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Need to save gas??!!

GridIron26

Member
Joined
June 5, 2006
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City, State
Frederick, MD
Year, Model & Trim Level
'97 XLT
Hey guys, I just got 97 explorer for my graduation day.. and I LOVE it.. I'm planning to do some things with it.. I didn't realized how much my explorer swallows the gas.. :eek: So is there any way that would help me to save gas?? Thanks
 



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Search for Aldive's "Quest for 30"

His ex gets 30 mpg consistently. I wish mine was anything near that but I'm happy with my 18 mpg.
 






Hello fellow Marylander - welcome to the forum.
 






If you search on here, theres lots of ideas. Basically if all your concerned with is saving money, it probably isnt worth it to buy any mods to improve the mileage. There are a few things to look at though. First, search acetone on here. Lots of talk about that, and it helped me gain about a MPG, plus my explorer runs better. Next, a cold air intake, and a higher flowing exhaust will help. It will also give you more horsepower. Those are two examples of things that are somewhat expensive and probably wont pay for themselves. You could also do synthetic fluids in your engine/ entire drivetrain, or a higher flowing replacement air filter. Plus, most people end up being a little too happy with the gas pedal after doing these mods because of the new sounds and power. You could also look into cleaning your Mass airflow sensor, and search the TPS mod on this site. These are just a few ideas that may help, its your call how far you want to take it though. The biggest help would be for you to change the way you drive, though. Take it easy on the gas pedal whenever you can.
 






Or if you're really crazy about saving gas, you could always sell the Explorer and get someting more economical. Taking into consideration the high gas prices (which, in general, will likely rise instead of fall within the next year or two), the idea will be better in the long run. If you've just graduated from high school, then would be a great idea. If you've graduated from college, well then you have a little bit more money to spend on gas. Plus here in MD, we dont really get much snow so 4wd/AWD is realy not that important (remember last winter, we got nill). I bought a used '97 Civic 2-dr and it's probably the best move I've made in a few years - almost 40 mpg compared to my Explorer's 13 mpg :thumbdwn: In addition, the automatic transmission on the 2nd generation Explorer start experiencing problems between 100k and 150k miles on average (replaced mine at 122k). I'm not trying to give Explorers/SUVs a bad rep, its just that if you're thinking years from now, it might be wiser to go with another and smaller vehicle.
 






hey man !!!!!!!

I am up in F-redneck fairly often. Look for my Ex and make sure you honk and wave.

Click on My Explorer below for better pics.
 






The cheapest gas saver going is keep your foot out of it and coast a lot. I love the digital disply telling me I am getting 50 MPG coasting up to a light and not having to use my brakes.
 






I would disagree with Floyd. At the price of gas these days, the intake, exhaust, a good tune up ( Which is a good idea anyway) and synthetics should pay for themselves in less than a year for an avg driver. That's assuming you have a light foot.

The synthetics pay for themselves anyway. With Amsoil you can go 25,000 or one year on 1 change. Better for engine, better mileage and only one change, how can you beat that. In the Tranny, it should help it last longer and also should help in the mpg area.

I'm new here too. I have yet to do these mods, but plan on starting soon.
I've done a few of these for my other car and it drives better and gets better mpg.

Good luck and keep checking in.
 


















As to what I said, it has been my experience. I have put the money into mods, and I have put the money into acetone. I used to get 13/17 city/highway and now i get 13/19 and or so on most tanks after the intake, exhaust, and acetone. I dont think that two highway mpg could ever be justified considering the 150 dollar intake, 300 dollar exhaust (but acetone is worth it in my mind). Pretend that I drive about 8000 highway miles a year (I really drive about 4000, but thats ridiculously low), I am saving 148.59 per year (with gas at 3$ a gallon, and its less than that). Now, take into account the time value of money, the time it would take to repay yourself on these mods is four years. So I am obsessed with personal finance and economics, but from my results, from a purely economical standpoint, you would be better off in other investments (look at Exxon stock, I love high oil prices because of their stock!). Im not saying dont go out and mod, because I think the power I gained and the improved sound is definitely worth it, but its just in my experience. Obviously the most cost effective thing to do to improve gas mileage is take it easy driving. I respect your disagreement in its entirety, Al, and I definitely understand that your mileage is incredible, and maybe it has been a wise investment for you, but thats up to you to calculate. My response to his question was based on less exceptional results and more realistic results for a person who has minorly modded their car.
 






well explained floydr007, I too personally think that the mods are not worth it - the MPG improvement is just too minute.
 






