You're welcome to drive mine and I will drive yours around the parking lot at the meet-up to see what feels different. See you Saturday? cheers, Christine of the Tardis Deli, event organizer and Rice-Crispy squares enabler.

[Schwa]

a couple critical things to check:

* Wheel bearings - lots of them are dry as a bone and a bunch of driving will make things worse. If your van doesn't coast in neutral as long as it should, you've probably got high rolling resistance, so bearings, alignment and low tires.

* Injection Pump timing - most Delicas come here with improper timing and / or have their timing belt changed without re-setting the injection timing, so if this hasn't been done go get it done.

[snootsies]

Thanks for the advice everyone. No black smoke, RPMs seem to be low... it is an automatic.. tire pressure is high. For all I know I could just be hard on the pedal... I guess I should bring it to the garage.

[Jester]

When I drive, I almost never exceed 2500rpms in city driving, and very rarely go over 3000rpms.
For example up to SFU, I travel around 70kms/hr @3000rpms.
My economy within city is ALWAYS 12.2 to 12.5L/100 like clockwork.
They're not the most fuel efficient vehicles in the city-they're heavy, and stop-go is hard on mileage.

A visit for a tuneup is never a bad thing, but if you consistently get same or similar mileage, that's a good sign.
Check your driving habits.
Do you accelerate heavy?
Do you anticipate lights and coast accordingly?
stuff like that might make that extra 10-20% difference..

[Erebus]

Mine is an auto, isn't happy about starting below zero, smokes quite a bit. I'm running larger tires (235/75R15) and live at 3500 feet altitude.

I've done 9300 km in 7 months, my mileage over that whole stretch has been:
12.9 L/100km or 22.1 mi/UKgal or 18.4 mi/USgal.

fuel consumption has been slightly higher the last few fillups, figure it is due to winter.

I've had 2 fillups that were in the 14.5 - 15 L/100, and had a couple in the low 11s.

So you might not be that unusual. BTW my odometer is within 2 percent of accurate according to GPS

[mararmeisto]

...For example up to SFU, I travel around 70kms/hr @3000rpms...

Jester: do you have the overdrive de-selected? 70 km/hr at 3000 rpms seems AWFUL high.

After checking my records, I've determined the Moon Machine has consumed 1163 litres of fuel and traveled a distance of 9577km, giving a fuel economy of 8.54 km/litre or 20 mpg US (24 mpg Imperial).

The best efficiency between fill-ups I've experienced was 9.7 km/litre and the worst was 8.0 km/litre.

I find the Moon Machine sometimes would rather slog along in overdrive rather than downshift to 3rd, so I force it from time-to-time. Although the engine revs higher, it's not working as hard, and stops smoking at that point.

Generally, I've found my driving habits are different because the vehicle simply won't respond like I might want it to in some instances. For example I've waited for an opening in traffic much larger than I would have needed had I been driving my VW Cabriolet - that's the reality of driving a diesel vehicle (with a 2.5 litre engine). Now, if these had a 6.5 or 8 litre diesel engine like their NA counterparts (which is a stretch to call anything NA a counterpart to these), then I could probably 'make it' into those smaller openings in traffic, but I seriously doubt fuel economy would be any better with an engine that large.

According to the Fuel Economy Guide to 2008 (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/FEG2008.pdf) there are only a couple of vehicles with diesel engines (3.0 litres for the Jeep) none of which are the heavy duty trucks (which only means none were tested by the US federal government), and the only reasonable ones were high-end 'imports' (the Mercedes and the Porsche which are owned by Ford, I believe).

Long story, short, if you want an efficient vehicle in the 20 mpg range, this is it. It's better than a similarly-sized 2.5 litre gasoline engine by about 30%.

If you want better economy than that, buy a hybrid (http://www.toyota.ca/cgi-bin/WebObjects ... english%3E or http://www.honda.ca/HondaCA2006/Models/ ... efault.htm).

If you want even better, buy a plug-in hybrid (http://www.calcars.org/vehicles.html#1) which you'll have to build (by converting a hybrid with a kit) at this point because nobody produces them commercially.

Or best yet, go completely electric (http://www.electrifyingtimes.com/zenn.html) and you won't use any fossil fuels, especially if you're on a power grid that is nuclear-powered.

[Jester]

70kmh@3000rpm i was referring to is going up the hill to SFU. so off the OD, yes.
Normal highway cruising for me is usually 90, at about 23-2400rpm

[mararmeisto]

70kmh@3000rpm i was referring to is going up the hill to SFU. so off the OD, yes.
Normal highway cruising for me is usually 90, at about 23-2400rpm

Okay, that sounds better... sorry.

I too generally hover around the 90-100 km/hr range, keeping the revs below 2500-2600 rpms. I find that is what gives me the best economy.