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TERRIBLE gas mileage in my 4.3, what do you think?

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Old 02-02-2007, 01:04 AM
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Originally Posted by red95ssclone
350 miles to the tank sounds about 50 more miles than me
I am seeing around 300 miles to the tank in the city and a little less than 350 on the highway. Also another question i had, does anyones oil pressure guage fluctuate? I notice it more when it is cold but the guage fluctuates up and down about +-5 to 10 pounds when idleing. Is this normal? I have never had a vehicle do this...

I have a 99 with the 4.3 and I am getting 500 miles or more to the tank with mixed highway and city driving which averages to 20 miles per gallon. When I first got this truck in 2003, it came with 265/75/16 tires on the factory steel wheels. I was only getting around 16 miles per gallon with this setup. I now have aluminum wheels with 255/70/16 tires and I am getting the 20 miles per gallon.

Last edited by graystepside; 02-02-2007 at 01:10 AM.
Old 02-06-2007, 05:08 PM
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Originally Posted by russelldean
My old man has an 01 1/2 ton with a 4.3 and he had the same story as you. He replaced something in the distributor on a GM techs advise and he immediately went to 17 mpg in town. He has a reg. cab though. I never asked him what he replaced (and he did it himself) but the tech said it was a common problem on the 4.3 engine.

Russ

i have a friend sitting here with the same symptoms and truck and is steadily wondering what your old man actually did when he replaced that something in the distributor. can you ask him?
Old 02-06-2007, 08:57 PM
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my dad's work truck has one of those gigantic caps with ladder rack (which actually improved mileage) and it gets 20-22 mpg but its pretty much all highway driving. i dont know his gearing though
Old 02-06-2007, 09:33 PM
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Originally Posted by anarchyracing101
i have a friend sitting here with the same symptoms and truck and is steadily wondering what your old man actually did when he replaced that something in the distributor. can you ask him?
The only problem we have run into 4.3 dizzys in the full size trucks are the a/c line dropping water on the cap and it getting junked up . Wont start or will run like crap. Could improve the miliage if it has been running bad.
Old 02-06-2007, 09:34 PM
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Originally Posted by graystepside
I have a 99 with the 4.3 and I am getting 500 miles or more to the tank with mixed highway and city driving which averages to 20 miles per gallon. When I first got this truck in 2003, it came with 265/75/16 tires on the factory steel wheels. I was only getting around 16 miles per gallon with this setup. I now have aluminum wheels with 255/70/16 tires and I am getting the 20 miles per gallon.
Do you have a 5 speed and a long bed??
Old 02-07-2007, 10:21 PM
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May have converters plugging up. I have had a couple of the 4.3's through the shop that were damm near melted and not tripping a cat efficiency mil. Might want to check the fuel filter also. All had terrible fuel mileage and no power.
Old 02-15-2007, 03:31 PM
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Originally Posted by 01WS6/tamu
May have converters plugging up. I have had a couple of the 4.3's through the shop that were damm near melted and not tripping a cat efficiency mil. Might want to check the fuel filter also. All had terrible fuel mileage and no power.
Im def gonna check that. I took it to the gm dealer here because it was a gm certified vehicle and ive only had it 2 months. They asked me when i put the "oversized" tires on it and i said about a month ago. They said that im not getting the correct reading on the odometer, i then told them that i did the calculation and the "oversized" tires rotate around 5% less in one revolution than the factory sized tires. I told them that the odometer is telling me around 12.5mpg but with that calculation its actually around 13.5.

They said bring it in on friday and they will scan it. Its not throwing any codes and they said they will look and see if there are any in the history.
I have a feeling that im gonna get screwed on this because i only have about half a month and 1500 miles of coverage left. What should i tell them when i get my truck back and they say that they dont see anything wrong with it?

Oh yeah, and this truck is a 2003 4.3 v6 single cab auto with 38k miles.....another thing that dosent make sense, its basically brand new.
Old 02-17-2007, 12:47 AM
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any ideas?
Old 02-18-2007, 01:06 AM
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My old 2000 RCSB 4x4 4.3 got about 12-14 mpg. My 2004 rcsb 5.3 with cam , 20's , 3.73's and full bolt ons gets 16-18 mpg.
Old 02-18-2007, 10:28 AM
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I had a 01' RCSB 4.3 auto and ran 15.1@88 with it. And I got about 22-23mpg highway.

The truck was pretty weak stock, but with the RIGHT mods they have *****.

1st. Cut off the half moon on the TB blade. It restricts airflow and without it you get tons better throtle responce and WOT performance. *FREE*

2nd. Spend $50 and get a UD crank pully, it makes a good difference, especialy when the AC is on.

3rd. Get a K&N drop in filter, $45 and worth it.

4th. The 4.3's are detuned quite a bit, so a handheld tuner will help alot with power and milage a little. $350, but a must for making the 4.3 come alive.


Those things will be a nice starting point. I also had 1.6 rockers on mine that added a little, but not needed.


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