98 explorer horrible gas mpg

[02 ranger]

I know lots of people unhappy with the gas mileage on their Explorers and Rangers but that's pretty much normal. I get 15-16 with mine doing combination city/highway driving. Best I ever got out of it was 19 on a long highway trip. My dad regularly gets over 19 with his '06 gmc sierra with a 300+hp 5.3.

My 2008 ford diesel with 600+ hp and 1235 ft/lbs torque gets 19s on highway

 

[RangerFabWorks]

so i had a friend throw his engine scanner on it. and both the front o2 sensors are shot.

so i got a set of denso's im putting in this week.

i ran seafoam through it, half through the booster, half in the gas tank with a full tank of gas. cleaned the mass air flow meter, and replaced the filter.

got my mpg up to 15.7 which is better.

im doing the front o2 sensors, and doing a new cat back on it as i have a hole in my current exhaust.


but its going up for sale. im looking at 95-02 ext. cab rangers, 4 cylinder, 5 speeds.

need something better on gas, and love my pickups.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

ok, so i did the front o2 sensors, they were all charcoal gray when i took em out.

easiest o2 sensors ive ever done in my life.


just a fyi, DO NOT order two passenger side sensors for the driver side and passenger side.

the pass. side has a shorter harness than the drivers, but the plugs are identical. so if you do use a pass. o2 sensor on the drivers side, you will need the extend the plug.

but other than that smooth sailing.

 

[feellnfroggy]

Did you swap the cats yet? If your o2's were crap then you were runing insane rich explaining the bad mileage, but this means the extra fuel prolly overheated and clogged your gats, 15 is still too low for a 4.0 explorer even for a 5.0 explorer. Id keep diggin to get that mileage up before selling it. Then when your gettin 18-20 run the price up lol.

 

[RangerFabWorks]

Nah. I didnt do the cats yet. I'm gonna drive it for another week or two and see what it goes up to.

It's not down on power. So I think the cats are ok. Time will tell.

But. Im still selling it. I want another ranger. The explorers not doing it for me. I miss my 5-speed