6Cyl running on 4
 

Has anyone done this. Has anyone made their 6 cyl run on 4 with a cut off for spark plug wires for better fuel efficiency? You would have a loss of power but could gain some Fuel efficiency. J/w if it's been done by anyone on here yet.


Sorry If I posted in the wrong section, i'm new to this forum.

There have been a few threads talking about cylinder deactivation and even one where someone tried it. However I think that was with a four cylinder trying to run on two. The main drawback was the vibration from what I remember, so long as you didn't mind "0-60 at some point".

I was looking at doing the 3 minus 3 to my 63 bel-air but decided it was too involved for the time it would take and the chances of it working at all. Not to mention any problems that would come up down the road.

This thread probably did belong one link down in the General fuel economy discussion or in the Experiments forum. But I have grace on you :).

BTW, if all you did was cut spark plug wires I imagine the fuel injectors would still be squirting in fuel like crazy until the cylinder was full. So it would be a bit more involved than that.

Just yanking wires will cause all sorts of havoc: Vibration, the ECU will sense something is wrong with the engine, increased hydrocarbons (gas) out the tail pipe if the catalytic converter doesn't overheat burning all that excess fuel before it gets there, probably other negatives as well. It's still early here.

There are some things you can do for your explorers to get better mileage, but mostly it's you the driver. The biggest gains are in driver modification. Though we like to tinker, honestly technical modifications only get you so far.

Don't be discouraged if you only see a couple of mpg improvement, look at the percentage gain. Frankly the 4.0 engine sucks for fuel mileage, and there isn't much you can do about improving it but keep reading, it will get better if you try and stay consistent with your efforts.

TeamExploder -

I'm guessing that you would want to go from 6 to 3, but I think it depends on your engine. Will the engine stay "balanced" when you are running on 3 cylinders? What the others said is right, you don't want to turn off the spark plugs. Instead, you want to (individually) control the fuel injectors. Here's a thread by RH77 on 4 to 2 cylinder deactivation that didn't pan out :

Cylinder Deactivation
https://www.gassavers.org/showthread.php?t=243

CarloSW2

I was curious cause my dad had said one of his buddy's years ago made his 8 cyl a 4 cyl by taking out the pistons, and I was thinking what if there were a way to make a kill switch on cylinders so it dont run all and save some fuel, I never took deep thought into it.

There are a couple of other things to consider if you decide to do this. First of all, you will need to measure the resistance of yor injectors, and stick a resistor of the same value in there. If you just leave an injector plug open, then the ECU will throw a code for sure. I don't know whether the lack of inductance is something the ECU can also sense. But if it is, you will need to add an inductor in series with the resistor for the right combination of resistance and inductance (keep in mind that inductors have significant resistance). You would even try adding a dummy injector instead. But from what I have heard, injectors tend to burn up if no fuel is passing through them, as fuel keeps them cool.

Another potential problem is the oxygen sensor. If you simply disconnect and injector, then air will be blown out the exhaust of that cylinder. This would cause the engine to run rich, and probably cause a check engine light. Trying to block the passage in the intake or exhaust runner for that cylinder may help. But it would have tobe unblocked before that cylinder can become active again.

As for balanced firing, this can indeed be a concern. It would probably be best to cut out every other cylinder in the firing order for the smoothest operation (if you want to call it smooth). For instance, most inline four cylinder engines fire in the 1342 order. You could try cutting out 1 and 4, or 3 and 2.

See yenz thought bout this more, I was just thinking about it after my dad said about a friend from the past did it to a truck, and was j/w if any of yenz experimented like that, but leaving it a 6 or 8cyl so you still have the power when its needed