93-02 V6 Tech V6 Camaro General Topics.

bad mpg on a 3.4

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  #1  
Old 04-07-2009 | 11:27 PM
shawnz_90's Avatar
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Default bad mpg on a 3.4

I just got finished with my 3.4 camaro body and paint project and it looks great except i get 15mpg city.... i picked this car up for 400.00 off of a friend about a year ago with a good motor and trans just bad body. Never realy drove it. But now that the paint is almost done except for the stripes im driving and geting 15mpg :-/

As far a i know the motor is a bone stock 3.4 except a k&n cold air intake. The only other things done to the motor is new plugs, wires and i use Lucas Upper Cylinder Lube in my gas to try n help. Any idea on better gas mpg?

ill make a list of what i was thinking just let me know what you think.

1.Cuting off the cat and adding like a flexpipe and some clamps to help with flow. (where i live i dont have to deal with imisions on 93& down)

2.Trying seafoam. Can it hurt my motor??

3.Trying some kind of a oil flush to clean out my motor. Any idea on brands???

any other ideas are more than welcome
 

Last edited by shawnz_90; 04-08-2009 at 11:11 AM.
  #2  
Old 04-08-2009 | 07:43 AM
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Seafoam will not hurt anything at all. It is used for anything and everything mechanical it's a little pricy compared to lucas or some other brand, but it's the best stuff out there (unless you get some professional grade stuff that I don't know about). I had a pretty bad injector clog that when I hit OD it would rock the whole car like a plug was missing.

The same day I filled up and put it in drove it around a little bit then drove it the next day and noticed a HUGE improvement. The entire problem was completely gone. It will tell you on the bottle that it is used for anything and everything (boats, lawnmowers, cars, etc.) If I had been using premium gas probably wouldn't have caused the problem, but my camaro is driven as mode of transportation not joy riding . I am not sure about the other stuff, but from personal experience I give seafoam a biiiig stamp of approval . oh and quick word of advice don't sniff it when you open it....I almost passed out .
 
  #3  
Old 04-08-2009 | 10:17 AM
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lol thx because ik i would probly sniff it. Any other ideas???
 
  #4  
Old 04-08-2009 | 12:38 PM
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Oxygen sensors... They will hurt your mileage more than any other part on the car lol
 
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Old 04-08-2009 | 01:44 PM
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Do plugs, wires, fuel filter, clean the air filter, throttle body spray in your butterfly valve... How many miles on it?

Try a cat-back exhaust, high-flow cat or cat delete -- many places only do emission tests for '96+ -- depends on the state... Are you pulling any codes/SES light?
 
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Old 04-08-2009 | 01:45 PM
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Apart from the obvious bad gas mileage -- is there any code the comes up for the O2 sensors -- or how do you know they failed or are failing or inefficient? Is there a test one can do?


Originally Posted by evilkal
Oxygen sensors... They will hurt your mileage more than any other part on the car lol
 
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Old 04-08-2009 | 02:46 PM
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Usually your O2s are the problem if you're getting mileage like that and not having horrible misfires. Usually if it's the O2s, the car will misfire high in the powerband because the engine is being flooded with fuel.
 
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Old 04-08-2009 | 03:47 PM
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what they said + pluged cat will do it. breaks draging.
 
  #9  
Old 04-08-2009 | 06:37 PM
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Well a plugged cat would be a noticeable power loss. It seems by the OPs post that the car runs fine, it just gets bad mileage.
 
  #10  
Old 04-08-2009 | 07:00 PM
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Yeah its a 1993 with about 130,000 miles on it just did an oil flush today and to my surprise nothing chunky came out but it has a new K&N CAI, New Cat, New Fuel Filter, New Plugs & Wires, New oil & filter.

But as far as knowing a power diffrence with the CAT i never realy drove the car enough to notice. I bought the car a year n half ago drove it home about 15-20 miles and drove it to the shop after i bought it to get the cat put on. (only reason i had the cat put on was to pass imsions then a few months before i finished the car they changed it to 93 and down dont have to get tested)

But yeah ill try the o2 sensors and get back to you guys

o yeah the car runs great and no code lights are on
 

Last edited by shawnz_90; 04-08-2009 at 07:09 PM.



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