Interesting experiments, 👍. You torture those poor Saturns like Garage 54 abuses their poor Russian Lada's. 😢

The oil burning at the beginning of the 3 cylinder mode is because of the oil being pulled up past the piston rings in 2 cylinder mode. The piston is still going up and down but with the valves being shut there is vacuum and compression still being made, but it's going past the piston into the crankcase. I would also remove the spark plugs after removing the lifters.

Thank you for showing everybody it’s OK to use your turn signals :-) you’re one of the few people on KZfaq that do this.

Reason you were burning oil is because when the cylinder is deactivated oil starts to pool up in the cylinder. A big reason why GM has a time limit on how long DoD/AFM can be active before disengaging. With you driving it for an hour or two straight I’m sure there was some decent oil in that cylinder.

My brother and I tried cylinder deactivation on my 1981 Jeep Wagoneer with an AMC 360. Experiment 1: Rapid deactivation of 2 cylinders while traveling at 55 mph. Cylinder 8 was deactivated by disconnecting the wrist pin end of the connecting rod, which then deactivated cylinder 7 by way of removing the rear section of Cam. Jeep was able to climb the hills to his house, reduction of economy observed, some rod knock and reduced oil pressure observed. Experiment 2: Deactivation of 3 cylinders. Jeep able to move still, but unable to climb 8% grade except in 4-low, first gear - barely. Fuel economy appeared unchanged. Experiment 3: Deactivation disabled by replacement of spark plugs. Jeep again able to maintain 55 mph, Economy returned to normal, bottom of tank observed 3/4 mile from gas station. Hyper miling mode engaged to achieve station.

My first new car was a 1994 Saturn SL (the base model with manual window cranks). It had either 85 or 89 HP (don't remember exactly). That car was SLOW! I used to call the A/C button my Turbo button, as you could feel the power boost when the A/C was off. I used to turn it off to go up mild hills. I drove that car for 160,000 miles, and it was still running well when it was totaled by an 18 wheeler. Thanks for the memories!!!

use the 2 deactivated cylinders as a supercharger for the 2 active cylinders.

Never expected de-tuning an engine would be so interesting! I really like it, thanks for sharing!

The Lean Burn should be interesting. I was always fascinated by the old WW2 stories of the Navy pilots leaning out the mix to get back to the boat landing with nothing left in the tank.

I love this channel. There’s nothing better than a cup of coffee and Robot Cantina on Sunday morning. The engine was burning oil after number two was reactivated because the piston was still moving in the bore and creating a low pressure area. Oil was sucked past the 216,000 mile rings, then blown back out past them. Residual oil coated the inside of the combustion chamber, hence oil burning.

Each day offers us the gift of being a special occasion if we can simply learn that as well as giving, it is blessed to receive with grace and a grateful heart.

You're my favorite engineer, and favorite guy on KZfaq right now. Keep up the great work!

That outro was legendary. I love these like-minded engineering "what ifs". You earned my sub with the predator engine series, and you continue to impress. Keep up the fantastic content!

love the thumper lawn mower mod at the end xD freaking hilarious sounding

Removing the spark plugs from the deactivates cylinders would of been an interesting comparison. A little less compression to fight against🤔

Neat! The performance is very similar to my Trabant 601!

22:00 That's because at WOT you're on open loop, while on 80% throttle you're on closed loop

Electricity is really just organized lightening. 💥💥💥

Things do not just happen, Things are made to happen and thanks for making them happen on this channel. 👍👍

This is one of the most interesting videos I’ve seen on KZfaq in a LONG time

I did an 8 cylinder deactivation once on a Camaro SS. It was neat, watching the shower of flaming parts. Very good on gas mileage, and man, talk about QUIET!

14:09 JEEZ! what have you done! you just created an F1 for a few seconds there 🤣

This is well above and beyond what I ever expected to find in a KZfaq video. Actual engineering and a genuine scientific effort. Great work!

No reason for anyone to get mad about copying an experiment. It's merely different data for a concept. Luke did this with an old school V8, you are doing it with a fuel injected car. I really enjoy the fact that more than one person has tried it, and what you've been up to with the Honda has really interested me as well! Keep up the great content.

