Road Trip Report

[rjc]

After purchasing my 2wd 93 XLT last summer and putting a bit under $1000 worth of parts into her I'm happy to say she has carried me on another long road trip from Central CA to Seattle and back again. I ran 87 unleaded all the way and the engine didn't knock or ping much at all as long as I kept the tack under about 3K on the uphill climbs. I was running 10-30 mobile 1 oil and Blue STP and I think I actually have better oil pressure now than when I left. I am also hoping my injectors had a chance to clean themselves out. I'm hoping I will notice an increase in gas milage but who knows with the inefficient pollution control gas. rc

 

[DeagleDave]

how many miles on your X? what kind of condition was it in when you purchased it?

 

[rjc]

I've Just Turned 110K and purchased it at 94K. It was in worse condition than I first thought given the lipservice of the original owner and assurances that it had just been fully serviced. First thing I did was flush the tranny which was full of black crap. I installed new brake pads, rotors and front bearings, had the radial arm bushings changed, replaced the serpentine belt, all hoses, thermostat and leaking radiator + a stuck/ worn out tensioner while I was in there. And that was after a new Bosch plug wire set and new bosch spark plugs were installed. I threw away the dirty, nasty, greasy K&N filter which was not doing a good job of filtering the intake air, instead coating all the components downstream with a good coat of oil and dust. At 100K I replaced the transmission filter with a fram filter kit and bought a set of BFG Land Terrain tires inflated to 35psi cold. The last two things I changed were the EGR valve and PCV valve after I bought the diagnostic code reader. I averaged 18- 20.5 mpg during my trip. Around town I get as little as 13 mpg with average of about 16 or 17 overall. rc