Mileage improvments

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A

Alonso Mendoza

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I recently bought an 04 ST Adrenalin, however I bought it for college as it snows one hel of a lot in Utah and getting up to the university includes a really steep grade so a light 4x4 truck seemed to make sense. I do run 91 octane through the truck but still doesn't get the mileage my high mileage Cadillac CTS did, and I'm not expecting the same mileage but closer to it as it's going through half a tank of gas on a 112 mile road trip. I was thinking of Seafoaming it and running Marvins Mystery Oil through her veins. What else could be done to improve its mileage? I don't have a lead foot with it either and put it on cruise control on the highway to avoid acceleration. It also only has 47k miles on it so it's a bit early for the engine to be dropping in mileage. Already did a tune up as well.

Thanks!
 
The 4.0 doesn't need 91 octane, 86 works just fine and it's cheaper.



My wife's 2001 Sport Trac gets worse mileage than my 4.6L Adrenalin on the highway, at 110 KPH her's revs at about 2400 while mine will be just under 2000.



Your foot is the biggest factor on fuel mileage, after that would be tire inflation, type of tire, engine condition, dragging brakes. If it is tuned up and driven sensibly then the best we have ever got is in the 17-18 mpg range.
 
What are the current and OEM tire sizes?



What are the current and OEM differential ratios?



I'm wondering if the tire size was increased and the differential ratios were not changed to compensate (dropping the engine cruise RPM below the power band). Do you notice an inordinate amount of down shifting or lugging on freeway hills?



I'm going to agree with Holleyman - this is not a high MPG engine.
 
Your driving habits have the greatest effect on your gas mileage.



Also, don't use your gas gauge to calculate your gas mileage....The gas gauge is very inaccurate. Some gauges will will go for more than 100 miles and still read full, and then drop like a rock. Some will drop quickly until you get to about 1/4 tank and then mover very slowly.



The only accurate way to check mileage is to fill the tank to the brim (you can see that gas at the restrictor plate in the gas filler neck) Drive for at least 100 miles and fill the tank to the brim again (same level) and use the pump reading (to the 100ths of a gallon). Divide your miles driven by the fuel used to get your MPG. That will give you the most accurate MPG for that trip.



You also need to consider a lot of other factors including weather, wind, terrain, traffic, and your driving habits. I find that speed is less important as long as you are driving at a steady speed (using cruise control). If you get into traffic and have to slow down and speed up again, you will use a lot more gas than if you just drive at a steady speed.. It takes more gas to accelerate (even slowly) than it is to just maintain that speed once you get there.



When I drive in traffic on the Interstates or freeways, I try to drive at the same speed or slightly slower than the traffic in the right lane. That way I rarely have to change speeds to pass anyone. If I am going on a long trip, I like to leave about midnight...there is very little traffic on the road and i can drive for hours without changing speeds.



...Rich



 
Another factor that affects your MPG is the part of the country in which you live. You say that you live in Utah, so I'm assuming the grade of the terrain varies greatly from hilly to mountainous to flat. Also, are you at altitude? All these factors will have an impact on MPG. I live in central IL (mostly flat prairie land), and I get better MPG around here than when I travel out of state to more hilly or mountainous areas.
 
As others mention the 4.0L V6 ain't a MPG stunner, especially climbing icy roads in 4X4 in the cold. Trucks aren't very aerodynamic either - lots of drag, especially at highway speeds. Best you can do is run synthetics in your drivetrain, keep it in good tune and watch your driving habits. For Sport Trac utility you're trading away some MPG. See my syn oil article in Projects section, and you can see all drivetrain specs and capacities by using AMSOIL's online lookup found on my website.
 
My contention is that gas stations have no control over ethanol content of the fuel that gets dropped into their tanks, even the ones that claim they're ethanol-free. Maybe someone can point us to info on how the gasoline business really works. Ethanol is not added at the refinery; it's mixed in at the fuel depot when it goes into the tanker truck.
 
