KE70 - A Gas Guzzler

[Tham]

What are the owners' experiences here with
the fuel consumption of the Corolla KE70 ?

The general opinion in Malaysia is that the
4K is a heavy gas guzzler. Indeed, the entire
K-series range are well known here for their
horrendous fuel consumption. Even the fuel-
injected 7K which came with the initial batch
of Toyota Unsers here recently do very poorly.

Understandably, the K-series are older generation
OHV engines which are not supposed to be
be fuel efficient. However, the 1,200 cc Datsun
A12 in the Datsun 1200 and 120Y has always been
well known for its fuel economy, yet is an OHV
engine.

I'm getting about 26 to 28 mpg (Imperial Gallons)
on average with my KE70, with a 4K. If I get caught in a bad traffic jam, it pretty much drops to below 20 mpg. One can actually see the fuel needle drooping before your eyes.

[oldcorollas]

there must be somethign seriously wrogn with your fuel, or tuning, or right foot.

[EldarO]

we dont "do" imperial here in Australia, mate.

convert that to Litres per 100 km, and we might understand you.

that said, the 4k's we have are synonymous with fuel efficiency, and i thought "logic error" as soon as i saw the title.

that said, i dont quite see the point of this thread... are you just telling people this? or asking for help on how to improve your mileage? (fuel efficiency for us metric types)

Eldar.O.

[oldcorollas]

we dont "do" imperial here in Australia, mate.
convert that to Litres per 100 km, and we might understand you.
that said, the 4k's we have are synonymous with fuel efficiency, and i thought "logic error" as soon as i saw the title.
that said, i dont quite see the point of me replying to this thread... am i just telling people this? or am i asking for help on how to improve my personality? (life efficiency for us metric types)

Eldar.O.

Elmo, if you have nothing to add to a thread.

don't post.

fwiw, when tuned rich, k motors use lots fo fuel (duh) but after my EFI went on, even with fairly big cams, fuel usage went down to 7 or 8 l/km on highway (or less). when driven hard... it was almost halved over the carby.

[GtiRboy]

Well i own a KE70, its auto (soo shite), i think the tank is like 40L(?), i used to struggle to get 300 k's to a tank, but now my speedo is broken so i have no idea on the fuel economy.

But thats the first thing i noticed when i bought it, i always thought there was something wrong with the fuel consumption seeing its such a small engine.

chris

[GtiRboy]

but i also think my car needs a major tuneup or something :S

[horse]

1 US gallons = 3.7854118 litres
1 miles = 1.609344 kilometers

thus,

26 to 28 mpg (Imperial Gallons) is 9L/100KM - 8L/100KM
20MPG - approx 12L/100KM

[oldcorollas]

thst actually not too bad for a K motor, esp for a KE70, which is a bit oif a heavyweight for the poor small motor.... combined with crap petrol... not surprising at all..
for old car, under 10L/100km is ok i think... not good but

[Vios-GT_07]

the old unsers 1.5 was crap coz u had a 1.5 litre motor doing workhorse duties on a heavy body and high gear ratios. it was not exactly an engineering fault but the people who designed it though it being 1.5 wouldn't take up so much fuel.. dead wrong.

1.8 unsers are much better with consumption over the 1.5 as they had the torque required to make workhorse class.



imagine that.. the previous model was exactly like that 'cept 13" wheels ...

[Vios-GT_07]

having said that, the k series motor in a decent sized car (not the KE70 which i thought was a bit too fat around the backside) does fuel alright..

i've seen KE55 coupes with the 7K (1.8 litre) with sidedraft webbers and cams being used for race cars... so it can't be that bad for power too

[Tham]

Thanks, everyone.

Just trying to figure out why the 4K is so heavy on
fuel usage. Could it be due to the camshaft or
crankshaft design ? I've had a few friends here
who gave up using the KE70 because they could
not keep up with its heavy fuel consumption.

The first Corolla "DX" KE70, which was marketed from
1979 to 1981 (my model), is well-known amongst
most people here to be extremely poor in gas usage.
In the light of such bad feedback, they marketed the
Corolla "GL" model here from 1982 to 1983, which
improved consumption by about 3 mpg, I think.
I believe this was due to an improved carburetor
design, or perhaps a revised camshaft. My mechanic
tells me, however, that this "GL" had performance
penalties, with very sluggish acceleration.
Both had the 4K.

Generally, Toyota engines in Malaysia do not
have a good reputation for economy. The 2T and 3T
are also known to be gas guzzlers. I drove a
Daihatsu Charmant with a 2T briefly during the
early 80's, and it was also pretty bad. Which
puzzled me, since I thought its hemispherical
combustion chamber design for a pushrod engine
was pretty advanced for its time and supposed to
be fuel efficient.

This is why one does not find any taxi drivers in
Malaysia using Toyotas, other than some diesels
in the Toyota Crown at one time. For example, during
the 70's to early 80's, virtually all of them used the
Datsun 120Y (B210), followed by the B310, which
had the A12 engine. They then switched to the Nissan
Sunny/Cherry (B11) from the mid-80's onwards, with
the 1,300 cc E13 engine. Even the driving schools
here used the Datsuns then.

My mechanic told me that part of the reason for
the poor fuel effiency in Toyotas compared to
Datsuns/Nissans is the Aisan carburetor, which
is not very well designed and atomizes fuel poorly
in contrast to the latter's Hitachis.

But maybe it's not so bad after all, as Oldcorollas
suggested. My engine is already tuned, but I'll try
fine-tuning it further.

[mrshin]

fuel usage went down to 7 or 8 l/km on highway (or less). when driven hard... it was almost halved over the carby.

Heavens... Litres per KM? I struggled to get that kind of consumption from a 351! Must have had a fair thirst with the carb

The couple of 4K's I've had have generally been fairly light on fuel - even my first car, a KE30, didn't do too badly - and that was with a horrible old LPG carb (yep, it was cheap to run!)

What sort of emissions gear do the K engines have in your part of the world? Sometimes this stuff can make engines do horrendous things...

I can agree with T engine thirst though - the couple of them I had always seemed to be running out of fuel - then again, with the way they were treated I can fully understand!

[Tham]

What sort of emissions gear do the K engines
have in your part of the world? Sometimes this
stuff can make engines do horrendous things...

There are no emissions control valves, diaphragms,
hoses, etc on the Aisan carb that I have (no
emissions control requirements in Malaysia, at
least for engines of that era), apart from the PCV
hose from the intake manifold to the camshaft cover.

The only hose coming out from my present new
carb goes to the vacuum advance on the distributor.
The previous carb had another one for the hot
idle compensator, and an idle stop solenoid. The
Aisan carbs on sale for the 3K/4K here are very basic.

[oldcorollas]

Heavens... Litres per KM? I struggled to get that kind of consumption from a 351! Must have had a fair thirst with the carb

ahem.. /100km

althought the worst i've had was about 5.5km/L

yar, the aisan carbs are not so great..

[Draven]

whingers, all of yas
until you start doing 15L/100kms there's no reason to cry