Inherited an older truck from family a year ago. Truck is in ok shape with only 54k miles (it sat most of its life).

The ranger has the 3.0L v6 gasser and averages 14mpg city.

My F250 7.3L super duty diesel averages 13mpg city.

How can I get better MPG from the Ranger? Will a chip help? Headers? Anything else other than running higher tire pressures and babying throttle?

 

Is it in top operating condition? Codes? What axle ratio and trans? This time of year winter gas impacts milage by 2-3 mpg. Given your other truck is a diesel are you in the habit of letting the engine warm up for 15min before driving? No need for that with a gasser, 30 seconds and you should be driving away.

 

So you are trying to pay some money to get extra gas mileage so that you can recoup your money? Then forget the chip and forget the headers.
Make sure it's tuned up, add a new fuel and air filter. Give it a good oil change with 5W-30 or even 5W-20 oil and just drive the thing.
Decode your rear end ratio. You might find that it's not best for getting optimum gas mileage.
Just keep on top of the maintenance and count your blessings that the savings you are getting is from not having to make a monthly truck payment.

 

Engine is in great condition with zero codes. It has a K&N filter and regular oil changes (synthetic) since I became its owner. Transmission is a 4R44E, unknown axle ratio. Usually let truck warm 1-2 minutes vs much longer for the diesel.

Truck is in very good condition overall, just looking to see if there are mods that will give me a boost in MPG.

 

How do I find out the axle ratio?

 

Some people report that the K&N filters cause problems with air sensors due to oily fibers or some such thing.

 

I would suggest a tune up,,,new Motorcraft plugs is what Ford likes or some AC Delco,,,,,maybe some new Motorcraft plug wires,,,,,throw K&N filter in trash and replace with right filter,,,,,clean MAF sensor and see if that helps,,,you should see at least 20 MPG with the 3.0 running right

 

Installed new Motorcraft plug wires and Motorcraft plugs a couple months ago, thanks.

 

well the milage sounds about right, my 94 4.0 gets 24-25 around town, 19 20 when I drove it on highway. The current airfilter is ok, just dont keep overly clean and oiled. It works best when its kinda dirty/oily looking. Have run mine for over 200000 miles no issues. if maf issues would throw a code, mine did and I replaced it no issues in over 100000 miles. Yours should be 1st gen of OBD2 so yes get it scanned by a good shop to see if they can find any issues. There were some issues with rangers with loose intake bolts and the need to retorque them so you might look there. Then take out on highway and drive 40-50 miles at 70-75 to clean out. I put high flo cat on mine with a free flow muffler, changed sound but did seem to help with mpgs. truck has over 320000 on it and runs well. run some seafoam cleaner also in fuel tank, can also run it thru a vacuum line and let soak to clean top end read the label. The door tag will list the vin and then the book will tell ya what the ratio is from that info. Or you can just jack up and trurn the tires and count the revolutions on an mark you place on drive shaft. Mine is 3.08 by the book, the shop said it was a 3.0 by doing it manually. You could have a lower ratio but I would doubt it. Check your owners manual.

 

25mpg city from a 4.0? Not buying it. And how is it you get worse milage on the highway? is your "city" speed 55mph and hwy 90mph?

 

sorry fat fingers, should be 14-15 in town, 19-20 on highway at 75mph. 55 in city, sometimes, depends on how many snowbirds are here going 15-20mph!

 

My '96 with a 4.0 averages 16-17 in the city and 23+ on the highway. The city mileage is with the back half full of tools.