I am going to be detailing the mods that I have done to my truck to improve mileage. When I bought it, it was only getting 14mpg highway and scraping just above 10mpg in town. After everything I have done, I now am getting 16.5mpg city and 19.5mpg highway. I will be posting pics later. Hope this helps others out there as well. These are in the order that I did them.

Not Mods, but needed
1) Changed plugs to Autolite Platinums - When I changed them, they were mostly Bosch with a couple of Motorcraft. They were well used and looked terrible.

2) New wires - I swear by Bosh wires, these are the 8mm bought at AutoZone - I change my wires once a year needed or not - Lifetime Warranty

3) New O2 sensors - hooked up to my lappy with Digimoto - Not doing to well - CEL started coming on - Changed out the sensors and took care of that

MODS
1) K&N Drop in Filter - ya some say these aren't very good, but I have nothing but good things to say about them

2) Half-shaft throttle body - Polished Throttle Body - Noticed more power all the way through the RPM range



Should have seen it before, the carbon build up was nasty.



3) PVC Filter - I have made a PVC filter with a special media that filters the crankcase ventilation. The sludge this thing collects is amazing, why anyone runs without it is a mystery to me.

4) Ported and Polished MAF Sensor Housing - breaths easier and showed a noticeable improvement

5) E-Fan (Volvo fan with custom wiring) - This is where the big difference was noted. I went from 16.5mpg highway to 19.5. Some may think that is unbelievable, but I have tracked my mileage for a long time and now I am consistently getting 19.5mpg highway. Getting ready to install a temp gauge on the Tranny, all other indications is that it is fine.

6) Air box mod - I took out the silencer, opened up the box a bit and insulated the air coming in as best as I could.

7) Autometer Fuel Saver Gauge - this really helps with those fast starts and watching the deceleration. This is more for a driver mod than anything.

 

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I've never heard of the Autometer Gasaver guage, that sounds like a cool mod i'm going to have to check it out.

 

got any pictures of some of the mods?

 

x2 and what the real # cause u said for the e-fan 19.5 to 19.5


my 4.0l ohv gets around 10 also but been getting better since its getting warmer out if its a huge diffrence i might have to try it.

 

Yeah, that was a typo, fixed it. All I know is that I went from 16.5 before the fan and with all the other mods, and now I am at 19.5. Some may say 3mpg is a bit much for an efan, but all I know is the numbers don't lie.

 

I forgot to add that I also added a Screamin Demon coil pack. This did not provide me with any mpg increase, but my idle is smoooooooooth. I gapped the plags to .65. I am looking at getting the Halo Plugs. I will post on my findings from there.

 

Did a little searching and found this. The Fuel Saver is an AutoMeter product. Part no. 2885. ebay auction right now:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Autom...QQcmdZViewItem

I got mine from ebay a while ago for about $30. I guess any ol gauge would work, just need to know where the vacuum points are to get best mileage.

 

I've found a decent improvement in milage and power with: ASP crank only underdrive, e-fan, and over inflating the tires to 40F & 38R

With this warmer weather lately (60s-70s) I've been seeing 19-20mpg in my 06 FX4. (no tuner yet) Highest so far has been a 20.63 in 50/50 mixed driving running the AC.

Rich

 

How is your tire wear with the pressure your running?

 

The truck is pretty new at only 11k miles now. I rotated them at 10k and they were not over the top IMO. The center of the rears was a bit shallower than the edges.. and the fronts were well rounded.

I've done this on cars/trucks before and found that as long as tires get rotated; I'll get down to the wear mark indicators at pretty much the same time.

btw: I keep a close eye on them. When the weather gets hotter I adjust psi.. as well as when it gets colder. Basicly about once every two months or so I'll check and adjust.

Rich

 

throwing in my $.02
When my 04 4.0 4x4 was stock it got about 11mpg
When i added k&n drop in filter it jumped to 15mpg
When i changed to K&N cold air intake it jumped to 18mpg
When i added the magnaflow dual exhaust i see about 20mpg(but only if i keep my foot off the floor)I see a consistant 17.5-18mpg
I also only run royal purple oil through it-it really did help a little

 

Here are some of the pics of my mods:

Ported MAF





Electric Fan - Volvo Fan installed in the factory shroud







Homemade Tonneau Cover

 

 

any problems after ported maf sensor? i did that exact same thing on my 95 mustang gt and had to add a device to recalibrate the sensor readings to improve the way the motor ran

 

I have not had any problems since porting my MAF. It seems to have better response and really frees things up. I do have the 4.0L, I have heard of people having issues when they mess with their 3.0L MAF.

 

how did you make the tonneau cover. materials? cost?

 

I've not done a port on a 4.0L MAF. But theoretically speaking.. it should lean the mix up. I've be VERY curious to see what your O2s read as well as your short term fuel trims. I'm pretty sure your part throttle a/f won't change. But I'd suspect the WOT ones would.

btw, I'd like to make a tonou cover like you have done. Any additional info you can post would be much appreciated. Materials, and specifically how do you support / clamp it down.

Regards, Rich

 

with a X2 tuner, you could richen the fuel to compensate for the added air flow....

 

looks like a wooden frame with vinyl wrapped around it. then some angle iron bolted to the side that rests on the bed rails. the only part i need help on is how to attach it to the bed so that it can hinge like that as well as stay secured down.

 

It is made out of 2x3 boards. I recently put on a solid sheet of plywood to give it stability. Under the vinyl, on top of the plywood, I put batting. I got the vinyl and the batting from a fabric store. Clearance prices are great. There are 3/8" bolts at the front holding it to the sides acting as a hinge. To latch it shut, it is simply gate latches with bolts that are screwed into the bed.

This sure makes it nice to not have to worry about stuff blowing out. Total cost was around $25 to $30. Not bad looking for a homemade job. If enough people want, I can get more detailed pics of the whole thing.

 

I am waiting to get my live OBD2 code reader. This way I can read data as it is coming in. I am in the process of scarping my money together to go with the Sniper Tuning software. I like the idea to customize my own tune files. I will let you all know what the sensors read and how the Sniper does.

 

There are 3 so far including myself that would like more detailed pics.

 

i would like to have some more pictures.....

 

And... Ford typically has run thier stock tunes 10% fat. This is why I'd like to see his before and after 02 readings.. as well as the short term trims. I'm pretty sure that at part throttle it'll correct it'self because the 02s swing from high to low. And as long as the ratio of MAF counts vs the 02s readings are within the pre-defined parameters it'll work just fine.

BUT at WOT the PCM ignores 02s.

I was curious when I found that my K&N kit actually had a slightly smaller I.D. than the stock MAF housing. I've thought about shimming the MAF out to increase the crossectional area and just measure it to see what happens. But.. I've got too many other things in life to worry about. Maybe someday.

Rich

 

If you guys can wait, I will get more detailed pics posted by Friday. It took all of about 3 hours to make. I am going to work on the hinge and the latch system to get it to work better.