Love the content and very entertaining way in which you present. Thanks for sharing!

So deactivated cylinders increases engine drag on those cylinders because of compression and vacuum. Now a experiment I did in the 1980's on a 360 Cid v8 was to remove 4 pistons & block off the oil holes by a machined spacer (2 piece) and kept the other connecting rod in its place. As for the lifters a copper fuel line was pressed into the oil hole blocking off the lifter oil. A special tool made from a old solid lifter was pressed into the lifter holes one at a time to peen over the copper line as to allow the new roller lifters to work in in place of hydraulic lifters. Plenty of oil kept the roller lifters lubed from runoff from the rockers in the heads. Removed the 650 Carter 4bb carb and made a adapter for a 1bb Carter from a 225 Cid 6 cylinder. Yes it did run good once I had to externally add weights to the torque converter to balance out the engine. Granted, the new roller cam had a higher low end torque profile and I had the heads milled and valley decked. The compression went from 8:1 to 9.5:1 used headers with a cross over connecter. The van went from 14 mpg avg to 22 avg. Later when the fuel crisis was over I put it all back together keep the roller cam and the replacement carb was a holley 620, (600 cfm bored out) with a electronic duty fuel solenoid on the primary side. Fuel mpg was 17 avg.

Very interesting video, especially the indepth mpg and 0-60 tests.

So if you added one cylinder, your 0-60 run would be close to zero seconds if you extrapolate your results. Gentlemen, we have the makings of a supercar! This is very educational and very entertaining, thanks for all the work you guys do to make these videos.

Thunderhead 289 would be so proud. I can see him now sittin' back in his custom, duct tape upholstered Lazyboy, sippin' on a Folgers topped with Cap'N Crunch whispering quietly to himself. "Yeah boy"

This channel never disappoints - that was fun! You certainly made it sound like a motorcycle :-) Can't wait to see what comes next :-)

This is absolutely amazing! I love you guys for answering all these lingering questions of mine.

A Saturn down a cylinder or two and burning oil... how is this any different from the average GM product of that era on the road?

What I learned today is that if you live in an area with backroads and lower speed limits then this could be temporary solution for someone with an engine with problems to get by. Great job as always Jimbo, Robot Cantina and Aging Wheels are my 2 favorite car KZfaqrs lately and I'd love if you guys could collaborate sometime

Weird how the engine sounds like it's at half rpm's with two cylinders. Amazing that you show the ECU codes too! I have a lot of cars in my city running on 3 cylinders lol. This might sound awesome (LOL) with no exhaust

There's a saying in the Saturn community: "They run until they don't". You're really proving that point :D

I had to drive a car for a short while with one cylinder almost deactivated. it is an inline 4 where the sparkplug on cylinder 3 decided to split into two which meant that I couldn't attach the spark plug wire to the actual plug itself. so that cylinder got fuel, and promptly spat it back out the exhaust pipe. only drove 5 km to get to my friends garage and fix it. but it sounded surprisingly fun, almost like a subaru boxer for some reason. and if someone is interested, it is a 1984 Volvo 360GLT with a b20 swap from a Volvo 740

So people question y u try running different numbers of cylinders... that should b obvious, it's fun, and it's interesting. Anyone who has worked on cars, and has any imagination, should surely appreciate this vid. I think it was cool. Great job, and an entertaining thumbs up.

I'm sure if the 2 cylinder mode is only activated on low power mode and 4 cylinders when actual power is needed, the economy could be quite substantial. Also leaving the valves closed is creating some kind of vacuum pump in the deactivated cylinders. Real engine with cylinders deactivation also had oil burning issues because of that. Edit: some kind of reverse Jake brake system can be able to squeeze some more hp into it I think.

Another fascinating video. I see this one becoming another long series. Thank you.

I find this far more interesting than I ought, given how you torture that poor Saturn 🤣

I think this also demonstrates that manufacturers probably know what they are doing when it comes to maximizing fuel economy.

That's a nifty experiment. Thanks for the video Jimbo.

