ANy advice, at what to look at, or what will help regain milage. Or what causes poor milage.

 

Replace your fuel filter. This is a quick and easy cure for bad gas mileage especially if you have never had it done. I would go with a Motorcraft replacement filter from the dealer. I used a cheaper one and later replaced it with a Motorcraft and noticed a substantial difference. You will need a disconnect tool that can be bought at local auto supply shops for cheap.

 

Basic tune up. A dirty air filter really makes the gas mileage go down. Do you have a CEL on?

 

Keep my foot out of it works best for me!

 

Slow down. I found that I'd gain at least 1-2 mpg during my daily (highway) commute if I slowed down about 5 mph. Avoid jackrabbit starts. Brake and accelerate smoothly.

Check your tire pressure and make sure your alignment is in spec. Either one that's out of whack may cause more rolling resistance, more rolling resistance = more work needed to accomplish the same thing = more fuel consumed.

Making sure your engine is in good standing goes without saying. Clean air and fuel filters, fresh plugs if they haven't been done in a while, PCV valve, etc. If you've got miles on your engine, consider cleaning your EGR ports as well regardless of whether you have insufficent flow problems or not. Fresh fluids and filters, besides just giving you peace of mind, may eek out a few more miles per gallon.

 

Only go downhill. Those dang uphills will definitely kill your mileage.

 

Wow. All these suggestions sound familiar. I wonder why?

 

Make sure your O2 sensors are good.

 

How do you know this other than the check engine light coming on?

Mark

 

Your 02 sensors can deteriorate over time. They will not trigger a CEL, but they will not provide the correct voltage to the PCM to ensure optimum mileage. They can be tested with a good voltmeter that reads in millivolts.

 

I have a 4.6 and when driving, I try and keep the RPMs under 2000. It's slow going at first, but it does save in the long run. I can average 285-300 miles on a tank, depending on traffic, in the city or highway.

 

how many gallon tank? i get about 325-365 a tank on a 24.5 gallon tank 4.6, my goal is 400 a tank

 

I use to get 450 km on half a tank. I would get 150km before the needle moved from the full line.

 

You didn't mention what year your truck is.

If your truck has a 4.6L engine and is pre 1999. Then I'd replace the Coil Packs with high output units.

I installed MSD coils and picked up 1.5 mpg and some reall oomph in excelleration too. Who says you can't have both.

I understand Accel coils are just as good.

Unfortunatly this won't work for you 5.8L drivers or the 4.6L after they changed to "COPs" Coil on Plugs.

Also I used to always keep the RPMs below 2000, like lewis_ice does. Now keep in mind this is all before I installed the MSD coils.

I remembered something I learned while driving semis, and that is the sooner you get your gears the better your MPG.

I desided to play around with my driving a bit to see what effects in had on MPG.

So I started running it up to 2500 in first then 2000 on the following shifts. The trany shifts out of first much sooner and I'm no longer the slowest one on the road. Also I picked up 1 MPG from doing that.

So now with changing my driving habits a little and replacing the Coil Packs I've picked up approx. 2.5 MPG

So instead of the pathetic 14.25 mpg I used to get. I'm averaging nearly 16.75 mpg now.

Next week O2 sensors and away ....

Doug

 

Stay behind traffic is best you get the benefits of the draft plus with all the slow pokes in front of you you will not be doing any jack rabbit starts. The only downfall is you might flip others off because they take off slow and are drtiving slower than you normaly would I know it is the case with me.