Todd82TA
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- June 21, 2009
- Messages
- 173
- Reaction score
- 11
- City, State
- South Florida
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 2002 Explorer Sport 4x2
FUEL ECONOMY - UPDATE / LIST
7/11/2009 - 20.71mpg - Just bought, 36k miles
7/25/2009 - 23.01mpg - Oil (RoyalPurple 5W30), K&N Air Filter, Motorcraft Oil Filter, Seafoam in tank
11/03/2009 - 34.57mpg - Coolant Flush
------------------------
ORIGINAL POST:
Hey guys,
I just bought an 02 Explorer Sport w/ 36k miles on it Saturday afternoon. I've been reading the past few days all the good threads from many of the experts on here. Since the Sport of my generation 01-03 is kind of an orphan, I figured I would begin my OWN question for 01-03 Sport owners and attempt to improve fuel economy as BEST as I can. I would do this keeping with the idea of making the engine more efficient (producing more power).
I've been reading the thread from alDive, and there are some things that I can use from his thread and apply to my own vehicle.
I've taken a similar "quest" on my 2002 Ford Crown Victoria and the results so far have been pretty spectacular. I inhereted a 2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX from my grandfather back in 2004 w/ 14k miles on it. It has 46k miles on it (only due to the fact that it becomes my daily driver in between buying / selling cars, and whatever).
I started off getting something like 23mpg on the highway with the Crown Victoria, and really poor mileage in the city. After a number of upgrades:
80mm MAF, all synthetic fluids, Mercury Marauder Air Box, Police air intake tube, Steeda intake spacer, Mercury Grand Marquis LSE Dual Exhaust w/ factory resonators (to keep it quiet), ported intake plenum (that elbow thing), 65 to 70mm Ford Racing Performance Parts throttle body, ECM reflash by Lonnie at Blue Oval Chips, I've managed a BEST highway mileage of about 28.2 mpg. This was in my Crown Victoria, driving about 75 from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando. I still have underdrive pulleys, the set of Magnaflow header pipes / cats to install, and a few other odds and ends. The car is still totally quiet, accelerates VERY smoothly, maintains it's factory ride and feel, but has TONS more horsepower. Guys on the CrownVic.Net forum (with my same upgrades) are running a flat 15 in the quarter (some breaking into the high 14s).
My goal is to read as much as I can from the threads that exist here, and progress from this point on, on my own vehicle.
I bought my car in Tampa this weekend (only place I could find a low mileage one was from a retirement area). It was 80% highway miles, but I was stuck in stop and go traffic about 20% of the time.
Mostly Highway Driving - I achieved 20.7mpg
I calculated my mileage this way:
This is a pretty reliable way to calculate your mileage, with the least amount of error, and this is how I'm going to do it moving forward.
My first step will be a complete tune-up:
1 - Seafoam in the gas tank.
2 - Switch to Castrol Synthetic 5W-30 (maybe Redline if I can get it)
3 - Flush the radiator (coolant is brown right now)
4 - Change the transmission fluid (fairly clean already)
5 - K&N Air Filter in stock air box.
The next step will be an ECM Reflash from Lonnie at Blue Oval Chips. I will get an 87 Octane Reflash, and whatever else he recommends I do now WITH the chip (larger MAF, if needed, etc...)
I'll let everyone know how it goes. I'll be heading up next weekend to Lake Worth, so I'll get a good 100 mile highway trip in.
Thanks,
Todd,
2008 Jeep Patriot Limited 4x2
2002 Ford Explorer Sport
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX-P74
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter
7/11/2009 - 20.71mpg - Just bought, 36k miles
7/25/2009 - 23.01mpg - Oil (RoyalPurple 5W30), K&N Air Filter, Motorcraft Oil Filter, Seafoam in tank
11/03/2009 - 34.57mpg - Coolant Flush
------------------------
ORIGINAL POST:
Hey guys,
I just bought an 02 Explorer Sport w/ 36k miles on it Saturday afternoon. I've been reading the past few days all the good threads from many of the experts on here. Since the Sport of my generation 01-03 is kind of an orphan, I figured I would begin my OWN question for 01-03 Sport owners and attempt to improve fuel economy as BEST as I can. I would do this keeping with the idea of making the engine more efficient (producing more power).
I've been reading the thread from alDive, and there are some things that I can use from his thread and apply to my own vehicle.
I've taken a similar "quest" on my 2002 Ford Crown Victoria and the results so far have been pretty spectacular. I inhereted a 2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX from my grandfather back in 2004 w/ 14k miles on it. It has 46k miles on it (only due to the fact that it becomes my daily driver in between buying / selling cars, and whatever).
I started off getting something like 23mpg on the highway with the Crown Victoria, and really poor mileage in the city. After a number of upgrades:
80mm MAF, all synthetic fluids, Mercury Marauder Air Box, Police air intake tube, Steeda intake spacer, Mercury Grand Marquis LSE Dual Exhaust w/ factory resonators (to keep it quiet), ported intake plenum (that elbow thing), 65 to 70mm Ford Racing Performance Parts throttle body, ECM reflash by Lonnie at Blue Oval Chips, I've managed a BEST highway mileage of about 28.2 mpg. This was in my Crown Victoria, driving about 75 from Fort Lauderdale to Orlando. I still have underdrive pulleys, the set of Magnaflow header pipes / cats to install, and a few other odds and ends. The car is still totally quiet, accelerates VERY smoothly, maintains it's factory ride and feel, but has TONS more horsepower. Guys on the CrownVic.Net forum (with my same upgrades) are running a flat 15 in the quarter (some breaking into the high 14s).
My goal is to read as much as I can from the threads that exist here, and progress from this point on, on my own vehicle.
I bought my car in Tampa this weekend (only place I could find a low mileage one was from a retirement area). It was 80% highway miles, but I was stuck in stop and go traffic about 20% of the time.
Mostly Highway Driving - I achieved 20.7mpg
I calculated my mileage this way:
- Filled up as SOON as I left the dealer
- Reset my trip Odometer
- Drove home and immediately went to the gas station and filled up completey.
- Divided the number of miles driven on the trip odometer, by the exact number of gallons used to refil the tank AFTER my trip.
This is a pretty reliable way to calculate your mileage, with the least amount of error, and this is how I'm going to do it moving forward.
My first step will be a complete tune-up:
1 - Seafoam in the gas tank.
2 - Switch to Castrol Synthetic 5W-30 (maybe Redline if I can get it)
3 - Flush the radiator (coolant is brown right now)
4 - Change the transmission fluid (fairly clean already)
5 - K&N Air Filter in stock air box.
The next step will be an ECM Reflash from Lonnie at Blue Oval Chips. I will get an 87 Octane Reflash, and whatever else he recommends I do now WITH the chip (larger MAF, if needed, etc...)
I'll let everyone know how it goes. I'll be heading up next weekend to Lake Worth, so I'll get a good 100 mile highway trip in.
Thanks,
Todd,
2008 Jeep Patriot Limited 4x2
2002 Ford Explorer Sport
2002 Ford Crown Victoria LX-P74
1987 Pontiac Fiero SE / V6
1973 Volkswagen Type-2 Transporter