Hi everyone,

Ive been trying to find out a little info about my van from forums around but cant seem to find too much about Hiace 4Ys. Ive got a 89 Hiace and it seriously seems to be sucking the fuel down. I am lucky to get 350ks until i am running on fumes, from the tank, and that is usually just cruising and barely on the throttle anywhere.

My old 82 Hiace got 400 to the tank without too much problem. In fact the fuel consumption was worse, so i swapped the carby from my 82 over o my 89 but i still only get about 6-7ks/Litre. Any ideas? or is this the norm?

Also, is there any seriously beneficial mods to get a little more power? I hear a weber conversion can do good things? id like to get the aircon back up and running but it struggles to pull the skin off a rice pudding now and i think the engine is an alcoholic with the fuel it uses already!

Any help would be great.

Thanks,

Gareth

hi Garreth , i have a 91 hiace and i also got 350 km out of a tank of gas. sometimes i imagine i got a bit more out of the tank...i was just dreaming. i dont know if a 4y is the shape that started in 89 and went on...and on ...or if its the last of the square ones. anyway i can tell you what i discovered about mine. it has a 4.3:1 ratio diff in it and the speedo reads 10% faster than i am actually going...and i am not going fast anyway cos 4.3 diff has me doing 3000 rmp in top gear at 100kmph. anyway , the solution for me is to move to a 3.9 diff or get bigger rear tyres or do a combo of both , like a 4.1 dif and tyres too.

i cant vouch for the older square model as i'm told the diff ratios were more like 4.8ish and 5.3ish, but of course they were "matched" to the engines of that model. i am also told 4.3 was common in auto hiaces; why it was in mine is a mystery and a misery. my bro in law has a lwb 2.4 petrol hiace and it flies- on the original 14" rims with only 60 profile tyres ( smaller than the balloon light truck tyres ours came out with )cando the ton.he says it does 2400 rpm in top gear at 100kmph. i used an online calculator http://www.roversd1.nl/sd1web/wheelcalc.html and my guess is he has a 3.9 dif or maybe even a 3.7( i dont know what that came out of but apparently they do exist- hilux diff is interchangeable, and a wrecker tried to sell me the diff out of an 89 toyoace truck telling me it was G coded-8" and 3.9 :1 ratio). the 3.9 is also supposed to come out of the "just low"hiace with the small back wheels and the flat floor( '89>). i asked a guy on trademe about his 1990 van - in the pic it showed the raised flat floor, but it had regular back wheels ( he just put the bigger wheels on and says its good now). have a look - listing expires on 3rd sept http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=237218892
hope some of this might help. guess you have covered the usual tune up and filter changestuff. once i finally found the airfilter on mine and changed it, i imagined i got better mileage. if its out of tune guttless the diff change might have you going nowhere fast.but i read someone's forum comment that " hiaces are geared like tractors, not cars":)
good luck