$1000 to invest

[Eddie B]

I'm new and have a spare $1000 to invest on parts that will save me more money in the long run with better gas mileage. Of course I would like to perform the greatest gains first. My goal is to eventually get 25mpg on the highway over time and just stick to simple bolt ons that I can do without a tune. I have a 2003 EB Explorer V8. I don’t want to get rid of the roof rack and get skinny tires, because I like the way it looks. I don’t have all terrain tires either. Here is the list I will perform in order unless someone can give me better advice.

Borla Pro XS $135 cat back and I haven’t checked prices on installation yet. I’m guessing about $70? I read that a member received 3.5 mpg increase in his vehicle, but he had a 2.5 in. complete exhaust system. I’m expecting a 2.5 mpg increase. Is this about right?

MAC intake $150, but on the web site I can’t find a specific intake that will fit my Explorer. What kind of gains should I expect, 2 mpg increase?
Ford Racing 4.6 Mustang throttle body $200. What kind of gains should I expect form this mod?

Considering a Flex-a-Lite Black Magic Extreme 180 for $300, but the wiring looks difficult. Will it be worth it?

Considering under drive pulleys for $200, but I just want to put them on and not have to fabricate anything and I’m worried about not getting enough electric power to my vehicle. I don’t have a sound system or anything else that will draw power. I also don’t know what kind of belt I would end up using.

What kind of gas mileage do you all think these mods would get on the highway at 2000rpms and mpg for the first three mods?
Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

 

[Ronin8002]

That list looks good and should help. The flex a lite wiring is not hard.

Another thing you might add is a Scanguage II and perhaps a Blendmount mirror mount for it. The Scanguage II has, among many other features, an instantaneous, trip average, and tank average fuel economy function. By displaying the instantaneous and trip average it will help you develop efficient driving habits by striving to keep your instantaneous MPG at or above your trip average MPG. It's also a good diagnostic tool to have as it will read and display trouble codes and allow you to clear them (and turn off the check engine light if it comes on).

 

[LONO100]

one mod you can do that will help your mileage the most and is free is modifying your driving habits if you havent already. ive heard that electric fans are a great fuel efficiency mod as well.

 

[Flounder]

ive heard that electric fans are a great fuel efficiency mod as well.

Many owners of STs have tried this and the gains are nearly zero. It's one of those theoretically good, reality isn't mods.

 

[Joe Dirt]

Take $1,000. Buy '96 Escort for $700. Buy something nice for Ex for $300.

Drive '96 Escort for great gas mileage.

If you're planning on a 4.5-5 mpg gain from an intake and exhaust, I think you're severely overestimating what you're actually going to get. You won't gain anything from an intake.

 

[FIND]

4.5-5 mpg, even if you had all the mods you have listed plus a tune, it would be difficult to attain.

 

[Eddie B]

Take $1,000. Buy '96 Escort for $700. Buy something nice for Ex for $300.

Drive '96 Escort for great gas mileage.

If you're planning on a 4.5-5 mpg gain from an intake and exhaust, I think you're severely overestimating what you're actually going to get. You won't gain anything from an intake.

4.5-5 mpg, even if you had all the mods you have listed plus a tune, it would be difficult to attain.

Wow, that’s not what I wanted to hear, but the truth hurts. I don’t want to drive a small car. That’s why I bought my Explorer. I travel 2100 miles a month between work and college. My Explorer has 70,000 miles and I want to keep it till about 150,000. Is it even worth putting these mods on the Explorer to increase gas mileage? I like my Explorer and would hate to trade it in.

 

[Ronin8002]

Wow, that’s not what I wanted to hear, but the truth hurts. I don’t want to drive a small car. That’s why I bought my Explorer. I travel 2100 miles a month between work and college. My Explorer has 70,000 miles and I want to keep it till about 150,000. Is it even worth putting these mods on the Explorer to increase gas mileage? I like my Explorer and would hate to trade it in.

To really be worth it, the mods have to be able to pay for themselves quickly so that you can start saving money on what you spend on gas. Unless those mods are free, then that could take quite a while. For instance, if you spend 500 dollars in fuel economy mods for a 3 mpg gain, it's going to be quite some time before you realize enough cost savings on gas to pay for those mods that you were doing to save money in the first place!! (at least a year) You'd almost be better off spending that 500 bucks on a bike or something.

That's why good driving habits are the one of the best fuel economy "mod." Costs nothing to implement.

Good maintenance is another smart "mod". You've got to do it anyway...the better fuel economy is a side benefit.

