Chadzilla

Guys, I read somewhere that not babying your engine will make it last longer, and is better for it. I seem to find cruising at about 40-45 in 5th gear to be alright, but is this too low? Im at say 1100-1300 rpm when driving in 5th gear around town. Should i leave it in 4th and cruise at 2,000 RPM? I know this will yeild faster acceleration when needed, but im 16 and pay for my gas, so im trying to save a little bit. If i wanna punch it and have a little fun I can down shift.

So
A) Is driving at 1100-1300 considered lugging your car and bad? (carbon build up, etc)
B) will MPG go down much by driving at 2000 RPM in 4th gear instead of 1100-1300 in 5th?
C) Will not "babying" your car make it last longer?

Thanks
Chad

threeg502

Yeah you gotta "clean out" the motor once in a while. A good place is getting on the highway. Once
every day or two should be good. I don't think there's anyone on here who babies their car though, so what do we know? You might want to be a bit higher than 1100rpms while cruising around town. I run 2000 or a tad higher and still get the epa 16-17 mpg around town. So I must be doin' it right. Had the car six years and always got about that.

Colorado_Mustang

I generally shift around 3k rpm, and shift to the next higher cruise gear when the rpm's get around 2k. If I need to accelerate, I'll downshift to try and keep the engine above 2k. I get 25+MPG with an '03 GT.

Lugging your engine will allow carbon build up, as will never taking the engine to redline. Have you ever been behind someone when they floor it and see all the black smoke (modern car)? That's not a good sign and generally indicates the car has been babied too much.

Chadzilla

yeah, i get about 17.5 and thats with shifting at 3k. I guess i will open her up a bit more often. Its fun, and if its good for the car it justifies it!. haha

Colorado_Mustang

I just noticed you had a sixer. You may be in need of a tune up and maybe some other maintenance. Make sure your intake is clean and free-flowing, your plugs are new and properly gapped, any ignition components are in good shape, your exhaust is free flowing, and your air filter is clean (and preferably of higher quality than paper...the fibers in paper will swell with moisture restricting air flow).

You should definitely be getting close to 30mpg...especially since the 8-holers are in the 20's easily.