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Fuel mileage then and now

O

OliverGuy

Well-known Member
I sent a friend two states away in an '08 GMC half ton with a 4.3 to pick up something for work. I know the hammer may have been down for parts of it, but the mileage figured to be 18-19mpg. Isn't it funny, I had a '92 Chevy with a 5 speed and 4.3 in my younger years that I drove down the interstate and could get 25mpg on long trips. 16 year newer truck and no improvements, only backwards. I know everyone knows that already, but geesh. One time I drove that '92 from northern IN to Atlanta and back towards home and filled up somewhere in TN. Getting 20+ mpg on the highway and a 34 gal tank, you could go on for awhile.
 
They have come a long way in reliability, but fuel mileage is a joke. Nothing is made to last, it is all throw away after 5-7 years.
 
I never had a Vortec 4.3, but driving habits mean everything with that engine in a full size truck.

I know my neighbor had a '92 half ton 4wd with a 4.3, and drove it hard. He complained about poor fuel economy all the time. Some people just don't get it.

Glenn
 
Hi. Had an 82 Pontiac j car and got 40 on the highway with cruse control. Had Pontiac 6000 four cyl that got 34/27. Now drive a geo storm that gets a solid 35/30 and is fun to drive Wish I still had my 6000 with the iron duke
 
I had a 92 chevy 4x4 5 speed fullsize shortbed and I could never get more than 15-16 mpg no matter where I was driving and it usually figured more around 13-14. Seemed like it was working all the time even with the empty truck!
 
Nothing wrong with an iron duke. We had a bonehead that worked for Dad that ran one dry in an S-10, or at least it didn't even register on the stick. It was still running, so we dumped the cup or two that was in there and refilled. It kept running, but Dad sold it the same year to a guy that we told it had been run low on oil. That guy ran it for almost another 100,000 I think! Until the body about fell off from rust. Must have been made good.
 
I had a '90 GMC with a 3 speed auto and a 305 that got an easy 28 mpg on the highway.

What's that saying? The first liar doesn't stand a chance.
 
Oh yeah, mine had no b-lls, but did ok. Must have had a high rear end in it. When I pulled a decent sized boat on a tandem trailer, it was always 4th gear was the last gear possible and A/C off on any incline!!
 
got a 82 chevette -- gets 42 mpg -- its a deisel -- went to a car show in Chicago in 2009 and a good looking gal said there would be a hydrogen powerd car by 2010 -- she lied-- still no such thing -- she also told me that there new hybred would get 32 mpg or so -- i told her i had a car that got 50 when new and with 150 thousand it still got 42 mpg -- no reply-wondering if you fellas had any such info on the hydro. car --
 
My first truck was a used '71 F250 with a 360 3 speed. Got about 10MPG....but I was a teenager. It was one of the most reliable vehicles I've ever had but it was pretty much rust from the glass down when I retired it. Pulled the engine and put it in another truck.
That thing would pull a freight train. Didn't have much on the top end though.

Current truck is a '00 F250 5.4 auto OD. Gets 10 MPG on a good day. The 5.4 is a gutless gas hog. Has around 140 K on it. Had to replace all the coils once and a few twice. I do have BIG side tool boxes which hurt the mileage but 10 MPG is pathetic. The roof is rusting out above the windshield.
 
My neighbors landlady who is 90 something told him the most honest person in the world will lie about crop yields and mileage, my experience is that chevy guys have the best fuel mizers, or so they say!
 
I have played with hydrogen generators in some of my vehicles. They work for a short time, and even though you relocate the O sensors in the exaust, the computer will soon readjust and you are back to your old milage. There was also a lot of daily maintainance. (filling the tank with distilled water, mixed with sodium powder. watching the inline amp meter to make sure the ss electrodes wern't scaleing up, etc)
I do think that I can make a Kohler garden tractor engine run on Hydrogen, from a simple generator though.
Loren, the Acg.
 
Interesting how we remember everything as being better than it was. Sorry, but the only time your '92 hit 25 mpg was going down a steep hill with a tailwind. And let's not forget that speed limits were much lower twenty years ago.
 
You are mistaken. Sticker was 17/23, higher than an automatic and higher than any other v6 I ever bought. I'm talking only interstate driving, nothing else.
 
never saw a pu that could pull anything get 15mpg in those early days. people use to come to my shop and beg me to help them get better mileage.
you could throw money at them all day and never break even on better mileage against money spent. I finally quit doing it.
 
I've drove a LOT of different trucks in my fifteen years of driving. That said, nothing has even come close to my 1993 dodge diesel with a 5-speed. 297,000 on it and still running strong! Wouldn't trade it for a new one.
 
The EPA ratings were known to be optimistic in those days; the EPA has since adjusted them so you can compare apples and apples with new vehicles. If you check it out on fueleconomy.gov, the new rating for your '92 is a respectable 16/21, which to your point still beats the '08, which is only rated at 15/20. Of course the '08 is a more capable vehicle, probably heavier and certainly more powerful.

Regardless of the EPA rating, your '92 only saw 25 mpg in your dreams.
 
