The myth of gears not affecting gas mileage...

[grandestang]

Let me just start by saying I love my new 4.30s and I would have never bought the Cobra if I cared at all about gas mileage. They definitely turned the Cobra into a beast. However people on this board constantly say how gears will barely affect mileage, but for me they affected it significantly.

I'm not doubting others' stories saying people are lying when they still get great mileage with their gears, but this was definitely not the case for me. I'm just offering my story to those to the table in addition to the others to say if you get gears, its not gauranteed that you'll still get good mileage.

With the 3.27s I got spectacular mileage, my average mpg was 23. After going through about 5 tanks with the 4.30s my best mpg has been 18 and that was on a recent road trip to school. Its 300 miles round trip and I used to be able to do it on one tank. Not anymore, I needed to refill at the 250 mile point. Thats a pretty significant drop off IMO.

The gears were definitley worth it, all I'm saying that if mileage is important to you with current gas prices then it could be misleading what has been said about gears barely affecting mileage. Just my .02

Paul

 

[notfastenuf]

Nice honest write-up.

I'm leaning towards 4.10s, not because of that... but just because.

 

[STAMPEDE3]

I don't know what to say, I used to get 20-22 with 4.30s

But I kept it 70MPH or under unless at the track.

 

[slosnake]

Its not the gears that affect the gas mileage, its our right foot that causes the decrease in mileage and also causes a smile on our face too!!!!!!

 

[Labora]

If your drive is freeway it makes since you will drop MPG, (even if you go the speed limit you will be pulling more RPM then before) in the city you might actually pick up a lil better MPG.

I know with my 4.10's I can start in 2nd and usually skip to 4th or even 5th and just putt around town.

 

[BooRail85]

18? thats low.. With my 4.30's, I set the cruise at 80, taching 3k and i average 23mpg. I was very impressed to say the least. still get almost 300 miles to a tank around town and can damn near tag 400 in the highway.

 

[Tabres]

Maybe I'm just running really f'n rich and need a tune very bad, but I don't know how you guys manage to get that many miles per tank of gas.

Last time I filled up (at a little under 1/4 of a tank) I got roughly 250 miles strictly driving to work and back for a total of about 10 miles per day (two trips there and back per day - lunch), and one trip out of town and back on country roads totaling about 90 miles. It netted me something like 17.8 mpg when I worked it out at the pump. And I drive like a Grandma because I have to with the situation with my driveshaft, so it's not my right foot...

And I do understand that these things suck gas when they're cold and my 2.5 mile drive one direction to work probably doesn't provide for enough time to allow the car to properly warm up, but geez...

Having said that, I have never for one single second regretted changing to a 4.10.

 

[u n v kenny]

Maybe it's just me and my led foot, but even when I had 3.27's I could only get about 230 miles out of a whole tank???

 

[RioRed4v]

i used to get around 23mpg with my 4.30

 

[97snake]

I get 220 to a tank driving it like I stole it.

 

[Doug]

Maybe I'm just running really f'n rich and need a tune very bad, but I don't know how you guys manage to get that many miles per tank of gas.

Last time I filled up (at a little under 1/4 of a tank) I got roughly 250 miles strictly driving to work and back for a total of about 10 miles per day (two trips there and back per day - lunch), and one trip out of town and back on country roads totaling about 90 miles. It netted me something like 17.8 mpg when I worked it out at the pump. And I drive like a Grandma because I have to with the situation with my driveshaft, so it's not my right foot...

And I do understand that these things suck gas when they're cold and my 2.5 mile drive one direction to work probably doesn't provide for enough time to allow the car to properly warm up, but geez...

Having said that, I have never for one single second regretted changing to a 4.10.

ditto man, i cant get more than 250 to a tank. i get to scared i'm going to run out. maybe our fuel level gauges suck and we really have an extra half tank who knows....

but i'm with labora - i start on in 2nd, shift to 4th, then shift to 5th and cruise around most of the time in fith downshifting to 4th for steep hills..

 

[SteveB99]

My 4.10s got me 23+ on an all highway trip, with conservative speeds in the 72 mph range. Last tank, mostly in town driving, saw 18 mpg.

 

[Doug]

i get about 200 to a tank if i'm using the bottle a lot and have got worse as 170 to a tank (went througth 6 bottles of nitrous in a week period, and for about 2 days was driving around on my nitrous tune and didn't know it)

 

[98 svt]

i went from 22mpg with 3,27s to 20mpg with my 4.30s

and i know i'm definitely getting better muleage in town too. i'm now in 5th when i would normally be in 3rd.

 

[SteveChris]

it shouldn't have been a myth in the first place, it's simple math. use x amount of gas while cruising at 2500 rpms on the highway = youll use more then x amount while crusing at 3000.
what people always say is that your city mpg wont change and technically that can be true. if i shift at 4000 rpms while normal city driving, ill still do that..just sooner.
but they fail to mention that once you get the gears in youll spend more time in the upper rpms. i rarely took my car above 5000 before the gears, now i do alot more even in city driving

 

[grandestang]

Well maybe the trick is to keep the speed under 80. I cruise pretty quick on the highway, especially considering Rt. 65 which takes me to college has a speed limit of 70 mph which allows me to comfortably cruise at 80+ mph.

And to the above post, I know simple math, and so does everyone else. But obviously its not applying as people have still been able to manage the mpg they stated even with the gears. It applied to me, but obviously all cases are not the same.

Paul

 

[GMKILR9050]

I went from just 4.10s to a T-56 swap and 4.56 gears and I lost a noticeable amount in fuel mileage. But as stated above, I blame my right foot!

 

[WyoTechMSA]

My 4.10s got me 23+ on an all highway trip, with conservative speeds in the 72 mph range. Last tank, mostly in town driving, saw 18 mpg.

ditto

 

[Njc0las]

The trick is to keep it at 2700rpms. 2700rpms = Most efficient gas mileage in a 96-98 cobra. My friends and I stick to this practice and my friend with 4.30's got 27mpg on a recent road trip. It works! I'm surprised nobody chimed in with that already. :coolman:

 

[98 svt]

2700 with my 4.30s is around 72 mph.
I'll try it, but I usually do 80ish on the highway.