Took a trip from Hilly Alabam, to Flat Louisiana, and back!

The normal MPG (97,4.2,auto ) is 16. That dont vary much.
But on the trip over to Louisiana, it got 20 Mpg???
One tank over there, and it was 22 Mpg.
The last tank was down to 20.

But then on the way back, the wife set the cruise at Max Warp speed and when we started into the hills it dropped down to 17 again.
It's a nice little truck. I like it, but I sure wish it could hold that 20Mpg mark all the time.

That poor little Six banger cant even look at a hill without un-locking, and as soon as it feels the hill it will drop down a gear. No wonder the MPG goes down. It's running up in the 3800 Rpm range all the time.

All this is on a fresh oil change and new filters.

But I still get that BUMP when the Cruise starts to increase the Rpm's.

 

The only thing that would normally do that is that you had a tail wind going and a head wind on the way back.

 

Winds affect it for sure. On a trip over here, pulling a trailer and faceing a wind out ot the NE the fuel milage dropped down to 11 Mpg. That was last Feb when we were moving this way. It also lost a gallon of Antifreeze on that trip.

The hills make a difference. Here in Appalchiacana we got up a hill, make a turn and go down a hill, and at the bottom we start up agan after a turn. The Truck is always in Passing gear, or we're riding the brakes.
That's no good for Fuel milage. Or Brake pads.

Yup, coulda been the winds.

 

Moved recently to Far Western Md and my MPG dropped by a gallon or so. And my driving is now more rural roads and highway and no city. I am up and down hills where ever I go. There is no doubt the hills make the difference. But I love the area and the lower mileage is just part of living here. BTW, I have a 4.6 5 speed Scab. I now use fourth more than fifth on rural roads and when I am climbing out of town to my place on the ridge line, third gear is often the rule. Temps this morning it the high 20's, windy and snowing.

Chip

 

I hate it when the mpg goes up, don't you!!! Hills are killer, especially with that little 4 bang...I mean 6 banger.

 

i would also get a cover for bed and K & N filer and perhaps a chip. They said it gives you more milage for your gas.

 

I know the other day on my way to work I had about a 20mph head wind. I literally used an 1/8 of tank gling to work, and mostly highway 12mi one way. I have a 97 F150 4x4 4.6 auto Scab.

 

Tkondro, that's SIX big ones~. Although it's a lot like the little Four Banger the Tarus had, we nicknamed it Tortuga!
You can Gear down a Mouse to pull a Freight train....so sayeth the FoMoCo.

I have a nice Canopy. It does help. We found that out while moving.

Leaving the end gate down is dubious, KnN filter is not proven, but the Chip may be good. However if you change one thing in that Chip, you may have to change some other stuff too.

I have not had time to fool with this at all. But I'm going to. The Air/fuel ratio of a Gas engine is 14.2:1.
So using that formulae, with any size Cubic inches, a person ought to figure out what kind of milage to expect with EFI.
Carb's are so dirty except at the one RPM they work well at, that the Formulae wont work with a Carb.

Chip, one of these days I'm going up to the New England area. I'll look for ya in them thar hills!

 

These two links show that lowering the tail gate DOES reduce drag and slightly increase gas mileage.

http://www.pickupspecialties.com/Pac...ge_savings.htm

 

I was just messing with you guys and your little 6 cylinders. I'm sure that you laugh at us when you have to refill the tank though.