I've got a 82 Chevette diesel along with a pair of 91 VW Jetta diesels. The Chevette gets a solid 45 MPG on a flat highway cruise and the VWs get 47 MPG.
But . . . with diesel 60 cents more per gallon then regular gas - the savings isn't as great as it used to be. I find the Chevette must nicer to drive then then VWs. Must nicer 5 speed trans.
 
I had a 92 S10 2WD with a five speed and 4.3 V6. 22 MPG was the highest I ever got with it on a long, flat highway trip. My 1985 Isuzu 2.2 diesel mini-truck (same as a Chevy LUV) only gets 26 MPG on the highway.

I never owned or heard of a 4.3 GM in anything that got very good fuel mileage. If your's did, it was an anomalie. My 95 AWD Astrovan with the 4.3 got a best of 18 MPG on the highway.
 
I'll second that. My 1992 Dodge 4WD extended-cab truck with the intercooled 5.9 Cummins has been amazing and now is over the 300K mile mark. Runs like new and rides like a Sherman tank. 3.50 axles and Getrag 5 speed. 20 MPG empty on the highway. Took a trip to Kentucky recently with a slide-on camper on the back. We averaged 17 MPG for the entire trip. When we got back we put that same camper on my 1994 Ford F250 with a 7.3 turbo diesel - also 4WD and extended cab. It got 13.5 MPG for the trip. The Ford rides a lot nicer but the Dodge won by a large margin with power and fuel efficiency. I suspect it will outlast me. It is certainly holding up better then I am.
 
01 Ford F-150 2wd super cab long box best ever mileage in the lower 20's a few times. Normal back and forth to work 15-18 with 15-16 being the norm. Using ethanol laced fuel knocks down the MPGs. In reality my 01 2WD F-150 doesn't do much worse on fuel than my 83 Ranger 4wd did, of course on trips with the Ranger I'd see the lower 20's all the time just not a few anomalies. When new our '91 Honda Accord would do around 33 MPG on a trip or about the same as my '80 Renault Lecar would, but with the Honda we got auto transmission, air conditioning (for the first 200,000 miles at least) 4 doors, cruise control power windows and locks and it has lasted a whole lot longer. With 278,000 miles it only gets between 25-28 MPGs back and forth to work, don't know about trips as we don't use it for trips anymore.
 
Roy,

Actually Chevrolet released a hydrogen (fuel cell) Equinox in 2007. They run great. Honda had some early fuel cell concepts in 2002-3, but also released a main stream FCX model in the 2007-8 time frame.

Rick
 
Have a 97 GMC Sierra 4X4 with 5.7 Vortec and a 34 gallon fuel tank.I brought tandem axle a U-Haul packed full of household belongings and truck loaded with large garden tractor and 2 push mowers along with all the garden tools. Brought from Lewisburg,Pa. to LaPorte, In. (610 miles) and used 30 gallon of fuel thats 20.33 miles per gallon. I think thats not bad for a full size pickup and a 5.7 V8.
 
In the 50's the speed limit was 65 MPH on the two lane highways in In.,we didn't drive that fast a lot of times when conditions were bad,today they are 60 MPH , but if you drive the speed limit now, most everyone will pass you, doesn't matter how bad the weather is!
 
(quoted from post at 16:31:58 11/04/13) I sent a friend two states away in an '08 GMC half ton with a 4.3 to pick up something for work. I know the hammer may have been down for parts of it, but the mileage figured to be 18-19mpg. Isn't it funny, I had a '92 Chevy with a 5 speed and 4.3 in my younger years that I drove down the interstate and could get 25mpg on long trips. 16 year newer truck and no improvements, only backwards. I know everyone knows that already, but geesh. One time I drove that '92 from northern IN to Atlanta and back towards home and filled up somewhere in TN. Getting 20+ mpg on the highway and a 34 gal tank, you could go on for awhile.
Click to expand...
bought a new Plymouth Satellite in 1973, with a 318 two BBl, three on the tree, and 3:75 rear end. The only options were power steering and an AM radio. It weighed 4000 pounds at the local elevator scale and it would get 22 MPG on a trip driving the speed limit but going easy on the acceleration. If I pushed it the mileage went down to 16-17 real fast. I did keep it for 300,000 miles but it was a rusted out shell by then. Bought a new 79 Dodge 3/4 ton with full time four wheel drive and a 360 with a four speed stick and 4:10 finals. 9 MPG! I still have it and drive it sometimes. My 09 Colorado five cylinder two wheel drive averages 18-19 local driving and 23 hiway and I have the log book to prove it. I hope to put 200,000 + miles on it but we'll see about that. Jim
 
I find the vortec 4.3 in my 97 Blazer is not great on gas mileage . Seems to hang in around the 20 mpg mark most of the time. And I don't drive it hard. I thought with overdrive and highway cruising around 1900 rpm it would be better. My old 81 full size GMC pickup with Olds 403 gas engine will average 17 highway and that is at 2600 rpm. Way way more power than the 4.3 and not that much worse on gas.
 
