Gas mileage 1997 Hardbody 4x4

[tanglefoot]

Anyone have suggestions on have to improve gas mileage I am only getting about 16mph?

[mudcat]

Hardbody's are not known for good gas mileage,16 mpg?I would be happy with that!My '95 Hb v6/auto 4x4 w/31x10.50's only gets 13 mpg!

[JL-KA]

I've got a 94 with a 4cyl and 5speed and even when I baby it I can only squeeze 17mpg out of it. I know...it sucks. The only thing that would get a notable increase would be to detune the engine and downgrade the fuel pump/injectors. Not something I would concider. Could have negative effects on your truck...not sure how bad though, any dealership could tell you.

[cmfireman]

My 86' HB 4x4 with 230k on the VG30 was getting around 13-15 per gallon. Nissan trucks are horrible on fuel. I now drive a 1991 Ford F-150 with a 351 Windsor and get better fuel mielage than the Nissan.

[bassbrothel]

I bought my 95 4x4 SE one year old. So I don't know if the previous owner did anything. He only had it one year so I doubt he would. Anyway I was getting about 24mpg average. Now it is down to 20mpg average. I haven't figured out why it went down yet. I am amazed that others are getting poor mileage. Also I should add that this is with premium gas. I have put in unleaded regular before and got poor mileage from it. It is actually worth it to use premium. Also try using a good injector additive to it.

[Desert Rat]

Octane has no real impact on gas mileage. That's a myth.

Do you have larger than stock tires on the truck? If so, that will throw your odo/speedo off some and make mileage calculations less than actual.

If you don't know your stock tire size, look on the door jamb sticker - it should be there. Then caclulate the percentage difference in circumference.

with regard to fuel economy, have you done a tune up (plugs, wires, cap, rotor)? How's your air filter? PCV valve?

[s14-240]

I actually have had very good results switching to higher octane fuel. One road trip in my 98 4x4 ka24de frontier, I was getting very poor mileage (about 16mpg highway) using 87 octane. I switched to 91 octane and my mpg went up to about 21. normally I get better than both those numbers but this was driving through nebraska in the winter and it was VERY windy. I had to floor it just to go 80. Maybe it had such a large impact because I was in high rpm and engine load.

Just as Desert Rat said, do a good tune-up. Definitely replace your fuel filter. That can make a huge difference. If you get the fuel filter for a 300zx tt it is much bigger than the trucks (at least for the 4 cyl models) and that would help a bit. Also if you can put an intake on your truck and not drive worse, that would help too. Also air up your tires if they have gotten flatter.

Some guy in a Mitsubishi Montero (I can not find the article anymore) posted about his experiences.

He took his montero (getting 21mpg stock) and put big tires, a roof rack, lifted, offroad lights, etc. and was getting about 14mpg. He changed all his fluids to synthetic, using redline lightweight gear oil in the transmission and diffs, put on an intake and exhaust, and was getting 21mpg again.