Lileage Enhancers?

Sorry for the type-o. I meant to spell Mileage in my original post...

Sorry, but there's no magic pill!

The best way to get better mileage is to get rid of your Explorer. As you suspected, the only thing the "tornado" will do is lighten your wallet. Miracle spark plugs, magnets and other such snake oil will do the same.

Synthetic oil *might* buy you a little bit, but don't expect anything significant. Most of the reported gains are in the head of the owners in the form of wishful thinking. Face it, it's the price we pay for driving a comfy, roomy truck!.

You are never going to see a difference in mileage by switch ing to synthetic oil if you use the same viscosity. Ditto for hotter spark plugs.

The wind tunnel thing is a total scam.

Correct!

Drive slower. Minimize the use of brakes. Go easy when accelerating. Take all the extra junk out of the vehicle to minimize weight. Make sure your tires are properly inflated. Take off the roof rack.

If you get 17 in the city, consider yourself lucky.

If good gas mileage was of prime importance, you got the wrong vehicle.

Ed

I changed from garden variety SAE5W-30 to Mobil 1 5W-30 in my 5.0L 97 X and did not see any difference in mileage. 17 short 1 - 3 mile trips and 20 highway.

Read this thread, Al has got high mpg out of his X.

Sid

I don't mean to give offense, Art, but it always amazes me the number of people who believe that the best auto engineers in the world, backed by bazillion-dollar research budgets, and motivated by the Government's CAFE standards, cannot find a way to increase mileage - but who also believe that Joe Screwdriver in West Burlap, Utah can invent and produce one that costs the consumer only $100.

If there were an easy way (like synthetic oil or hotter spark plugs), do you think that Ford (Chevy, Toyota, BMW, etc) would have included it in their vehicles? I do. And if Ford (etc) did include it, do you think that it would increase the company's market share dramatically, making heros of the engineers who invented it? I do.

Or is this part of the conspiracy theory involving foreign oil, the Government (whichever party happens to be in power at the time), the oil industry in collusion with the auto industry to reap obscene profits, Halliburton, and so forth?

Again, no offense.

Bill

Interesting. I think the key points were; straight highway run, reduced top speed, no A/C, windows up. I also think he overstated the distance, but since I wasn't there, I can't know. I also have to wonder about his fuel economy calculation. He said he made it on one tankful, which implies the possibility of very large calculation errors. The tank on that model is rated at 21 gallons and you probably can actually stuff 23 in it. If he stuffed it at the beginning and wasn't so careful at the end, he may have used as much as 20 gallons instead of the 18 reported. If the trip was only 510 miles in stead of "about" 575 miles, then his actual mileage would have been less than 26 mpg. I am pretty sure my 1996 could achieve this on a level road at

60 mph with no modifications. Single tank gas mileage calculations are always subject to large errors, no matter how careful you are. Based on one tank averages, my '03 Expedition 5.4L gets 23 mpg (or 9 mpg - take your pick).

Here are his mods, and my opinions on them:

- Mobil 1 5 w 30 synthetic motor oil - change should be undetectable compared to conventional 5W30 (same viscosity at operating temperature). I tried this experiment on my old Expedition, and never could detect any fuel economy difference between Mobil 1 and Havoline (both 5W30)

- Mobil 1 ATF in auto tranny ( a complete change ) - Might help a little, but I doubt if it is detectable, viscosity has to be about the same as regular ATF

- Mobil 1 in the 3.73 rear end - if it is the proper viscosity, the change will be undetectable. I believe that that model Explorer should have come from the factory with

75W140 SYNTHETIC gear oil in the differential.

- KKM Tru Rev intake - not likely to make any difference, especially when running at part throttle. Any supposed benefits of the "free flowing" intake are negated by the mostly closed throttle.

- Custom cat back exhaust system - if it is a good one, might help by 1 mpg (or even more)

- Remove roof rack - maybe 0.5 mpg on the highway

- Many coats of Zaino polish - well it might make you feel better, doubt if you could detect the change in mpg

- Tire pressure 40 psig - dangerous! It might (and I emphasis might) improve mileage by 0.5 mpg compared to the proper inflation pressures. It really depends on the tires.

- Explorer Express X Spec air dam - it might make a difference depending on the design, hard to say

- Amoco 87 octane gas - no difference

- Secondary tranny filter ( don?t know if this helps ) - can't see how it could help

I can see all this adding up to maybe 2 mpg on the highway and little if any in town. I'd never drive an Explorer around with 40 psi in the tires (unless they were LT tires, but then that is a whole different problem). I don't doubt the guy got good mileage, but I think it had more to do with the particular trip conditions and calculation errors than with his modifications.

Yeah, but my uncle had a '52 Chevy with an experimental carb in it that somehow escaped the factory. He got over 67 mpg until the first service, when they realized the mistake, and removed it. :-)

Bill Funk Change "g" to "a"

Now this I believe... (I do)

Well, my Dad had a 65 T-bird that they accidentally let out of their skunkworks with a fusion reactor, and a gravity pump. It would run for months on a spittle of chewing tobacco, and when the mysterious button on the dash was pressed, the car would fly !

He never did let them have it back though.. He quit making payments, and flew it to a safe hiding place ! I still have the car today, but because of its age the lines that go to the gravity pump are brittle, and I don't know where to get replacements.

AutoZone.

Bill Funk Change "g" to "a"

Call the Spacely Sprockets lunar office. I know they have them, got some for my Desoto last week.

Ed