4 Banger Gas Milage, long term.

Hi guys, I haven't been around in a while. But I still have my 07 STX, the 'Gray Ghost' and just finished compiling how much gas I have used over the last 3 years and 95K. Still have 5K to go before it hits 100K, but I think what I have is good enough for our purposes.

So I think with that much on the clock I have a fair idea of what you can get out of a 2.3L 4 banger with a 5 speed stick.

Now some of you may remember that I'm a little anal retentive when it comes to maintenance. So just to stay true to form I changed the oil filter to a larger FL=1A the first chance I got for better filtration and a little more oil in the engine. And have religiously changed the oil and filter every 3000K miles since the day I picked it up.

Anyway here's the averages in 10K increments.
0-10K 24.8mpg
10K-20K 27.8mpg
20K-30K 27.5mpg
30K-40K 23.8mpg
40K-50K 25.7mpg
50K-60K 26.9mpg
60K-70K 23.9mpg
70K-80K 26.3mpg
80K-90K 26.4mpg
90K-95K 24.5mpg

The best mileage for a long trip was 31.8mpg when I took a trip of nearly 400 miles with nearly all of it running on the cruise control at 73mph for the whole trip, go above that and the cops stop ignoring you.

The worst was a 200 mile trip where I only got 19.2mpg. But in the trucks defense I was towing my sons two ton 4.0L Jeep Cherokee and never got the truck out of 4th gear or over 50/60mph on that one. The brakes are good, but not nearly big enough to stop well at any kind of real highway speed towing a load like that.

Also there is a definite difference between having an open bed or a covered one. When I put a cap on my old 01 truck, 'Lil Red', I thought it got better mileage. But without having the numbers I couldn't prove it.

This time I made a note of when I installed a fiberglass toneau cover and there is a difference of about 10% better mileage when going on longer high speed trips. It did nothing, either pro or con as expected in city and low speed trips.

There is one curious feature to the numbers. If you look at them they go up and down with the seasons. My guess is that its the winter/summer gas formulation changes. Unfortunately I foolishly neglected to keep track of the exact dates I got gas so I can't prove it. But looking at the numbers its fairly obvious that something different and its not my truck.

Anyway, those are the numbers and that's my story, have fun with them.
I hope this one lasts the 300K+ the old 01 did.

Citoriplus said:

There is one curious feature to the numbers. If you look at them they go up and down with the seasons. My guess is that its the winter/summer gas formulation changes.

Click to expand...

There's that, but the larger issue is that it takes longer to get the engine warmed up (and thus into closed loop) so it runs richer longer. But very nice work.

I didn't know you could use an FL1 oil filter on the 2.3L. I have used the 400S
type in my 07 ranger since new. Since my Ranger is still under warranty at 30K
I wonder if the FL1 would void the warranty if something were to go wrong with
the engine.

What rear-end gears do you have, and what tire size (or sizes) do you run?

Also- I've just purchased a new Ranger, and plan on keeping detailed records of every gallon of gas I run through it. Any thoughts on what numbers are or aren't worth keeping neatly organized? I figure if I record the odometer reading, gallons pumped, date, and location of every fillup, along with a note if it there was anything unusual about my driving, I should be able to generate any long-term data I'd want...anything else you recorded, or wish you had?

I can't see how they could void a warranty for something that works better/longer.

Besides by federal law to actually refuse to cover damage under the warranty they first have to PROVE that the substituted component was the primary cause for whatever problem you have.

I think proving a bigger oil filter caused any kind of problem would be a real long shot.

I have used the bigger FL-1A filter on this engine since the first oil change at around 500 miles and every time I change it the oils still looks reasonably good and checking the level after the new oil goes in its actually had to tell the level its so clean.

Funny thing is that I did the same thing with my old 01 and its 2.5L except I added a right angle filter mount (I wrote it up for one of the first TRS magazine issues) so I could prefill it before installing it just like this one.

That engine was just as clean inside at the end as it was after the first oil change and it was still running fine (but starting to slow down a little) when the Kidney Fund took it away after I had driven it for 302,853 miles in a 5 year period.

