mpg in a 1.3

hey,

im new to this forum and have only owned my car for a few months now and Im just wondering about the mpg of a 1.3 engine…i drive to nottingham and back everyday which is a 44 mile round trip 3 times a week so thats 132 miles (maybe be with the old town driving in the week so lets call it 140) and I usually spend about 20-25 quid on petrol…is this normal? it feels like its a little high and I was thinking could this be because of doing 60 in 4th gear at 3500 revs? forgive me if its elementary but surely that burns a lot more fuel? any help would be appreciated!!

cheers!
James.

a full tnak of petrol (30 litres i think) will get you approximately 250 miles (well it does on mine!!) so i think you might need your carb mixture fettling with ! cos i thought mine was high! 3/4 tank gets me about 180 miles ish, depends on where im driving tho! town its atrocious on mpg motorways it will do a hell of a lot more to the tank!

cheers for the info! might get it checked then…also how fast can I be expecting from it? i mean obviously 70 max    but i dont even think itll do that comfortably, it revs really high at 70, like I couldnt drive constantly at that speed…any suggestions?

cheers again,
James.

ayup mate, as daft as it seems bigger engined mk1's are better on fuel    the box you got in revs same on motorway as a 5 speed gti. swap drivers side mount mate to big block and stick a mk2 engine in it if you want cruising/speed/economy ( cheap and plentiful)
nice 1,
paul

8O  Sorry to hear your mpg woes! I've heard that the 1.1 does poorly on mpg, but didn't realise the 1.3 was so similar. The mk1 tank is 45 litres/9.9 Gallons (I'm sure they're all the same?). If you do the kind of driving that makes mpg and high-speed cruising an issue then you might want to investigate Tomo's suggestion further?
There are lots of bullet-proof 1.6 diesel engines knocking around from caddys aswell, but I'm not sure about the conversion. Don't hate me for this, but the 1.6 diesel with 5 speed box will get around 60mpg/600miles to a tank and can cruise happily and pretty quietly at 80mph. In town it does worse speeding around and can only get 50mpg!  :roll:  
Good luck with the carb investigation, and let us know how you get on.

Need one now

most vw engines fit easy, its what you want mate.  if you want something you can throw straight in them 1.3 polo (90-95) engines are not bad or if you change mounts to big block then you got most of engines.  depends what you want to spend. a 2.0 bottom end with a 1.8 carb head (transistorised) and a diesel box will do 45 to the gallon at 90 if its set up right. do you want speed or economy? or best of both worlds? mk1 engines aint economical. the old carbs are poo. bert stuck a td (aaz) lump in a mk1 itll do 100 in third and 60 to a gallon on cooking oil!
whatever u decide to do dump the engine if the bodys good, tell us what you want from your car.
cheers,
paul

im new to this forum and have only owned my car for a few months now and Im just wondering about the mpg of a 1.3 engine…i drive to nottingham and back everyday which is a 44 mile round trip 3 times a week so thats 132 miles (maybe be with the old town driving in the week so lets call it 140) and I usually spend about 20-25 quid on petrol…is this normal? it feels like its a little high and I was thinking could this be because of doing 60 in 4th gear at 3500 revs? forgive me if its elementary but surely that burns a lot more fuel? any help would be appreciated!!

Sounds like your car isn't as as effcient as it should be (although you need to be more specific - is it ?20 or ?25 and how much do you pay a litre?). VW claimed 42.2mpg at 56mph, 31.7mpg at 75mph and 26.9mpg urban (33mpg average) for the mk1 1.3. Many things can effect the mpg like engine condition, how often/thoroughly the car's serviced, state of tune - mixture may have been richened to cover other running problems.

You shouldn't be burning loads of fuel 60mph, in fact a most cars are very fuel efficient at a constant 56mph. The throttle ultimately controls how much fuel is burnt, rather than rpm. Coasting along a flat road at 60mph requires little throttle, yet maintaining 60 up a hill needs more throttle and therefore you burn more fuel. I can regularly get 32-34 mpg from my 1.1 (with weber replacement carb) and this doesn't vary greatly between town and motorway driving. My mk2 auto-tank is a different matter though :roll:

Cheers

i found my little 1.1 varied week to week on fuel, although i did exactly the same milege each week :dontknow: having said that some days it would run better than others (weather pending!!) which was what i put it down to. on average it was poor, about 25 usually, 30 if i was really lucky pathetic for a 1.1 engine eh!?? made me wonder apart from initial cost of the car why anyone bought the small engined versions! especially when the first page of the cars manual is all about  fuel economy! :roll:  now adays its the other way around isnt it? buy a small engine for economy.

Greg 8)

…but as I said that is probably down to engine condition, how often/thoroughly the car's serviced, state of tune - mixture may have been richened to cover other running problems. These cars are 24 years + old now so unlikley they are all running as they left the factory. A 1.1 in good tune/shape should give reasonably consistant fuel consumption and 30 or more average mpg.

Cher

Mine has the Polo single point injection 1300. Using the Formel E box with the high 4th, it would do around 43mpg at 70mph driving to Newcastle every day (160 mile round trip).

hey guys,

just thought Id give you an update on the engine news…after spending a very pleasant day at the gti festival iv decided I want to go fast but not stupidly fast soooooooo iv decided to go with a polo 1.3 engine…its from an N reg polo and its done 57K so should be pretty sweet! the guy assures its running, any advice on buying engines?…also what will I need to fit it? does my gearbox or anything need anything? in an ideal world I will lower it in and it will go *click* then ill get in a drive 1,800mph down the motorway…buttttttttt its not gonna happen so what do I need to do?

cheers!
James.

I have had 115 out of my mk1 driver 1.3 and it was reving 5200rpm! the mpg on that was quite good got bout 250 miles of full tank on longish runs and a tenna would last me bout 90miles round town!

My 1.3 driver is really over fueling at start up but i'm getting loads of mpg on the motorways.
I do 330miles on under ?30's of fuel on the motorway every weekend.
But that is tring to sit at 60mph other than overtaking.

As soon as i drive in town though its mpg is terrible.

Joe

iv come to the conclusion that it is the town driving that sucks the life out of my fuel tank...Iv noticed on motorways, despite only doing about 65ish (is that normal?!) the consumption is amazing, i mean I drove to oxford which is about 70 miles away and back so 140 round trip andthe needle barely moved, I reckon I could get 300 on a full tank easy...but then when im commuting into nottingham everyday, the second I get into the built up areas and im stopping and starting its awful...maybe ill just drive round nottingham at 65, stopping only for old people and nuns...

will taking out my back seats help at all?! anything...