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uphill gas mileage and engine displacement

AIbandit

NAXJA Forum User
NAXJA Member
Location
Chico, CA
So we all know small engine's struggle more up hill, but is there a point where a v8(20mpg ish) is more efficient than a 4cyl(40mpg ish).
 
I don't believe there is that point on the highway. Someone can feel free to correct me, but it takes a defined amount of power to move a defined amount of weight up a hill. So for any given situation in like vehicles, the four cylinder is likely to have enough power to move the truck up the hill, where as the v8 will likely always have an excess amount of power. Even if the 4 banger doesn't have enough power, the truck slows down, changes gears, or whatever.

That would be for highway type driving of course, the power required to accelrate the vehicle to a given speed could easily be more than the 4 cylinder can handle, so it would be working at peak output for much longer than the v8 to achieve the same speed. Depending on the number of stop and go's in a given trip, the overworked four cylinder can get worse mileage.

This is all my 20 seconds of thought, so who knows?
 
I think you will need to find the specific fuel consumptions of the v8 at X RPM needed to maintain a given speed and the 4 cyl at Y RPM needed to maintain the same speed.

I see what you're getting at, the MPG of a v8 at 2000 RPM vs a 4 cyl at 3500 RPM (random made up numbers.)

~Alex
 
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