mpggggg

[jax4bangin]

iv seen a best of 38 mpg!! all freeway at 65. no hills. but dirt bike and gear in the bed..

07 duratec, reg cab, short bed, stick shift.

drilled out air box
k&n filter
custom 3" intake tubing
2.25 inch pipe(downsized from 2.5) before a single chamber flowmaster and 3" full tail pipe

[Wicked_Sludge]

thats pretty impressive for an aerodynamic brick.

im not doubting your claim...but are you sure your speedometer is correct? and how did you calculate the mileage?

[jax4bangin]

o believe me ur not the first to think twice bout that claim. i was shocked myself.. i did a 121 mile trip starting off filled to the brim(spilling out a bit) the end of the trip it only took 3.2 gallons to get her overflowin again..
dude everyone i tell looks at me like im a fool but wat ever im stoked either way lol

[jax4bangin]

o and truck is completely stock tire and gear wise so the speedo shudd be pretty accurate

[jax4bangin]

o ha and it includes driving like a granny, drafting wen possible, and tires at 42 psi.. truely tried hard for those mpg numbers.. during normal driving(still pretty easy going) i average 29-33. always wit a honda 450 in the bed tho and gear(roughly 400 pounds not including 150 me) so im totally pumped on this lil truck. its saving me some $$

[jax4bangin]

really saw a big improvement after drilling out the bottom of the air box and making the intake tube

[grey ghost]

not to doubt you but could you get pics or the way tou did your air box



:worthless:

[jax4bangin]

as soon as i take some ill post em upp bud.. but ill try to explain, jus take off the top of ur air box, remove filter, drill holes all along the bottom of the box. the more holes u put the more air can flow.. i felt a big improvement with this

[Wicked_Sludge]

drilling the airbox out isnt going to improve anything. your throttle body is MUCH smaller than the tube after the air box. even the tube between the air box and TB is smaller.

on top of that, drilling out the air filter box is likely to let warm engine compartment air into the intake, which will lower power.

what youve experienced is called a "placebo effect".

[hihoslvr]

not much mention if you fill your tank to "overflowin", yer just wastin' gas anyway. sorry to be a prick, it's past my bedtime.

[jax4bangin]

the inlet to the throttle plate is 3" diameter.. im not tryin to sound like a bullshitter guys. i have been doing mileage tests on everything from bone stock paper filter and everything and the set up i have settled on works way better that stock. why does 38 mpg seem so far fetched? there are tons of ppl claiming up to 33, u dont think a few mods and extreamly conservative driving could bump up 4-5 mpg? and as far as over filling goes i jus say that to assure u the truck is full to the brim to provide ultimate accuracy in the tests(its only really spilling out a few drops)

[jax4bangin]

and hey this truck isnt throttle body fuel injection its multi port

[Wicked_Sludge]

who said anything about throttle body injection? ford hasnt made that for 20 years.

your throttle body measures 63mm...which is less like 3", and more like 2.4". its easily the smallest restriction before the plenum.

your mileage is a bit surprising because your driving a vehicle with similar aerodynamic properties to a common brick. by contrast, a ford focus with the same engine is considerably more aerodynamic, and also about 500lbs lighter than your truck (not including your 500lb bike...so make that 1,000lbs lighter), and is only rated at about 32 MPG highway.

a geo metro has to sacrifice about half the horsepower your making (70 vs. 143) and drop 1200lbs from your trucks weight just to break into the 40MPG highway range.

but even so...im not disputing your claims. im just telling you that drilling holes in your air box didnt help :icon_cheers:

[jax4bangin]

i hear ya.. but on those cars thats jus the epa rating right? dude u know if someone baby'd the shit out of a focus they could get some impressive results.. but anyways frilled box or not, i kid u not i have pulled 38 mpg.. (strictly highway) and have done it pretty consistantly.

[Wicked_Sludge]

those are actual ratings. i saw focus' all day long for a year and never saw more than 34mpg on the average economy display.

one of the guys i used to work with had a 3 cylinder geo that would get mid 40's...but the 4 cylinder models are lucky to break 40.

[gordo]

I was reading this thread and I think you may be overlooking a real issue with intake air restriction. That "snorkel" that comes from behind the headlight on my '08 XLT is tiny. There is also a rubber deflector flap that's out behind the headlight bucket - probably because of the wiring harnesses passing through the same access hole. All this stuff is ahead of the filter element.

When I get some down-time, I am going to take that assembly completely out and take some measuements, etc. If it's as restricted as what it looks like initially, maybe putting some holes through the bottom of the air-box, ahead of the filter element, would get more air through the filter.

[Wicked_Sludge]

the factory snorkel isnt smaller than the factory TB. that rubber deflector is to keep water out of the intake and engine compartment. think about this...engines with more HP sell better. if increasing the output of these engines was as simple as increasing the size of the factory snorkel (which would cost the same for ford to manufacture either way), they would have done so. theres a reason its the size it is.

drilling holes in the airfilter box allows warm engine air to enter the engine. warm air is less dense and thus produces less power per stroke...meaning your engine makes less power and you need to get heavier into the throttle to maintain speed...thus, less economy.

[jax4bangin]

was that focus running fuel with ethenol?? iv herd that that stuff kills mileage

[Wicked_Sludge]

like i said, i saw focus' all day long (i was a service tech at a ford dealership here in town)...it wasnt just one car.

they dont make a flex fuel 2.3...so no they werent running ethanol.

[gordo]

The "snorkel" (Part # XL2U-9A675-AA) measures 1.793" ID on the inlet and 2.301" ID on the outlet (air-box side).

So, it's 2.52 sq-in inlet and 4.15 sq-in outlet. That's 36% less area at the inlet of that snorkel. That will restrict the air-flow.

This is a 2008 and has an altogether different cold-air set up that my other (older) Ranger. I am glad I took this apart because for a company so intent on making sure I have max-horsepower they hadn't done a great assembly job. The plastic "push-pin" on the left side of the rubber inlet boot was never pushed into the hole in the sheet-metal cowl, so the boot had dropped and it was partially blocking the snorkel. The other side of the snorkel was allowing plenty of engine compartment air into the air-box. This is why it looked so strange to me initially and I wasn't able to pass anything through the snorkel-tube and out to the space behind the headlight. I thought that there must have been a screen on the front of the snorkel-tube. At least it's put together correctly, now.

[milje]

I've made the trip from my parents house to my apartment at college on less than 2.9 gallons of gas before (filled it right to the top because I didn't believe it was full), it's a 100 mile trip. Not sure how much more gas that was than just letting it click off, but figure it at 35+ mpg. Truck is bone stock except for a tonneau cover. It's really hilly on the drive up, no nice flat ground, 60 mph except for slowing down for towns.


I've only done that once, a few times I got low 30's, usually around 29.

[crazypj]

Best I ever got was 34mpg at around 60~65mph. had about 400lbs in bed and passenger (coming back from NH, awful lot of cops in Maryland)
Had a tarp over bed, pulled tight so that may have helped?
The weight only makes a difference if your going uphill or pulling off, when its moving, its moving.
Only dropped to 23mpg coming back from Pennsylvania with 4 Honda CB360's in the back (about 1600 lbs+) braking was 'interesting'
It ain't that far to Florida :icon_rofl:
'Normal'? driving, 27~29mpg.
PJ