Thank you for all your effort in showing us what if. The results are as expected. I always wanted to do the same. Keep up the good work. 👍👍👍👍👍

I'm in my office trying to find that beep. Then it dawned on me to back up the video. Yalp, it's your beeper. LOL

You have brains in your head You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

Thank you for that enlightening video it was interesting. Some commentators thought that the smoke was coming from the piston rings, that maybe so but I think (occasionally) that it was getting through the valve stem oil seals and because the valves were not opening it was trapped there until the cam follower was reinserted. When smoke appears when first started then disappears is usually a sign that the valve stem oil seals are badly worn. The two cylinder drive was smoother probably because the engine was balanced as opposed to the off balance of number two cylinder interrupting the opposing 1 and 4 crankshaft phase.

Thank for the video guys, massive work.

I feel like this channel is the definition of “fuck around and find out”

That was so funny, I was scratching my head!

Damn using thr slope between those last 2 0-60 metrics you can put a 6 cylinder engine in and get a -3 second 0-60. Can't wait to see that next episode!

Some of the best content on the interwebz

Cylinder deactivation may save fuel under light loads but here it was mostly under heavy loads as it was harder to accelerate. It may be easier to deselect injectors depending on manifold pressures.

Shows how much some people pay attention or just rant without watching the video.

can't wait for the results of that last one!

Great video & content! It makes me want a Saturn or a Geo just to tinker with. The last bit of the video gave me a good laugh! Great job 👏🏼

Im surprised it worked that well! VW experimented with a supercharged 2 cylinder diesel, it was made by cutting a 4 cylinder in half!

I want to see drag races with the Saturn against your street legal go kart!

I really look forward to every new episode. Your experiment reminds me of some work done during the first gas crisis converting V8 engines to V4 by deactivating the intake valve on 4 cylinders and letting the exhaust valve operate normally. They claimed up to 25% improvement in fuel mpg but I don't remember them testing the vehicle on a highway test loop like you did. Great content, thanks for the time and effort. Phil

Thanks JIMBO I’ll see ya next week!

Amazing 🤩 I love seeing experiments like this on cars ☺️❤️🙌💯

Great way to start my morning! The ending was 🤣🤣🤣

This is one resilient car

I just stumbled across these type of videos, and watched yours and one other channels video on adding a lawnmower carburetor. Really interesting, and quite honestly, so glad that there are people that are still curious to experiment. Although the results are disappointing, it’s your willingness to spend the time and effort on doing an experiment like this that is encouraging. From an old timer, I definitely appreciate this type of approach and personality that’s willing to do it. Thank you so much and please keep going.

That's crazy how much it sounds like a Toyan engine when you hit the accelerator in time lapse.

Awesome robot cantina great work Sir

This channel will blow. I guarantee you that. I was there before goon squad Vtune, samcrac rtc before becoming top channels and I knew they’re gone go big. This channel will too go big mark my words

:O My face when the car started after "deactivating ALL cylinders". ROFL!!

i thought at the very end you were going to drive around on the starter and claim you had an electric car 😉

My brain tells me that it is not displacement that makes fuel economy, but resistance to movement. Curb weight being the primary factor of resistance, especially in stop go traffic. I'd like a video about reducing resistance to movement, through reduction of all types of friction.

It even have the sound of a true 2 cylinder engine.

Love your videos and love that you moved to my home state!!! If you’re ever on a test drive and you see a red Honda Fit following you don’t worry I’m just gonna wave! 😂👍🏻

I guess the almost unchanged fuel consumption may be caused by the ECU more often goes into full throttle enrichment. I've heared that also carburettors sometimes do the same trick of enriching fuel mixture near full throttle, but I don't think that will happen with a simple carburettor as the one from a lawn mover. -Would be interesting to see a comparison with the two cylinder deactivation together with the lawn mover carburettor! Deactivating cylinders by disconnecting the valves is off course easier, and certainly more reversible, compared to entirely removing pistons. I did the latter to a Fiat 127 after having a big end bearing seized. I knew from having a 2-cylinder Fiat 126 that engine balance is really poor with two pistons running in paralel, and running a 4-cyl on 3 is also really bad. I therefore chosed to remove a the counter acting piston next to the one with the seized bearing. I got really good mechanical balance, but having a 180 degree firing order gave the shakes at low rpm so I guess it all would have turned out better if I had chosed 360 degree firing order instead, and kept the big ends of the conrods instead of welding the oiling holes shut. Anyhow, the Fiat 127 had a carburettor and I got a fuel saving of 10-15%, meassured during a year and over 40.000 kilometers. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/fcl7gddntt6piXk.html

