I got 1991 4 cyl. 5spd. Ranger from and older lady because I could use a decent gas saver truck. She said she always got 27-30. I ran a tank thru and calculated it. I ended up getting 15.25 mpg and that is after I put free flowing air filter on and cut off the muffler and straight piped it. I was going to cut the cat off as well, I thinking I should have. I pulled the easy to reach plugs and the all looked good. This have no power at all which I could understand if it got good mpg. What is going on here. My 3/4 ton towing a fully loaded trailer gets 16MPG. I'm feeling like I got screwed.

 

if you straight pipe it you will lose valuable back pressure and loose power. none-the less u will get crappy gas mileage. and i think the truck needs a tune-up. i had a 96' with the supercab and 2.3L 5speed. at the very worst i saw 18mpg. and that was with a heavy foot. so i doubt that your heavy foot is to blame. tune-up? calculation?

 

Wouldn't the Cat still provide the needed back pressure? On my 3/4 ton I was getting 14 until I straight piped but left the Cats on and I did an intake and now I'm a minimum of 16MPG all day long in a truck that weigh 3 times as much and has 4 times the power.

 

I had a 91 2.3 with a 5 speed I drove for 4 years. I almost never made it over 20 mpg. I typically got 19's with 90% freeway driving.

 

I bet you that ole lady is like "Haha, little punk, I screwed you well. Now I can go get some Botox, for the wrinkles on my face".

 

This made me rofl.

 

It may be true, or she is just wanted to by a 2 yr supply of that stuff you put in your false teeth to hold the false teeth to your gums?




Well, 08GT, go back to her and tell her that what she said was bs...but be nice. Always say "Ma'am".

 

I bet she told you she only drove it to the store and back, and always kept it in the garage.

 

I agree the truck has more potential for gas mileage than that! Just give it a good once over and you'll be riding along at 20mpg.

 

I had a '87 Ranger 4 cyl automatic and got about 20-22 mpg on the interstate and about 16 mpg city driving. Tune it up, that may help. Run some injector cleaner through it too.

 

1)New spark plugs
2)New spark plug wires
3)New fuel filter
4)New fuel pump
5)Bigger gas tank (if you want)
6)Check tires for pressure cause if you don't have the right pressure, you will lose a little bit of gas milage.
7)Fuel treatment
8)Oil treatment



There may be more but yeah.

 

I can't help but think you can get better than that. I have been getting 17.4 driving to work (20 miles one way) on county blacktops and 19.1 last weekend which was about 70 percent freeway (65 mph) and 30 percent city. That is with a 4.0L 4x4!

Your straight pipe won't do anything positive, but it shouldn't make that big of a difference in mileage either. Is it possible your cat is plugged? If the little old lady did a lot of short trips, that is a possibility. It would reduce your power, resulting in a heavier right foot, which results in crappy mileage.

I also make sure my tires are slightly overinflated (35 pounds cold). Change your oil (synthetics can help mileage a bit). Did you check the gap in those plugs or just look them over? What, exactly, did you put in for a "free-flowing" air filter? Some of those oil soaked ones (K&N for instance) can cause sensor issues which will lead to mileage problems.

Finally, don't rely on one tank of gas as a valid test. Run three or more through, calculating each, before you evaluate your mileage. It is best to use the same station (same pump if possible), set the nozzle on the first (slowest) notch, and quit when the pump clicks off. Do this each time. If you try to burp it and pump some more, it will throw off the consistency, which is what you want when evaluating mileage.

Oh, and one more thing, winter gas sucks, ethanol blend sucks even worse when it comes to mileage. Maybe the old lady only drove in the summertime and always used regular (no ethanol) gasoline, drove like there was an egg under her foot, and rarely exceeded 50 mph. I bet if you tried that, your mileage would be great too. Most of us don't drive like that though, so hopefully some of the suggestions you got in this thread will help.

Good luck with the Ranger!

 

Lucas Fuel Injector Cleaner worked on my 78 bronco, and brought my MPGs up 30%

from 10 up to 13 still sucked on mileage, but it helped lol

 

Straight will KILL your MPG on a 2.3l, i know from experience on my '02 so i'm sure doing it on an older 2.3l should be the same or worse result, put the pipes back on.

 

if you want to save money in gas, don't get a truck, just get an econobox fwd car (corolla, civic, focus, etc.)

I'm going to call B.S. Expect as good as 26mpg highway, but normally 20-24 for average driving, maybe even worse with winter mix, old age, and old motor design

You def. should be doing better than this, but I can't really predict what the effect of a free flowing air filter and cut off muffler will have on gas mileage.

If you want a surefire shot of at least getting close to what you're supposed to, then put EVERYTHING back to stock and do all the required maintenance as others had posted above


again, trucks just don't get good gas mileage...if you want 27-30 around town, you're never going to see it with a ranger...just get a 4-cylinder car...if you want the utlity of a truck, then keep the ranger, and accept the tradeoff for gas mileage...fullsize or not

and I have to ask, but I'm sure the answer is no: are you sure you don't have the 3.0 V6? 15mpg is what I got on a '91 2wd