Guest shrtysdvs Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 Anyone have any mods i can do to my 1996 Buick Regal Olympic Edition V6 3800 that will help me get better gas mileage :?: Quote
DiscoStudd Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 The only "mod" that would give you better fuel economy is to jerk out that "thirsty" (note the sarcasm) 3800 and replace it with a 4-Banger. 3800's get pretty damn good fuel economy if you ask me. My 3800 Regal gets maybe 1 MPG less in city driving than my wife's 3100 Lumina does. Highway MPG is the same between both cars (or at least negligable enough for me not to care.) There is no "Miracle" fuel economy improver, so all I can tell you is to Tune up your car the best you can. Make sure your tires are inflated to at least 32 PSI (I set mine at 40.) Change your air filter, plugs, wires, Oxygen Sensors (both of them), fuel filter, and run some injector cleaner thru the tank. Get some throttle body cleaner and spray out the throttle body. Disconnect the vacuum hose and dump some GM Top engine cleaner or Seafoam thru the hose with the engine running. You also might want to change the Catalytic Converter if that's plugged (that can cause shitty gas mileage...) Also look into switching to synthetic oil. Use your cruise control on the highway... Don't "floor it" off the line... And if you're really desparate for fuel economy, (say this next phrase in a retarded voice) Drive the speed limit. (Supposedly that works according to the government buerocrats...) Quote
THe_DeTAiL3R Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 I Stu just about summed it up perfect right there! Switching to synthetic oil is another option which might supposidly increase gas mileage (less friction right?) Driving habits can affect gas mileage up to 40% (or so I hear). I've been easier on the gas lately, although its hard with a gutlass 2.8 under the hood. :x Stu: doesn't the Lumina weight more than the Regal? I would assume thats why they are so close in gas mileage. :?: Quote
DiscoStudd Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 Stu: doesn't the Lumina weight more than the Regal? I would assume thats why they are so close in gas mileage. :?: Could be. I looked up the weight of my 2 cars. Only a 69 pound difference. 96 Lumina Base Sedan-- 3330 LBS 95 Regal Custom/Grand Sport Coupe-- 3261 LBS Not much of a difference, really... Quote
Euro Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 One tip I use to save gas is to not make short trips, or dont speed alot. The faster you go, the worse your gas mileage will be. Quote
THe_DeTAiL3R Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 Is there a certain speed on the highway that our cars get the best MPG? Or does it depend on the model/engine? I hear on 97+ GTPs they get best at ~105km/h. I think my car gets best around 80-90 kmh. Quote
jus2sweetregal Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 most cars get the ideal mpg at around 40mph. thats usually the best speed. my average mpg is between 16-20mpg. thats with city driving and a little highway driving. Drive the speed limit. hows this possible to save you gas. say the speed limit is 25. and your goin 40. are you wastin gas? i dont think so cause if the speed limit is 40 and your goin 40, then that wouldnt be any different than going 40 in a 25. Quote
Tru2Chevy Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 One tip I use to save gas is to not make short trips, or dont speed alot. The faster you go, the worse your gas mileage will be. Not true - every engine has a "sweet spot" where it operates most efficiently. A friend of mine put a new camshaft in his Firebird, and lost several MPG on the highway. When he switched from the 3.23 gear reatio to the 3.73, his mileage actually improved by 2 mpg because the change forced the engine to operate in it's most effecient rpm range on the highway. I don't know where the sweet spot is on all the w-body's but I can knock down approx 26-28 mpg in my '91 3spd auto Lumina doing approx 80 mph on the highway. - Justin Quote
99RegalGS Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 Stu: doesn't the Lumina weight more than the Regal? I would assume thats why they are so close in gas mileage. :?: The 3800 is very good on gas. At the dealer I saw a 3100 Century and a 3800 Impala. Both get 20city and 30 highway. Quote
Guest TurboSedan Posted May 13, 2004 Report Posted May 13, 2004 Use your cruise control on the highway... my highway mileage was much better when my cruise control worked. now if i could only figure out why it no longer works Quote
Guest Gp crazy Posted May 14, 2004 Report Posted May 14, 2004 Well you might find this intresting i took some "RAIN-X" & wiped just the windshiled, rear windshelid DO NOT DO THIS TO PLASTIC with it and inproved my milage by 2 mpg. Now i get on avg. 25 mpg instead of 23 mpg. Now if i get the front end stright it would go up a little more! If i cleaned the whole car wash,buff,wax it would go up a little more! Now if i can get myself to not punch the gas all the time ill be all set . Gp STE weight 3580 or so right now 25 mpg on avg Quote