 

[FIND]

Alright, math time! I love math!

Lets say you drive 2100 miles per month, that is 25200 miles a year.

Now, lets say your explorer gets 20 mpg, that is 1260 gallons per year.

If you were to increase that to 25 mpg, that is 1008.

Granted, these fuel economy figures are really optimistic, but we will go with them anyways. At $4 a gallon, 252 gallons of gas saved, you will save $1000 a year.

I mod my explorer for fuel economy too, but it is going to take me a LONG time to see a return on my investment.

The intake and exhaust... well, they won't return much fuel economy. A UDP and an E-fan, a little will come out of that. Get a tune on top of that and you will probably be close to 3mpg for your total increase of fuel economy (possibly as much as 4). That is a 2 year return on investment if you have to continue driving as much as you do, and therefore it makes good economic sense.

Learn some good driving habits, accelerate slowly, coast when approaching a stop light or sign instead of keeping your foot on the gas until you are ready to stop, don't speed, try to anticipate anything that will cause you to slow or stop, and you will see some fuel economy benefits. Make sure you perform regular maintenance, always check your tires and oil. Lastly, look into some of the hypermiler forums, some of the tips there will work, others are just stupid crap that people shouldn't be doing, but they do anyways so they can brag about getting 90mpg out of their Metro (things like drafting a couple feet off the bumper of tractor/trailers).

 

[Eddie B]

Well I guess I give up on increasing my gas mileage. I think I’m just going to use the money towards buying some BFG all terrain tires and a brush guard. At least it will look good.

 

[Anime]

Where is there a Borla Pro XS cat-back for $135? Or is that for just the universal muffler added into the stock pipes?

You might get some gains from a cat-back/muffler, depending on the stock system. Ford seems to still use mild steel crush-bent tubing and so a true cat-back with mandrel-bent pipes and slightly larger tubing can sometimes be a drastic difference.

Sometimes an intake helps too, but unless the tubing is poorly routed or something, sometimes just a replacement filter or adding a cone filter to the stock intake tubing gives the benefit without the expense of a whole new intake.

After that, the bigger benefits in modern computer-controlled-everything vehicles seems to come from programmers, and tweaking a specific one for mileage. You probably can get that 5 mpg gain you're after, but it may cost over the $1000 mark, especially if you're paying someone else to do everything.

It's important to keep in mind that you should look into GAINS after the basic stuff is taken care of. Regular oil and fluid changes, spark plug and wires, fuel filters, etc. all play a big part in fuel economy. It doesn't make a lot of sense to spend money doing expensive uprades in hopes of a few MPG when the worn spark plugs and old wires are making it so it's not even getting the EPA MPG.

Keeping tabs on the tire pressure and developing smooth driving habits to minimize stops and starts will probably give you more gains than anything, as will planning out the most efficient route for trips. When a vehicle is idling and standing still, it's getting 0 MPG.

 

[Eddie B]

Where is there a Borla Pro XS cat-back for $135? Or is that for just the universal muffler added into the stock pipes?

You might get some gains from a cat-back/muffler, depending on the stock system. Ford seems to still use mild steel crush-bent tubing and so a true cat-back with mandrel-bent pipes and slightly larger tubing can sometimes be a drastic difference.

Sometimes an intake helps too, but unless the tubing is poorly routed or something, sometimes just a replacement filter or adding a cone filter to the stock intake tubing gives the benefit without the expense of a whole new intake.

After that, the bigger benefits in modern computer-controlled-everything vehicles seems to come from programmers, and tweaking a specific one for mileage. You probably can get that 5 mpg gain you're after, but it may cost over the $1000 mark, especially if you're paying someone else to do everything.

It's important to keep in mind that you should look into GAINS after the basic stuff is taken care of. Regular oil and fluid changes, spark plug and wires, fuel filters, etc. all play a big part in fuel economy. It doesn't make a lot of sense to spend money doing expensive uprades in hopes of a few MPG when the worn spark plugs and old wires are making it so it's not even getting the EPA MPG.

Keeping tabs on the tire pressure and developing smooth driving habits to minimize stops and starts will probably give you more gains than anything, as will planning out the most efficient route for trips. When a vehicle is idling and standing still, it's getting 0 MPG.

After a quick sure on the web I found that price, but I didn’t look into it that much. I just checked again and I think that’s just the muffler. I also take very good care of my vehicles with great maintenance and get made fun of for driving like a grandpa.