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more mpg out of suburban

wildcatjason said:
I have a build thread on that site. I swapped a 4bt in my 88 burb with a 5spd zf5 and 3.42 gears I run 19-20 mpg in town. The engine is virtually stock.
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Cool! I see this is your first post, so WELCOME to CK5...

Post a link to your thread in another thread... or PM me, Id like to see that.

Cheers,
Andrew
 
pad! :pimp:....and Welcome:bow::bow::waytogo:
 
Ive been to forums where it just pisses off the moderator to do that so I haven't out of respect. I think I can post it after the fifth post. I also have an app that I have been keeping track of the mileage on my phone and I would like to post the last 5 fillups.
 
wildcatjason said:
Ive been to forums where it just pisses off the moderator to do that so I haven't out of respect. I think I can post it after the fifth post. I also have an app that I have been keeping track of the mileage on my phone and I would like to post the last 5 fillups.
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cool...how's the torque on the 4bt? kinda been rolling it around in my head...
 
62 fat guy said:
cool...how's the torque on the 4bt? kinda been rolling it around in my head...
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It's better then a stock 454. The truck will do 75. It just doesn't get there fast in stock form. It gets around town and down the highway fine for normal driving. The 350 was faster but I don't watch the gas needle move as fast as the speedo anymore which has been fantastic.
 
wildcatjason said:
It's better then a stock 454. The truck will do 75. It just doesn't get there fast in stock form. It gets around town and down the highway fine for normal driving. The 350 was faster but I don't watch the gas needle move as fast as the speedo anymore which has been fantastic.
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lol that's all I need...I'm too old to worry about "fast" anymore...:thumb:
 
I have take several videos of my truck running or going down the road this is one of it driving down the highway. It gives you an idea of noise. There things that can be done to eliminate noise and vibration from this engine. I am still trying to calm down some of the diesel noise and the truck has very little vibration just from a heavy flywheel and using hydraulic motor mounts for the engine and the transmission. http://youtu.be/XJoh4Qfjqw0
 
Feel free to check out the video. It has a flowmaster on it. My build thread has my flywheel, motor and transmission mounts. There is very little vibration in the truck.
 
black dawg said:
In our family car burb (91 1500 4x4) I have been thinking about building a small cube v8 to try to help mpg. The thing is rarely driven on the highway and gets about 11 usually. With 3.73s and stock tires it feels like it could get around with alot less motor.

anybody have any experience with something like this?
My first thought was build a tbi 292 six banger, but always hear that they were lousy for mpg. I dont know if a 4.3 or a 250 would be enough motor, but somewhere in the 283-307 range seems like it would be ok.

the plan would be to keep it tbi.
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Stick with the 350 TBI setup, they got the best mileage out of this generation of blazers and burbs. The 3:73's seem to work great with stock 31" all season street tires.
When I bought mine I was averaging 11 to 12 mpg commuting to work, it ran really good, but not as good as I thought it should/could. After a year of tinkering and rebuilding/replacing things, I could average 15 to 17 mpg's consistently while driving it conservatively for fuel mileage.
Things that helped:
1. Cleaning/rebuilding the throttle body
2. Fixing the intake manifold gasket leak(vacuum leak I couldn't find) and replacing the TBI base gasket
3. Setting idle and timing back to factory specs
4. New O2 sensor, IAC sensor, and TPS sensor
5. New EGR valve (mine seemed fine, but was sticking occasionally)
6. New plugs, wires, cap, rotor, etc.
7. Replacing the 180* thermostat with the proper 195* one!!!
8. K&N filter in stock air cleaner housing with some mods
9. I've done some other mods that helped with seat of the pants power, but made no difference in mileage

My best mpg so far was almost 18 mpg, but I drove my blazer from Pennsylvania to New Orleans 1,323 miles one way and averaged 17.3 mpg for the trip doing 70 to 75 mph with the AC on with 3 guys and all our gear in the back for a month.
The Bad:
I recently put a set of 32" Goodyear mud terrains on and lost almost 2 mpg immediately. The winter blend fuels we run here also typically decrease my fuel mileage by 1 to 2 mpg.
I hope some of that helps somebody, my fuel cost savings have more than paid for all the parts! I no longer DD the blazer due to rising fuel expense, but it's better than buying a new $50k truck to replace it! I personally believe that the TBI setup is capable of masking performance issues that the average person wouldn't notice, fooling people into thinking their trucks run fine. I was amazed how well mine ran with all the issues it had.
 
wildcatjason said:
Ive been to forums where it just pisses off the moderator to do that so I haven't out of respect. I think I can post it after the fifth post. I also have an app that I have been keeping track of the mileage on my phone and I would like to post the last 5 fillups.
Click to expand...
dont worry about padding here:rolleyes: there are whole threads dedicated to padding in whatever creative way you can:thumb: I'm gonna read that thread of yours too. My 88 is my DD and more MPG is always a good thing. PLUS its my travel vehicle so....
 
shady said:
dont worry about padding here:rolleyes: there are whole threads dedicated to padding in whatever creative way you can:thumb: I'm gonna read that thread of yours too. My 88 is my DD and more MPG is always a good thing. PLUS its my travel vehicle so....
Click to expand...

It's something to look into. I took the plunge and have been happy. It basically sounds and act like an old 12 valve with a 2/3 the power and 33% better fuel mileage. Maybe not exact on either, but I'm happy with it and I'm going to drive this piss out of it.
 
I will register over there so I can see your pics...the vid was cool...

lots of folks here do the 6bt swap, I just don't do any heavy towing, so it would be overkill for me...:whistle:

I've got the diesel bug bad since i joined here...:whistle: I get goose bumps listening to the fedex trucks...:pimp:
 
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