Thanks for the info Citoriplus. I did see your writeup on this site and agree with all you stated. I will upgrade to the FL1 @ the next oil change.

john112deere said:

What rear-end gears do you have, and what tire size (or sizes) do you run?

Also- I've just purchased a new Ranger, and plan on keeping detailed records of every gallon of gas I run through it. Any thoughts on what numbers are or aren't worth keeping neatly organized? I figure if I record the odometer reading, gallons pumped, date, and location of every fillup, along with a note if it there was anything unusual about my driving, I should be able to generate any long-term data I'd want...anything else you recorded, or wish you had?

Click to expand...

My truck has the stock size 225/70R15's with 4.10 gears.
As far as what you might want to keep track of that's up to you.
Me I would keep a dated record of any engine modification, upgrade, or even maintenance item.
I was keeping track of the mileage rounded off to eliminate the tenths and fuel rounded off to the tenth. I forgot that newer pumps go three places where the old ones I grew up with only went one, and I didn't want to have to deal with them. If I had thought about it I know that the programs easily deal with the three places. But that kind of accuracy is taking it farther than I have any need for.

Here's a free downloadable XLS spread sheet that you can use to keep track of things.

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/mileage-calculator.html

If you like PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy of the one I modified slightly to keep track of total miles and total gas mileage average.
The only problem with it is that its only good for about 40 lines of data before you run out of the installed math formulas. But I fixed it so that I can use it for about 10K at a time if you put gas in it every 200 to 250 miles. Just make sure you fill the tank every time or the numbers look really screwy.
Then I just restart a new one with a different tag for the next 10K. That's one reason I broke it down into 10K segments.
If you know how to play with XLS files it will at least give you a start on your own.

tbonne1979 said:

Thanks for the info Citoriplus. I did see your writeup on this site and agree with all you stated. I will upgrade to the FL1 @ the next oil change.

Click to expand...

Like I said in the write up on the 2.5L Lima engine you need to double check the oil level after your done.
The larger filter takes between 1/3 and 1/2 quart more oil to fill the engine.

Citoriplus said:

Here's a free downloadable XLS spread sheet that you can use to keep track of things.

http://www.vertex42.com/ExcelTemplates/mileage-calculator.html

If you like PM me with your email address and I'll send you a copy of the one I modified slightly to keep track of total miles and total gas mileage average.

Click to expand...

I've actually written my own spreadsheet for gas mileage...and plan to add in sheets for maintenance and tire changes, at least. I got a bit carried away with making it shiny...I've spent a lot of hours writing macros that won't really simplify using the thing any, but it's been fun. (It's also leading me to believe I need more hobbies...) Thanks, though.

In theory, it'll work infinitely- at least up to the limits of Excel. In practice, it'll handle every gallon of gas this engine can burn.

This weekend I'll probably bust out the bourbon and try to get the last details on the fuel sorted out, and maybe write some code for tire changes. (My tire changes are complicated by the fact that I run dedicated snow tires in the winter...haven't quite figured out how intelligent I want to make this. I'm leaning toward going way over the top, just to see if I can.)

yeah, i also use excel to track mileage.



I only enter in the yellow columns, and notes if i feel like it. the rest is done for me. initial setup takes a little time, but after that, its easy to add each fill up.

the one for my old explorer had a ton more info, and i tracked every fill up for over 2 years.

why? call it OCD.

Tony,
That's neat, but where do you enter the odometer mileage?
Or do you have to figure that out first and put in the total miles traveled since the last fill up?
The one I used only asks for the odometer reading and it figures out the miles traveled for you.
What you made is exactly what I was looking for except for the odometer thing when I found the one I used.
I wish I had seen yours first because I would have asked if I could have a copy of it. I think I can 'fix' (I hope) the odo issue and make it better than the one I have.
You did a very nice job with that. Wish I was a bit more conversant in Exel so I could make one that nice. Every time I try I get a headache. I have never been very good with software, I can fix the hardware in these little black boxes, even the great big ones.
But the software that runs them more often than not just confuses the hell out of me.