Thread: New Hilux Fuel Consumption

Originally Posted by ishoot10s

No matter what fancy Diesel engine you burn diesel in, diesel is still only capable of yielding around 19 hp per gallon burnt per hour. Ditto petrol, about 12 hp per gallon burnt per hour. So if your Ute engine has to make, say, 80 hp to overcome drive train friction and wind resistance and vehicle mass etc to maintain a particular velocity, it’s always going to burn 4 gallons of diesel an hour.

Without improving the efficiency of the fuel, you cannot expect major gains in consumption.

There's a bit more to that equation than that - but the basics of your argument are correct. The issue with a smaller engine like the Nissan 2.3L sewing machine with 16 hair dryers and a supercharger on them is that it's all producing the power at revs and no torque. So if you alter the drive characteristics by say loading a heavy boat+trailer on the back is the engine can't easily get to the required RPM to produce the required power. End result is a shitload of black smoke out the exhaust and possibly a limp mode DTC for fuel injector operation and oxygen sensor readings out of spec. Ont he other hand, a bigger capacity engine is less economical empty but at heavy load does not struggle so much and uses the fuel more efficiently.