500 miles on a tank, 6 cylinder

Nice!! I used to get 19.1mpg's when I was bone stock.

Now I get 15-15.5mpgs

 

I'm hesitant about posting this but here goes. Prerunner V6, 26.8 mpg, 477.5 miles, filled when fuel light came on 17.8 gallons.

URL below from my post three years ago. 500 miles on a tank was possible with 3.3 gallons remaining. After my post there were some really impressive numbers, 481 miles mixture of city and highway, 524 miles with less fuel 30mpg. I'm 70 years young, thanks for understanding why I'm hesitant.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/best-tank-so-far.290677/page-3#post-7320592

 

OEM size tires ? Checked odometer error with GPS or mile marker?
If your miles travelled is correct, I'm impressed!!

 

That's impressive but most of my driving isn't long distances on the highway so I'll never achieve those numbers.

 

My Tacoma was a few months old with the factory tires and the odometer had not been checked. Currently I have 265 75 16 tires which are about an inch taller. I replaced all four when a tire couldn't be repaired this past winter.

I used to check my vehicles odometers when I passed mile markers after they started appearing on highways but have not seen any in many years. The closest markers I was aware of at the time were 100 miles away.

During the muscle car era, right after putting larger tires on my 442 I was carefully driving 45 in a 50mph zone as a CHP officer was right behind me. The officer got on his bull horn and said the speed limit is 50 so I waved thanks and slowed down. A day or two later I changed the pinion gear in my transmission. Normally the CHP gave 5 over so can't imagine how fast I was really going at freeway speeds or above.

 

Nor will I as one day I just decided to see what I could do. I do get pretty good mileage that wasn't normal driving for me. Normally I do not use cruse control as I get better mileage without it. Recently I developed a positional hip pain, it' just not possible to drive that distance without cruse control which will decrease my fuel mileage. Thankfully for cruse control I'm still able to drive that distance. There was a time when no vehicles had cruse control

 

Ah, the 4-4-2, loved those things. A '66 4-4-2 hardtop just popped up for sale here in my little town. OK shape for it's age. Always wanted one of those after riding in my high school buddy's yellow mid-60's 4-4-2 convertible. That was a schweet rig. But I'm over it with old cars/trucks. Let somebody else crawl under them to chase down the latest broken thing.

 

Seems like a lot of weight for some thing that is rated with a GVWR of 5350.

 

I do 20 and 400 miles in all around driving in warm weather but I don't live near any city the closest traffic light is 8 miles away and I don't see another one for 16 miles. I don't see any reason driving 55 on the highway that I shouldn't get 22-24 but it hurts my motor to go so slow!

 

Yeah, I'm working on trimming some fat. I can't imagine what full expo setups weigh - I don't even have steel bumpers.

 

20W anything . . . . . .. . in anything is a good thing
Takes some longer to figure out sufficient lubrication LOL!
Get them plugs DROPPED!
(dont let my post count fool you)

 

first off you can use 0w-30 in any weather condition, in fact there is no point not to use 0w-30 if you are running synthetic as its the same price and offers better protection.

Why do you ask

0w-30 is still TOO THICK even at 100* to properly lube a motor, but is MUCH MUCH closer to any Xw-30 weight oil at operating temperatures. Because of this you will have better start up protection and easier oil flow when cold, and under operating temps its the same thickness as any Xw-30 oil standard or syn...

 

My 442 was a 69 purchased Sept 68. As for always breaking things, guess that depends on how much racing, how hard, and type of transmission etc. The jolt from speed shifting 4 speeds could break things. I did my share of street racing and ever broke anything. Mainly the between stop light type of deal, nothing serious like the guys racing for money, plus I couldn't afford to be breaking stuff. I changed cam's, carb jets, distributors etc, with moderation. Cars were a lot simpler back then with fewer parts to go wrong? I apologize if reading between the lines I'm way off base with my post assuming the broken parts are from racing. .

I am very sorry, I thought you spent a lot of time under your friends 442.

 

I use Mobil 1 0W-30 in mine. I'm in socal so I don't worry about low temps outside. In fact, if you believe Bob... it's better.

http://bobistheoilguy.com/motor-oil-102/

 

Wowsers, you bought one off the lot. That's pretty dang cool.

To be clear, I never owned a muscle car, just admired them. I grew up in Michigan where the earth rotated around muscle cars in the 70s. Chevelles, Mustangs, Goats (from your handle I assume you've had a goat?). Fastest car in the county back then was a late 60's Buick Skylark. Farm kid had juiced it up, and he'd put a big tall gear shift out of an old pickup truck in it. The guy was about 5 foot nothin' and you'd see him rumbling down the road with his hand up in the air resting on that gear shift barely tall enough to see over the steering wheel. Not sure how he shifted fast enough with that stupid thing, but he was able to smoke anything that came along. Another guy had a '71 camaro with a blueprinted motor (rich kid). He couldn't stay within 5 car lengths of that Skylark in a quarter mile.

When I talk about being tired of crawling under old vehicles I'm mainly thinking about two old Hilux pickups I owned in the last ten years. One was a '91 2wd standard cab strippy that I bought from my ex-wife (it had been ours starting in '94). She hadn't taken care of it during the years we were apart (surprise) so it had a certain amount of crap. Then I bought an '89 4x4 xtracab, and that damn thing was a money pit. That's what I really think of. Always had wanted one of those 22RE xcab 4x4s. But by the time I got one it was a hoopty old pile of worn out junk. It was always something. Cured me for good. Bought a '14 Taco new off the lot and plan to keep it until I'm in diapers. Sure, you can get an old hilux in decent shape, but for what you pay you still have a grossly underpowered vehicle that gets crappy gas mileage. When you're four-wheeling it's awesome, but 99.9% of the time you aren't and then it's like riding in a covered wagon.

But that's a diversion from muscle cars, Taco gas mileage, and oil viscosity. This thread has it all!

 

You'll see a much bigger improvement in mileage putting on smaller, lighter, narrower tires. And you won't be risking damage to anything.

 

My 500 mile tank was 420 when the light came on. Usually 16.5-17 gallons the light comes on. The needle was well on top of the "E" when I hit 500. Yes, I have a V6 4x4, not a prerunner. I dont mind annoying speeders behind me while I go 55. Whats the rush? Theres no sane reason why anyone should be exceeding 65mph.

 

As long as you aren't impeding the flow of traffic, holding up lines of cars or going slow in the number 1 lane, then sure. Go as slow as you want. But when you say there is no "_sane_ reason why anyone should be exceeding 65" I get a little irked. Thats not for you to decide. If traffic is moving at 85mph, no sane person should be driving 55. For some of us, safety and moving through traffic smoothly is worth a lot more than saving a buck on the next tank of gas.

Respectfully,
dp

 

In rural America, on 2 lane roads where the speed limit is 55 mph, going 55 mph is fine and dandy. Going 64 is also fine and dandy but you just wait for a straight stretch to pass.