V6 Tires?

Darwinskeeper

Frequent Racer
Sep 18, 2005
586
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16
Wichita, Kansas
I'm looking to change Darwin's rolling stock before her next big road trip. The problem is that my little red wagon is currently running 205/60R15 on the front and 225/60R15 on the back. Not only does that feel like overkill for a 4.3 but the difference in tire diameters means that I'd be forced to lug around two different size spares or deal with the probabability of driving on mismatched tires in case the wrong tire blew. In order to avoid that I'm thinking of running the same tire at all four corners. The easy answer is 205/65R15s on 15X7 wheels but I'm wondering if I might do a little better running smaller tires.

What kind of tires are you running on your V6 powered Malibu/Gbody? Do they feel too large, too small or just right?
 

Doober

Moderator
Jun 2, 2003
14,704
1
38
Catalina, AZ
www.cardomain.com
With your tire size it looks like you're in the sweet spot for cruise speed, with your tire/gear combo you're around 2000 @ 60, 2200 @ 70. I looked at Crower's cams and you could probably step up one more level to the "mileage beast", it will give you some more oomph to boot.
 

Darwinskeeper

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Thread starter
Sep 18, 2005
586
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Wichita, Kansas
I guess I was hoping that a few somebodies would be able to say what they were using on their V6 cars (even if it was just the stock tires) and how well or not so well they worked.

My understanding is that most Malibus came from the factory with P185/75R14 or P195/75R14 tires. Is anybody using them? How do you like/hate them?

Has anybody tried using larger tires and how well did that work?

In Darwins case, I'm wearing 205/60R15s in front and 225/60R15s in back. She handles pretty well but the rears are much larger than the engine can use. I am looking to go smaller and am debating 205/65R15s and 195/70R15s.
 

Darwinskeeper

Frequent Racer
Thread starter
Sep 18, 2005
586
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Wichita, Kansas
I'm not really trying to change the tire's diameter. The current rear tire is a 225/60R15, diameter 25.6 requiring 813 revolutions to cover 1 mile. My alternatives are a 205/65R15 (dia 25.5 requiring 818 rev/mi) and a 195/70R15 (dia 25.7 requiring 810 rev/mi) thus the contenders are all within 1% of each other. The goal is to go to a narrower tire. My experience shows that with the current gearing, Darwin is unable to do a burnout with the current 225/60R15s, its sort of like having a prostreet car with a two barrel 305. Since I don't need the 225s for traction, I thought it might be worth going to a narrower tire to reduce friction and possibly weight. Thus the question about narrower tires and what other sixers are running.
 

clean8485

Weekend Racer
Jan 30, 2011
91
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Just so I'm clear on this, what's your number one priority for the car? Fuel economy, or being able to do a burnout?. If its fuel economy, then your plan to reduce tire width and tire weight would make sense. If you're concerned about being able to do a burnout, then my opinion is that your gearing is probably hurting you. If you were to change the rear axle ratio from 2.41 to 2.73, or even 3.08, it probably wouldn't hurt your fuel economy very much, and it would greatly improve your chances of being able to do the burnout. If you were to couple the rear gear swap with a change to an overdrive transmission with a deeper first gear, then that would probably help even more. With the gear changes and tire changes, you'd probably be able to have your cake and eat it too. Just my $0.02.
 

Darwinskeeper

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Thread starter
Sep 18, 2005
586
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Wichita, Kansas
My number one priority for this tire change is fuel economy. I figure that the 225s I currently have on the back of the car are much bigger than I need. Between the tall gearing, the V6 and the rear weight distribution, I really don't need the relatively large tire's extra traction. I would like to swap to narrower tires to trade some of this useless traction for a little fuel economy, and maybe performance (by reducing rotating mass).

Yeah, I also understand the gearing issue. I've occasionally looked at swapping the 3 speed for a 5 speed OD (or a 4 speed OD, like the New Process one used on GM pickups). Just haven't found anything I really liked yet.
 

Darwinskeeper

Frequent Racer
Thread starter
Sep 18, 2005
586
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Wichita, Kansas
T5,

Yes, the Saginaw 3 speed is original to the car, it originally came with a 2.73 rear end and a 200cuin V6. The car actually got its best road mpg with that gear set. I swapped it for 2.41 gears a few years ago. It seemed like a good idea at the time...

Darwinskeeper
 

Darwinskeeper

Frequent Racer
Thread starter
Sep 18, 2005
586
0
16
Wichita, Kansas
Come on!!! Have the sixers totally quit reading this forum??? Am I the only guy on the site who hasn't swapped his V6 for 8 cylinders yet??? I'd really like to hear somebody's comments on their tires even if they are only the original stock tires and you've really don't feel that you have anything to say about them. That would suggest that you like the stock tires to some degree (or you'd be thinking about changing them). Does anybody have anything at all to say?
 

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