Home Forums Gear Hunting Trucks and Four-Wheel Drives does more power always mean poor milage?

I was wondering if jeeps 4L, 6 cylinder, would have better millage than nissans 3L v6, because the engine with more power would not have to work as hard, therefor it does not use as much fuel. does this theory make any sense? please bare with me, as I am new to this whole thing.

Note: This is mainly for highway driving

Any comments are welcome. THANKS!!

KPD

yes and no.

depends on your foot, how well the larger engine has been engineered, where it makes power, hspr vs torque, vehicle weight blah blah blah..

case. 305 chevy vs 350. if you keep your foot out of it the 350 wins. the 305 is a fuel sucking turd in my book. the 350 has it when it needs it....

the nissan will get better mileage as it requires less fuel to go. if you raise the revs to match horspower figures (nissan makes 150 @ 5100 vs jeeps 150 @ 3700. just an example. no idea where they fall) then the story changes. if you need 150 hp to cruise along then the jeep might work better as it is turning less rpm. maybe. effecient cylinders/heads, fuel mapping and state of tune are some of the zillion variables.

i doubt you will see as big a difference as you might suspect with the advertised mpg claims. but, if i can trade a few mpg for considerable torque/hp gains i will. displacement rules.

woofer

Answer:

No. I've owned four, and drive about 6 more, Jeeps with 4L I-6 258 cu.in engines. Regardless of make/model/tranny, they all got anout 22 MPGs.

Even my 1984 Nissan with 33" tires and a 4" lift got better than that with the 3.0 L 6.

If it's fuel economy you're looking for between these two, the Nissan's the winner.