Hilux V6 4.0 Fuel Consumption

Most people who worry about their fuel consumption buy a diesel. The petrol's fuel consumption has been well illustrated. Both a petrol and diesel were taken around Australia towing and trecking and the Diesel used around half the fuel of the Petrol. Not being smart here but the question lends itself to this.

Years ago when the Japanese started fitting V6 engines to 4wd's it was explained to me by an engineer thus.
Most Jap V6's are designed to be used in lighter cars, they rely on revs to generate power and torque. They work well in lighter cars as once the vehicle is moving it doesn't take much to maintain speed.
In a heavier 4wd where torque is king the engine needs to rev harder than it would in a car to maintain the same speed. This is accomplished by lower gearing which allows the engine to rev harder to generate power.
There is also more pedal required to maintain a given speed.
That being said in light duty running in an empty vehicle they can be quite economical but the crunch comes when heavily laden and required to work hard which means more revs, more foot and increased fuel consumption.

Thats about 15.3 l/100K.
I don't think you can do much better, maybe some Prado owners will tell you, they have the same motor don't they?

G'day Paul,

We have a 120k old 2004 4.0L Prado which gets about 18l / 100k daily driving. I did a heap of research before buying this car / engine, including fuel economy, purchase / resale price, and servicing costs. Diesel is better value than petrol ... however we bought the petrol with the specific plan to run it on gas. When run on gas, overall costs are significantly less than either diesel, or petrol, taking everything into account.

Toyota don't recommend gas on this engine. We went with an LPGas1 gas injection system which was the bees knees at the time, along with a flash lube kit for a little insurance. The guys at Hallam LPG Auto Network did a fantastic job for us. I can't comment on the the long term durability impact on the engine however everything I had researched over the previous 18mths indicated very minimal risk. We get about 450 to 500 kms from 65l of gas. No noticeable performance impact, even when towing.

If economy is a major concern, LPG might be an option ?

Cheers,

Jezz.

The Prado is heavier, and is full-time 4x4. The Hilux doesn't use as much fuel, and the 4.0 V6 is a crap load more fun to drive than the diesel. Yes it uses more fuel, wah wah, but its got loads of power, and can still keep the rpm down low when cruising. It can pull burnouts and keep up with a lot of cars. I know.... here come the 4x4 experts about to give the lecture about how range is much more important than power. Seriously, if you drive them both back to back, you will probably find the 4.0 to be your favourite drive. Plus petrol engines are cheaper to buy and maintain.