I think the tankers have a smaller tank of ethanol and the driver has to calculate how many gallons of fuel he is delivering and then calculate himself how many gallons of ethanol to add to the storage tank. :banghead:
 
Ethanol is trucked to distribution centers and is blended into the gasoline as the tanker trucks are filled like Vic said. A tanker visiting a gas station is either ethanol free, or carrying blended fuel. The only say a gas station owner has is whether to take the fuel or not, he can't change the the ethanol content. In a crunch he may add non-ethanol fuel to his E10 tank since running out of fuel is financial devastation for selling twinkies and beer. This is one reason why the signs say the fuel contains "up to 10%" ethanol.



A couple interesting notes:



For the most part, gasoline is piped to the distribution centers, while the ethanol is trucked (or railed) in. Blended fuel can't be sent through the pipelines we have today.



The 100% ethanol is actually "spiked" or "poisoned" to prevent it being diverted for consumption - it's basically corn white whiskey. The "poison" is usually gasoline.



The idea of ethanol is that it's good for the environment due to its lower pollutants versus gasoline. It is obvious that every 10 gallons of E10 sold at the pump saves the environment one gallon of gasoline being sold at the pump. However, ethanol production and distribution from seed to pump may use more gasoline that it saves. This is disputed because it's calculable, but it's not that easy. The farmer uses fossil fuels (gas/diesel) to transport corn seed to his farm; to plant, grow and harvest it; and to get it to "market." The refinery (distillery?) uses fossil fuels directly or indirectly (buying electricity) to manufacture ethanol. It is then shipped using fossil fuels in trucks and trains. There are also ancillary fossil fuel usages, such as the employees getting from home to work and back, delivery of supplies to the farms and refineries, and the list goes on.... There are also ancillary pollutants involved, such as those released at the distillery during production, farmers burning corn fields, etc.
 
In response, I do have upgraded wheels which are slightly larger than OEM but not by a long shot and are also snow terrain tires. I've been wondering on throwing an economy tune on it and using nitrogen on the tires. I also accelerate slowly as it takes me about 8-12 seconds to get up to 25mph. I did run the Marvels Mystery oil and it did boost my MPG by 2mpgs down the highway by using Richard L's method (thank you!). And the gas gauge is very jumpy and just gives me a rough estimate of of much gas is left. However other than changing the tires and watching my foot it seems like there isn't much to be done. However the Mystery Oil actually is doing quite a good job and stopped a random rough idle that would happen. Thank you very much for your responses gentleman! Much appreciated. Would and intake and exhaust probably help?
 
In response, I do have upgraded wheels which are slightly larger than OEM but not by a long shot and are also snow terrain tires. I've been wondering on throwing an economy tune on it and using nitrogen on the tires. I also accelerate slowly as it takes me about 8-12 seconds to get up to 25mph. I did run the Marvels Mystery oil and it did boost my MPG by 2mpgs down the highway by using Richard L's method (thank you!). And the gas gauge is very jumpy and just gives me a rough estimate of of much gas is left. However other than changing the tires and watching my foot it seems like there isn't much to be done. However the Mystery Oil actually is doing quite a good job and stopped a random rough idle that would happen. Thank you very much for your responses gentleman! Much appreciated. Would and intake and exhaust probably help?
 
It is obvious that every 10 gallons of E10 sold at the pump saves the environment one gallon of gasoline being sold at the pump.
Click to expand...



Not true. It probably saves about 0.7 of a gallon of gasoline being sold at the pump, because it does not deliver the fuel mileage of pure gasoline, so therefore more gasoline is being sold. It is a win-win for farmers, crony investors, fuel distributors, and gasoline retailers. They sell more product, that is already subsidized heavily from the federal government. The taxpayers and customers are the losers.
 
True that corm oil doesn't have the potential energy as dyno fluid. This adds to the ridiculousness ncstatewolfpacker points-out.
 
After putting 182k miles on my ST. For best results on mileage improvements. Get a car... I did. Now I see numbers like 35mpg. The ST sees mileage on the weekends.
 
Just took my ST on 230 mile trip, non-stop, at a regular speed of 75 mph and got 18.8 mpg. Last fill up I decided to clean the tank and engine with Sea Foam and drove the ST harder than normal in attempt to break up anything that could be in the fuel system. Before this I was maintaining a fuel economy of 12.3 mpg. This method has also worked on my 95 Dodge Caravan (289*** miles on it).
 

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