I drive 20k miles per year. By getting 30 MPG instead of 18 MPG, I save 444 gallons of gas with my mods. And at $3/gal, thats $1332/year. My mods are definitely worth it.
 






If you only drive 15000 per year and you save 2mpg from the the mods
(I don't consider synthetic or a good tune up a mod, just good sense) then at $3.00 a gallon that's about $350.00.

I'm not going to pay 300 for an exhaust. you bought an online system. You ccan do a lot better at a custom shop. Either way it doesn't take long to get the money back. (again for the avg. driver with a light foot.)
 






aldive said:
I drive 20k miles per year. By getting 30 MPG instead of 18 MPG, I save 444 gallons of gas with my mods. And at $3/gal, thats $1332/year. My mods are definitely worth it.
You kinda have to post a figure on how much you spent on your mods.

In addition, I think it must be noted that your (Aldive's) Explorer is 2wd - so off the bat, his vehicle has a greater potential of getting higher MPG than 4WDs/AWDs .
 






aldive said:
I drive 20k miles per year. By getting 30 MPG instead of 18 MPG, I save 444 gallons of gas with my mods. And at $3/gal, thats $1332/year. My mods are definitely worth it.

Also, as the price of gas goes up, the mods pay for themselves sooner!
 












IZwack said:
In addition, I think it must be noted that your (Aldive's) Explorer is 2wd - so off the bat, his vehicle has a greater potential of getting higher MPG than 4WDs/AWDs .

Sure a 2 wd truck will have greater potential, however, a 4 wd truck can be made very gas efficient.
 






jtsmith said:
Also, as the price of gas goes up, the mods pay for themselves sooner!

Very true, but how do you know gas prices will continue on an upward trend? I definitely think gas prices will be bad in the short term, but look at examples of oil price spikes in the past. Every time the prices have dove tremendously. What I think will happen is that all the increased money invested in new oil sources (the sands in canada, and the rocky mountains) will eventually cause an oil excess again, and prices will again be cheap. So I highly doubt that oil prices will stay high forever. Plus, with increased interest in alternative fuels, demand for oil will eventually drop, thus causing a new supply/ demand equilibrium, and oil prices again are bound to drop.

Also another clarification, my calculations were based on my experience of a 2mpg increase on the highway. One of those MPG has been as the result of acetone, which is well worth the costs. The other 1mpg is from the intake and exhaust. Considering these are relatively the cheapest performance add ons to a car, and one of the best performance boosters, I cant hardly justify buying more performance parts in order to save money on gas, especially because they added about .5 mpg each. The only other mod i would consider, and that I think would make a noticible difference is a better tuned chip for 87 octane.

Aldive, Obviously you save a tremendous amount of money in yearly fuel costs. Also, I applaud you for being one person that is seriously curbing the amount of gas you use, and you are helping to support volatile countries (middle east) less and less. Please dont take my argument as an attack on you. I think the work you have done is amazing, and i really wish i could see those gains. Along with IZwack, I am also curious to the amount of money you have spent on your car to get it to where it is now.

For the amount and the way I drive, however, as stated before, I cannot justify the huge costs of tuning, more performance mods, and synthetic fluids (I plan on selling my truck at 90k - 20k from now). Because I am utterly obsessed with personal finance, I did the cost-benefit analysis for myself and even the intake and exhaust dont make sense financially, but they do to me for performance and sound.

So, my decision in the past and now is to save my pennies, not spend more than i need to on my car, and invest that money. Amazingly, I have been lucky and have been invested in Exxon Mobil and two Alternative (Ethanol) fuel companies, and the gains have been tremendous.

This is why my belief that the opportunity cost of the initial "investment" on performance mods is not worth it when the money could be invested in other ways, but again, this is ONLY for the way I drive.

If anyone is interested in having me do a cost/benefit analysis for you on this subject, or anything else, I am glad to do so. It is good practice for the finance and accounting that I am studying at college.
 



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aldive said:
I drive 20k miles per year. By getting 30 MPG instead of 18 MPG, I save 444 gallons of gas with my mods. And at $3/gal, thats $1332/year. My mods are definitely worth it.

One more question, have you really improved your average economy by 12 mpg with your mods? Thats honestly really impressive.
 






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