93CutlassSupreme Posted May 14, 2004 Report Posted May 14, 2004 i put rain x on my windshield and it didn't do shit yes, i read the directions and followed them to the letter Quote
godofthunder Posted May 14, 2004 Report Posted May 14, 2004 i really doubt that being true. I can slightly see a cleaner car can cut though air better, but not that much beter . If thats all you did, and really think it helps, what about the air going arround the side windows, roof, and botom. Actually...that would save gas...weld a huge peice of aluminum covering the whole bottom of your car....to make it more aerodynamic. use AC on the interstate. Yes. thats right. Arround 45MPH is when you really start getting drag with the windows down. So, i recomend (and yes, this has saved me, and our 03 duango a few MPG). Put all 4 windows down on the sedans. Drive arroudn town like this, not with AC on. Then, when on the interstate, put windows up after getting to speed, turn AC on (lowest as possible), and put on cruise. The "drive slower and save gas" thing is kinda true. MAny people (I see many 4 bangers doing this) have to cruise arround 70 about 2-3 grand (i think our celebrity is arround 2.5-3k).....but IIRC, im only doing about 1.5. So...that does save money, for those that have the gears for it jon Quote
CPSMonteZ34 Posted May 15, 2004 Report Posted May 15, 2004 Keeping to the posted speeds does gain you the best fuel economy. We're not talking city traffic speeds, mind you... I'm referring to highway speeds upward of 70 km/h and up. Here is Sask, driving the 110 km/h speed limit on the Trans Canada sucks gas. The engine having to spool the higher rpm's and keep to speed is the culprit. A speed where the car does not have to work much to stay there is ideal. The best mileage I ever got was open road cruising at 90 km/h (50 mph). Anything higher and the fuel mileage slowly began to suffer. ...and sometimes not being in such a hurry helps. Staying in-line with a few cars of traffic (so long as they're all good at keeping a set speed) really helps keep the engine from having to work at cruising. Quote
god910 Posted May 15, 2004 Report Posted May 15, 2004 What CPSMonte said is basically correct, but to simplify it, it's at your peak torque RPM. (Not toque, you silly Canadian's ) So if you make peak torque at 2500RPM, the closer you stay to that RPM, the better mileage you will get. (This has been fought out, in MANY threads, on MANY forums. Chevy Talk being the one that I witnessed. 8) ) Quote
CPSMonteZ34 Posted May 15, 2004 Report Posted May 15, 2004 I wasn't even thinking about it, but that's obviously the best term. LOL Dumb me. Anyway, peak torque is ideal because the engine is performing at its optimum pulling power with the least effort - meaning, you don't need that gas pedal to go much further to benefit from the engine's power. I would imagine a car that attains its best torque at cruising speed would have a dramatically superior fuel economy...can anyone say, diesel? Still...the difference is that the pushrod engines might benefit in the lower RPM's, but no DOHC runs peak torque RPM's at the speed limit...rather, you're really wanting to go somewhere if you're cruising around at 4500 RPMs. That won't save you any gas. Quote
jus2sweetregal Posted May 16, 2004 Report Posted May 16, 2004 93CutlassSupreme Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:34 pm Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i put rain x on my windshield and it didn't do shit dude i only put rainx on my side and back windows. ive put that stuff on my winshield on my old car and it made it worse to see. i think thats the worst thing you can do is put that on your windshield. Quote
93CutlassSupreme Posted May 16, 2004 Report Posted May 16, 2004 93CutlassSupreme Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:34 pm Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i put rain x on my windshield and it didn't do shit dude i only put rainx on my side and back windows. ive put that stuff on my winshield on my old car and it made it worse to see. i think thats the worst thing you can do is put that on your windshield. no shit it was a total waste of my time and money Quote
GP1138 Posted May 17, 2004 Report Posted May 17, 2004 93CutlassSupreme Posted: Thu May 13, 2004 8:34 pm Post subject: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i put rain x on my windshield and it didn't do shit dude i only put rainx on my side and back windows. ive put that stuff on my winshield on my old car and it made it worse to see. i think thats the worst thing you can do is put that on your windshield. no shit it was a total waste of my time and money That's because Rain-X sucks. Go to Jiffy-Lube and ask for their equivilant to Rain-X (I can't remember what it's called). It works wonders. I can get on the highway in the rain and it doesn't run down, it runs up. It's the coolest thing I've ever seen. I can understand how some would think it a waste of money, but *shrug*. Quote
THe_DeTAiL3R Posted May 17, 2004 Report Posted May 17, 2004 I get best MPG going about 80-90km/h ... engine doing a little less than 2.5k in overdrive. Quote
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