So I just picked up a new truck (shown below) and I wanted to do a couple easy mods to increase gas mileage because my daily commute to and from work is 85% highway for 70 miles.

My thought was to do the free snorkel mod today and also go pick up a K&N air filter for my truck (see sig for specs) at an Advanced Auto Parts on the way home. I was debating on the whole K&N intake modification, but I really dont know if I will see drastic mpg increases (of the 77 Series... or others) between just the filter for approximately $50 or the whole intake for several hundred. Am I right?

The next mod, which will take a bit more time is to put a flowmaster (or similar) exhaust on the truck. Will this increase my gas mileage or decrease it? Also I'm up for suggestions on the best exhaust for this truck. I have the 4.0 SOHC engine so I sorta want to make it known, just not obxnious Also what kind of a price range would I be looking at and would Ebay Motors be a good place to go to save some $$?

Simple things I want to do in the cab would be to get nice seat covers to cover the 60/40 bench and also rubber ford floor mats. Eventually (like next spring) I will Line-X the bed and ditch the tonneau cover.

Thoughts/Suggestions/Criticism?

 

I personally would not get any intake other than Volant. Even then you wont gain much from an intake alone unless combined with other mods. I had a K&N and all it did was suck in hot air. You won't gain much MPG maybe 1 or 2 with intake and exhaust. The best way to save gas is to watch how you drive. I have pulled 19.5 MPG on one tank driving mostly highway. All I have is an exhaust as far as engine mods. Speaking about exhaust I like my Magnaflow. Its not loud when you drive normal but people know you are there. When you open it up it is loud. Gibson also sounds good. Flowmaster will make it kind of raspy IMO.

Intake:

 

Ive got a Flowmaster Super 44 and I love it. I think it sounds really good.

 

How much was your Super 44 and where'd you buy it?

 

Performance Peddler

Not sure if there are cheaper places that others know of.

 

I gained a few mpg when I changed the spark plugs and it only has 39K on it. Magnaflow is good but expensive. I went with Gibson as I wanted quiet sound.

 

Flowmasters only sound good on v8's. Even then they are a maze of restriction.

 

How about taking the snorkel out of the airbox and adding a K&N filter only... Maybe 1 mpg or maybe not, will it increase my engine perfomance anything noticible you think?

 

Like Christian said, watch how you drive. I think that's the biggest contributor to MPGs out there. Instead of 70MPH, try running 60-65MPH in the slow lane, and just give yourself a few more minutes to get where you need to go.

Also, don't forget your tire pressure. Go with what's on the tire, if you have a type of tire other than OEM. My old Wranglers ran 30-35, my BFGs are run 45psi. Make sure your tires are balanced as well. Off-balanced tires make the engine/drivetrain work harder.

Reduce your aerodynamic drag: take off your bug shield...

Reduce weight: loose your stepbars, and possibly your tonneau (I don't know how much those things weigh, as I/my family never has had one.)

Tune-up: make sure your plugs are clean and gapped correctly. As for air filter, MY PERSONAL OPINION is that K&N-style "hi-flow" air filters aren't really any better than a clean paper one. The key to air filters is that they are CLEAN!

Lubricants: some people say that you should change all lubricants to synthetic to increase MPGs...I don't know how effective this is or isn't.

 

THis truck has been run with full-synthetic Mobil-1 10W-30 so I'm already there

 

Swapping the stock paper filter for a K&N will only let you wash the filter. It may flow a bit more but you won't feel a seat of the pants gain. Even then the K&N uses oil. You can get an oil free filter that is washable.

 

OK, besides the performance gains (and I'll watch the difference this next tank while doing 60-65 rather than 70-75) what would you guys reccommend for seat covers to keep my nice interior... well nice

 

Expensive but nice covers: Wet Okole Hawaii

 

yeah, seat covers can go a long way in helping keep your truck nice...it's easier to wash covers than the seats themselves, although I know of a guy who took his seats out and washed them. It took a few days to dry tho.

 

I'm having my friend come over who sells those Kirby vacuums as she bought one for herself at a discount and now goes around cleaning stuff. So she'll vac up any existing dirt, but after that cleaning I want to put some covers on the seats. Can anyone recommend something I can pick up at a store rather reasonable (<$50)

 

personally i have a K&N FIPK with a custom magnaflow exh. i am currently on vacation in North Carolina (from Delaware) i saw 23.2MPG on the trip down (and i dont drive slow).

as for the seats, i also just steam cleaned my seats witha bissle carpet cleaner, took about 5 hours to dry so not a huge deal considering i did that before i started to clay bar my truck.

 

you also have a 3.0L

 

If you have a 60/40, you are kinda screwed, as I've never seen covers in a store that would work right. You might be able to get a regular full-size 60/40 cover to work, but it would take extra work to make it fit the seat right.

 

I put an Airraid Intake and throttle body spacer, and have a 40 series flowmaster.

My best mpg so far is 23, and my lowest is 20.

I clean it regularly and watch how I drive so that helps.

My baseline mpg, when I got it was 19, btw.

 

K&N + Flowmaster FTW!
:)

 

I did the K&N Intake this weekend, I'm holding off on the flowmaster at this point, would like to do it sometime soon, but want to drive it a bit more first

 

run a 5/20 weight oil ford changed the recommendation for most of the rangers, you get better gas mileage with a thinner oil.

 

Zombie thread

 

heh, it's the zombie apocalypse, so is there any reason i should switch from 10w30 and should notice a few more MPGs??

 

i bought my flowmaster supper 44 off ebay brand new i think i spent 75 dollars its from performance curve on ebay