Disabling Cylinders?
 

On my Yaris, is there a way to disable, either temporarily or permanently, a cylinder to get better mileage, without damaging the rest of the engine?

No

lol I want a 1 cylinder Yaris.

If you started running on less cylinders you would throw the balance of the engine out of wack firstly and secondly on the Yaris the engine is already a 1.5 liter - not too many cars made today are that small to begin with. Just break it in with out any full throttle use so you polish the cylinders up nice and smooth and switch over to SYNLUBE!

Ok, I take the bait. Tell me about Synlube.

In theory, yes. You could remove the tappets from the valves to seal two of the cylinders; and cut the wires to those fuel injectors. This would disable cylinders the same way as GM's "Displacement on Demand".

In reality, I don't know enough about Toyota engines to say if it would work. If the valves use inverted bucket tappets, the cam lobes might hit the valve stems. On the other hand, if the valves use rocker arms or finger followers, it should work pretty well.

bad idea... if anyhtign to disabel the engine unclip the fuel injector wires and pull out the sparkplug. then it would act as if the pistons werent there.(no compression, no force stopping the engine) but bad idea all around...the computer would detect misfires galore and prolyl screw thigns up . not to mention you would have no power. might as well install bike pedals to get going.

lol

You break in the engine on factory oil and call Miro at Synlube.com and tell him Jan (me) referred you to him. He will set you up with 4 quarts engine oil, 1 quart add oil, filter, magnets (which you need to put on the original filter for 100 miles before you change the oil out), tranny gear lube, and if you want the power steering fluid which a pint should do the job if you don't spill any - I baught a quart and used only half. Get all of the lube at once and he should give you an additional discount. Once done you change the filter after 36k miles and check the oil once a month and sent him an email with the mileage and any fluids added or you can call too. You will see that the engine runs quieter, smoother, gets more power, and your mileage should increase about 10-15% maybe more. The next part is the hardest . . . you have to get used to the idea that you do NOT have to change the oil for 150,000 miles or 15 years. Just change the filter at 36k and 75k. Should you want to change the oil, send it back to Synlube and they will replace it for free - just shipping charges I would think.

But what exactly IS Synlube?