4.8L fuel economy?
 

the truck is a 95 extended cab
3.08 posi
5 speed
weighs about 3300

so i've been thinking of engines to swap into my S10, it would be a daily driver so fuel economy is by far more of a concern than power.

i've been thinking bout swapping a newer ecotec out of a cobalt or cavalier into it but i've just started thinking about a gen III motor.


i rarely drive on the highway, and when i do its not for an extended period of time so i'm mainly looking for city mileage.


if i had to i would swap the 5 speed for a T56 if that matters


so what kind of city mileage do you think i could get out of a 4.8L? heck even a 5.3?

Ecotec will get better gas mileage than the v8s obviously while still providing sufficient power IMO. Then you don't have to build up the entire rest of the drivetrain either like you would with a 4.8/5.3.

Really depends on your driving but I used to get 16-17 city light footing a 1/2 ton no option regular cab pickup with the 4.8.

Being lighter you would probably get more like 18 city.

yeah i figured the ecotecs would, and i was thinking later on if i wanted to give it some more power to get out of its own way i could put a turbo on it.

the 5.3 in my sierra gets 22+ mixed, so a 4.8 in a lighter truck would do better, especially mixed with a 5 or six speed...

typically the speeds around town are anywhere from 30-50 with the speed limit on most roads ~35-45 fair amount of lights, depends on if i get lucky or not.

i would be babying it shifting ~2000

Does it run now?

the truck? yes, however its not drivable till i get all of my parts for a good tuneup, which should be next week.

How are you getting more than 20 mpg in your Sierra 5.3 extra cab pickup? The best I've seen in my reg cab 5.3 is around 18.5 mpg on the highway. I get around 15.5 around town in the summer and 14 mpg in the winter. I even have the torque management tuned out and adjusted the injector tuning to get the best readings. I would think even in the S10 pickup if it's driven mostly around town you might be lucky to see 18 to 20 in the summer. On the highway I could see it getting mid 20's though since it doesn't have the weight of the full size or the 4WD.

i dont know, but thats what the dic says, and its proven accurate in the trailblazer so i believe it

just playing devils advocate here. i see guys making the mpg argument for putting ls motors in old cars, but they'll never save enough $$ from the increased mpg to offset the costs. a daily driver might if the mpg difference is enough.

if the goal is mpg & to save money, how long will it take to recoup the swap costs? swaps ring up incidental costs pretty fast - exhaust, mounts, harness/wiring costs, fuel system, tuning, etc., you can't just get a yard motor/trans for $1200 and that's it. I'd be curious see what kind of mpg you get out of the truck now (once tuned up). My quick calc is at $3.50 a gallon, if you go from 14 (what my 93 K1500 V6 gets) to 17.5 mpg (that is an impressive 25% increase) you need to drive 80,000 miles to recoup $4000 in total swap costs, or 50,000 miles to recoup $2500.

I expect the echotech option to cost more w/o a big lift in mpg. ROI gets worse I think. I also don't think it has the low end the small v8 does, so locally the v8 might win if you don't have a heavy foot.

If the goal is to say you did a swap and to have the experience, that is cool, by all means do it. But is mpg is the main driver I might think twice.

But that sounds like $$ more fun spent on the camaro. :)

well by fuel economy being my focus, i meant that i'm not going to build the truck to be a powerhouse, thats what the camaro is for :wink:

the S10s with the 2.2L from what i've seen get 22-24 city.
i was doing research and i found that between the different ecotecs they got anywhere from 22-27 city mileage which would be perfect, though i could deal with it if the 4.8 for 21 consistently.

i would also like to have an engine swap under my belt and the 4.3 is going to go out sometime, i figured that swapping in either motor would be more of a plus than spending money on a jasper, a crate, or rebuilding the 4.3. plus i always need something to do so this could be that something for a while

I would never trust any computer for actual gas mileage. But I can't imagine it would be more than 1-2 mpg off one way or the other. I know my daily drive to work will never get me good mpg because of the 25, 35 and 45 mph roads I use. Every vehicle I've had with an automatic was lousy. My Tacoma only got 17.5 mpg with the 4 cyl. My trucks/cars with manual transmissions all got 20+ regardless of the engine. So with a manual trans and either the 4.8 or 5.3 you should do ok if you really need to do the swap.

I have the 4.8 in my 03 Tahoe and i hawk my scanguageII. I get about 14 in the city and 17-18 highway if out in front. Behind a truck it jumps to 22. 8hrs to OBX a week ago I avg'd 17.5

i would think you could get about 21mpgs out of that combo but a quick search on Google brings up a ton of threads about it and most posts talk about 25+mpg hwy.

I saw an article in hot rod, where they put 26.8lbs of boost on what they thought was a 5.3(ended up being a 4.8) with 155k miles and after 20 pulls on an engine dyno made a reliable 1200hp. possibly an idea?

95 is tailpipe test, too. For a daily driver you need that sticker.

I got 17 mpg once in my truck. The rest of the time its 14-15

what sticker?


and i just figured that with my LS1 w/ a 4l60e and 3.23 gears that gets 18-19 consistently, if i had a 4.8 with a 5 or 6 speed, i'd get at least 20

NJ State Inspection

Inspection.

oh right, they'd fail me for the engine swap? even if it runs cleaner?

No but it has to pass tail pipe sniffer. so no jacking out egr, etc.

I am also not sure if the converter configuration has to be the same as stock as well.

I'd want that as close to stock as possible in order to fly under the radar with the swap. I'm not 100% on what the real rules for a swap are, but if you make it look real stock those guys won't know/care.

But you are on the money, a DD that won't pass inspection can be a real drag.

oh well be assured i will make it pass the sniffer


though on the same note, i took the EGR and AIR out of the Camaro and it passed

Your Camaro is OBD II. Your truck is OBD I. You can get an OBD I car to pass for sure, but if you delete EGR and AIR you have to be more careful since emissions levels are actually tested for vs. an SES light test.