R50 engine showdown

[MY1PATH]

:02: Ok, never owned or driven a VQ so my vote goest to the VG33 for having a flatter TQ band that picks up lower and for giving W/D21 owners an almost direct drop-in 10% increase of displacment. IMO newer engines are harder to work on and offer you less room to accomplish this more difficult work.

[zonianbrat]

With my wd21 VG, I usually get about 21 mpg on the highway, around here you can do the speed limit without getting run down. This summer I made two trips, both that had a lot of hills. On the steepest one, the truck downshifted to 2nd gear at 70km/h and SCREAMED up the hill, just to hold speed. I learned, it was best just to go really really fast down the previous hills and then coast up the other side...I got 20 mpg on that trip with the a/c on most of the time

our r50 came with 245 70 r16 stock. It's a 5 spd 2000.

 

If indeed your getting 21mpg on the highway then that is pretty good and you need to keep that truck!! My R50 was in tip-top shape and I never got that good gas mileage. I know it got even worse dealing with the wind out here. After all the truck is as aerodynamic as a port-a-potty. And trust when I talk about the hills here....there is no way to "coast" up the other side. I would try to gain all the speed I could on the downhill before. There are a few hills I can think of that I would get going 90-95 and even so if I tried to coast up the other side I would not make it up!! It's all good now though my Xploder climbs the same hills at speed most of the time not even coming out of OD. And if it does it goes into a mild passing gear (it doesnt scream). And I'm getting 21-22 mpg going 75-80 depending.

[Justin517]

My dad has an auto '98 Pathfinder and I have an auto '03. while his VG is quite decent and gets the job done, I like (and so does he) the VQ considerably more, just wayyy more get-up and go. He has 180k miles on his and i have 114k on mine and havent had to do a thing to mine. He has had to fix exhaust leaks (manifold), replace the distributor (bearings were shot), and had to do the timing belt twice now. I do have to pull my intake manifold apart and secure the throttle valve screws but the VQ doesnt have a T-belt or a distributor. we get pretty similar gas mileage too.

[csutke]

When my pathfinder 3.5l vq was stock the best I've seen once was 24mpg at driving like a old person and not going over 55mph, but the average was 20-21(Most of my driving is highway) and now with the ARB front bumber, 9500 warn wench, warn off road lights, rocky road super sliders, warn hubs and CSUTKE AC lift that I took off his retired Pathfinder (Sorry). with all that I think added an extra 300lbs and getting about 19 MPG to 20 MPG, Tomorrow I going to discount tires tent sale and see about putting on some BFG 32" on 15" rims. I wonder how bad that going to drag the mileage down and by the way, she has 138500 miles on her and have had only one problem, and that was the MAF (Don't use K&N filter) other than that the normal routine maintance.

 

Now I want to see some pics as seeing how indirectly I helped get your ride in the current condition that its in

[adamzan]

If indeed your getting 21mpg on the highway then that is pretty good and you need to keep that truck!! My R50 was in tip-top shape and I never got that good gas mileage. I know it got even worse dealing with the wind out here. After all the truck is as aerodynamic as a port-a-potty. And trust when I talk about the hills here....there is no way to "coast" up the other side. I would try to gain all the speed I could on the downhill before. There are a few hills I can think of that I would get going 90-95 and even so if I tried to coast up the other side I would not make it up!! It's all good now though my Xploder climbs the same hills at speed most of the time not even coming out of OD. And if it does it goes into a mild passing gear (it doesnt scream). And I'm getting 21-22 mpg going 75-80 depending.

 

It surprised me as well! Damn right I'm keeping it! I don't know how that happened, and I'm not even lying or stretching my numbers...I just don't gun it while getting on the highway, i use most of the merge lane and when I pull in I'm up to speed so no putting my foot into it to avoid tailgaters. I usually drive 10 over the limit as well. The only things I have done to it are a new exhaust, fixed the manifold studs, and a drop in k&n air filter. And I run synthetic oil. I don't know what else to say really

[02silverpathy]

So, with my 4.3's and 32" tires, anything below 45 mph (80 km/h) I should have the OD off? That could increase my city mileage?

Sorry So Slow to respond...if you are able to feather the gas pedal, the answer is yes--better city MPG!

[tekazgtr1984]

Sorry So Slow to respond...if you are able to feather the gas pedal, the answer is yes--better city MPG!

 

Thanks for the reply!

But I checked and I have 4.6's... Still should drive in the city O/D off?

[02silverpathy]

Its tough for me to tell with the VG33, since I didn't have this gauge when I had my 98...the idea is that the higher gear requires more fuel to accelerate and then may down shift and use even more effort to maintain speed, where the OD OFF would have just had your foot lighter on the accelerator to coast a bit before feathering back in to keep speed--with the lower gear in OD OFF it puts more grunt right to the ground than a higher gear does.

 

If you watch your rig (when fully warmed up, tranny and all) for what speed she kicks into overdrive lock-up, mine (3.5 w/4.6s) kicks in just under 40 MPH if I am light on the pedal--this is near the top of the fuel savings for CITY with OD OFF.

 

Sometimes as the engine is winding along at 45 (OD OFF), I just can't believe that the MPG number is better at this 2500 RPM than it would be at 15-1700, but it is right everytime! As XPLORx4 told me this is the eingine & gearings most efficient range for my vehicle--no kidding!

 

The hardest part is not goosing the pedal with OD OFF, since it is right in a sweet power band! Bah, I will get over eventually right?

[laxman0324]

Its tough for me to tell with the VG33, since I didn't have this gauge when I had my 98...the idea is that the higher gear requires more fuel to accelerate and then may down shift and use even more effort to maintain speed, where the OD OFF would have just had your foot lighter on the accelerator to coast a bit before feathering back in to keep speed--with the lower gear in OD OFF it puts more grunt right to the ground than a higher gear does.

 

If you watch your rig (when fully warmed up, tranny and all) for what speed she kicks into overdrive lock-up, mine (3.5 w/4.6s) kicks in just under 40 MPH if I am light on the pedal--this is near the top of the fuel savings for CITY with OD OFF.

 

Sometimes as the engine is winding along at 45 (OD OFF), I just can't believe that the MPG number is better at this 2500 RPM than it would be at 15-1700, but it is right everytime! As XPLORx4 told me this is the eingine & gearings most efficient range for my vehicle--no kidding!

 

The hardest part is not goosing the pedal with OD OFF, since it is right in a sweet power band! Bah, I will get over eventually right?

Well I know the manual's torque is at its peak at 3000 RPM, and Dean is absolutely correct on this one (when is he not correct?)...

 

With my ML 320 there were larger discussions why at 70 mph it would be going at 3k RPM, the simple answer was that the gearing in the diffs and tranny were formulated so at that speed the engine was close to its peak torque so it wouldn't have to downshift to get more power and so the engine could move the truck with relative ease, rather than pushing hard and using lots of gas at a lower RPM...