I worked as a bike mechanic in LA back in the seventies. During the fuel crises one of customers (may have been Mr. Edelbrock himself) removed two of the rods/pistons from a V8, turning it into a V6 to reduce fuel consumption.

Another great video, Jimbo! This whole thing was very interesting. Those fuel economy numbers blew my mind with the deactivated cylinders! 😳

There is NOTHING 'stupid' about these tests. Crazy, yes. But not stupid. I always wondered about these kind of tests. Now I have you to thank.

For anyone interested in more cylinder modification stuff, there is a very interesting build video on "The horsepower monster" channel where they modify a NASCAR SB2 V8 to run as a V6 for a specific salt flats category rule

My father purchased a 96' saturn sl new when I was a kid, the car rusted out to the point the doors wouldn't close from the structure bending but was able to put 315k on it, all the while still happy to make 45 mpg (His best tank run ever was 52 mpg).This was probably due to his custom ordered model with no a/c or p/s and one mirrior lol. Maybe we can see a mpg test with limited accessory drive?

Love your work, Jimbo 👍

Hey Jimbo! YT suggested me this particular video. I was afraid it's another some kind of clickbait BS, but i started watching every single video of yours since S1EP1, and made it again to this video. I wanted to thank You for so much smart entertainment, i love your way of doing it, and keep it up! Now, let me continue this saga 😎

That's some mighty good stuff ya'll drinkin :P Seriously tho, keep up the good work!

Try using the deactivated cylinders to pump air in to the other cylinders! I read about someone who did that with a Ducati twin- one cylinder was a supercharger for the other cylinder. He claimed to make more power running that way than the original naturally-aspirated twin.

That was entertaining and educational. Thanks for all your time.

The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old, but on building the new.

Very cool guys, a little forced induction would be a great test with cylinder cutoffs using toggle switches on injector wiring. A lot less tear down. And easily configure what cylinder arrangement works best. Just a thought.

That's so interesting. The fuel injector connector broke and I was driving on 3 cylinders in my 2002 sentra with the 2.5 engine. Still had plenty of power

this is amazing thank you for making this video

Great video and a good choice of engine for the testing.

I did hillbilly lean burn on an '89 integra by remapping O2 output. The best MPG I achieved was 47mpg.

Don't worry , be happy

What really helps with fuel economy, I tested it myself is to try and make a hybrid out of your car. Accelerate with the rpm and the load in a range were it's most efficient. Then put it in neutral and turn of the engine. Works best on manual. The coast as long as traffic allows and use your knowledge about the route you're driving. So converting units I roughly improved fuel economy on a otherwise identical car from ~35mpg to 50mpg and even slightly better after I got used to it. Then I switched to electric and can charge for mostly for free at work.

Satisfaction lies in the effort we make, not so much in the attainment of things.

"Are you telling me you built a cylinder-deactivation system...into a SATURN?!" "The way I see it, if you're going to experiment on a car, why not do it with some style?!"

I've seen those Saturn's run on three cylinders after throwing a rod with a hole in the block!

I love the different sounds

Love your channel!

"With 3 cylinders it has more power, but it sounds terrible" Me: oh, I thought it sounded like a Subaru with UEL headers 😄

Hey a bit late just got my first 3D printer yesterday and got that all together and running. Keep these videos up!! Loving the content. Ender 3 Pro. Benchy came out nice.

Amazing tests

I wish the 200 mpg carburetor believers would watch videos like this. These experiments prove that any given automobile requires a certain amount of fuel to move it, and there isn't much room for improvement.

I really enjoy the mid-video music track you used. I believe you used it some last season as well. Perhaps you could share the title/performer? Thanks for a great & interesting channel.