Your right we had a s10 I believe that was 17/23 and my half ton was 16/21. But it got more than 21 several times. I drove like a grandpa because I didn't have a lot of money and it had a really high rear end. There's no dreamin' I made it to Atlanta and turned back, sorry. You just never know, i've bought 3 of the same truck in the same year and they're all different. I've had my share of stinkers too. I still have a 6.0 in a 2500 out on a crew that I swear gets the worst mileage of about anything here, even the 8.1's.
 
Early 90s were good years for the 4.3 in half tons. At work they had a 90 work truck - 2WD, 5 speed, 4.3 that I drove to Fargo from central Iowa. I don't remember the exact mileage, but it was close to 30. That thing also had the large gas tank in it - probably 30 gallons. You really had to pee when you finally stopped for gas! I don't understand why they couldn't get that kind of mileage from the S10s with the same motor. The 94 S10s with the 4 cylinder would get 30 mpg. I have a 2003 with the 4 cylinder, 5 speed and it gets around 21 mpg.
 
I was told once there are only 3 things a man will lie about...1-his money he makes, 2-his women, 3-his gas mileage. That's why I figure every drop I burn in my vehicles.
 
I think I still need the right plate to put a A 4 203 Perkins in a two wheel drive F150. I bet you'd get 50 miles to the gallon
 
Odd you guys must all be Ford or Dodge guys or worse yet Toyota guys. I have a 2000 1/2 ton with a 4.3 auto 2X4 that constantly runs 19-25 MPG interstate with ethanol gas. reg gas runs up towards the 25 mpg mark. Anyone want to ride I'll be darn glad to put a coat of wax on it and show you.
 
The REAL issue is that you did NOT get 25 MPG. Mid sized cars with a V-6 can barely make 26.
 
The battleship USS Washington (BB56)
weighed 45,000 tons when fully loaded.
It carried 5,500 tons of fuel when fully topped off.
At maximum efficiency - traveling at 15 knots - it burned 6.25 tons or 1682 gallons of fuel per hour and had a cruising range of 13,588 nautical miles.
At maximum speed - 27 knots/hr - it developed 150, 000 HP and burned 43.3 tons or 11,666 gallons of heavy bunker fuel per hour. Maximum speed reduced it's cruising range to 3450 miles.

And I thought my Chevy was bad...
 
We have a bunch of fools who dont know that it takes more fuel to cover a given distance in less time.Ive got some milage figures for 30s Ford cars.Nothing has changed.Ir took the Ford 60 hp V8 more gas to cover the same distance as a 95 hp Mercury at high speeds.The 60 had a 4.44 ratio.Cop stopped a woman doing 90 mph.Asked her why she was driving so fast.She replied I was low on gas and wanted to get to the gas station before I ran out.
 
gas milage now is thesame or slightly down from 10 years ago, new emmissions regulations are part of it, but the biggest factor is how the vehicle is driven, or if its used to tow a trailer either way you have no problem, my best milage truck gets 9 mpg , all but one of mine are commercial bodys, heavy as heck and designed to do a specific job, i need the job done, the price is bad gas milage
 
Our 2012 Impala with a 3.6 gets 29 MPG consistantly with both city and highway driving. Since it is an unassigned fleet car everyone that gets behind the wheel drives it like they stole it.
 
Last time I checked the BTUs of energy in a gallon of gasoline. And The energy to accelerate 4000lbs to 60mph hasn't changed . Efficiency of the internal combustion engine hasn'tt changed a whole lot either.
 
I have a '82 ford f-600 bucket truck that has always amazed me.

It has always gotten 16 to 18 mpg and it weighs in at around 13,000 lbs.

370 gas engine and manual trans.

Brad
 
What would be the top speed of an F-150 with a 4 cyl Perkins 203 (50-75 HP)? I wouldn't want to take one with a load up a hill in traffic.
 
The speed limit here on X-ways is 70 MPH, but if you are not running close to 80 MPH you will get run over. Makes a big difference in mileage.
 
(quoted from post at 08:22:54 11/05/13) I have a '82 ford f-600 bucket truck that has always amazed me.

It has always gotten 16 to 18 mpg and it weighs in at around 13,000 lbs.

370 gas engine and manual trans.

Brad
Click to expand...

I'm thinking your "gallon" would overflow an empty 5 gallon bucket!
 
(quoted from post at 06:23:55 11/06/13) The speed limit here on X-ways is 70 MPH, but if you are not running close to 80 MPH you will get run over. Makes a big difference in mileage.
Click to expand...
I run as close to 70 + or - 1 or 2 MPH on I/S highways as I can and haven't gotten "runover" yet.Very few heavy trucks cruise at 80MPH and I've not seen any get runover.I have seen a few of them get rununder.Usually by a drunk or sleeping driver.
 
Hmm, I dunno about old being better than new, and old getting better gas mileage.

My 1997 Chevy Cheyenne 4.3L 5-speed never got more than 16MPG. Ran like garbage its entire life, and was shot at 96,000 miles.

The 2003 Chevy Silverado 4.8L automatic I replaced it with just turned 200,000 miles, gets 18-19MPG overall now, and got 21MPG in its prime.
 
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