Modifying my Brick-On-Wheels

[GasSavers_Scott]

My 93 Exploder benefited mainly from stock sized wheels, check your door or glove box to find the factory size, most people put oversized on. If its the 4.0 auto, it has a huge overdrive, so I would just keep the OD off until I reached 50 or so. The OD causes the engine to stay in eternal bog and wastes gas below 50.

I could knock 26 MPG out of if Hwy, I did run synthetic oil, I also had to switch to Dot 4 silicon brake fluid, I'd eat a master cylinder a year.

Now there is a site called Xploder.com, its a Ford Explorer site. They say that the 95-96 aero front end can be bolted on. Were talking expense here and completely removing every bit of sheet metal off the front right to the doors. If you have the room, buy a junker, or get to know your junkyard guy real well. You'll need fenders, hood, grill, bumper, and all those little bracket things. Also check Youtube and see if anyone did the conversion.

I was close to doing it on my 93, but the engine let go at 140k.

Big-Badda-Boom!

[bowtieguy]

i think that synthetic fluids in all 3 parts of the drive train could yield some gains. if not fuel savings, it could save by prolonging components. and yes, fuel cleaner and filter, besides the normal tune-up.

did you pull the EGR off and clean it? my wife's car had the same issue. i actually had to apply oil to get it "unstuck." reinstalled it and no problem since.

not sure how obvious this is but...driving mostly in town requires memorizing of traffic light cycles. oh, and lots of patience--keep your foot off both the break and accelerator as much as possible.

[Jay2TheRescue]

Don't remind me about traffic light cycles... I know the order that the lights change at every intersection between home and work.

[MTUboi86]

Originally Posted by trollbait

How do you know the EGR valve is blocked?
There was a period of time when Ford had bad DFPE (I think that's the right name) sensors. It is part of the EGR system, and is responsible for monitoring exhaust gas flow. The Ranger had a bad one, and I suspect my 1996 Taurus also did. On the Ranger it was bolted to the intake manifold right up front with 2 hoses going to the exhaust. The old ones were metal, and it appeared deposits built up inside them. New ones are plastic, and run about $120 from the dealer to $60 for third party ones. Real simple to replace. The hoses are different sizes so they can't be switched.

The EGR valve was stuck open, so I blocked it off myself. I'm not sure if plastic would stand up to exhaust-manifold temps. I know the EGR valve was stuck open because the engine was chugging and barely able to stay running when idle at stop lights. When I blocked it off, it was fixed instantly.

And just to clarify, it isn't blocked by something that I can fix... it's rusted to the point where it can no longer function and isn't sealed, so I blocked it to fix it being stuck open.

[MTUboi86]

Originally Posted by Scott

My 93 Exploder benefited mainly from stock sized wheels, check your door or glove box to find the factory size, most people put oversized on. If its the 4.0 auto, it has a huge overdrive, so I would just keep the OD off until I reached 50 or so. The OD causes the engine to stay in eternal bog and wastes gas below 50.

I could knock 26 MPG out of if Hwy, I did run synthetic oil, I also had to switch to Dot 4 silicon brake fluid, I'd eat a master cylinder a year.

Now there is a site called Xploder.com, its a Ford Explorer site. They say that the 95-96 aero front end can be bolted on. Were talking expense here and completely removing every bit of sheet metal off the front right to the doors. If you have the room, buy a junker, or get to know your junkyard guy real well. You'll need fenders, hood, grill, bumper, and all those little bracket things. Also check Youtube and see if anyone did the conversion.

I was close to doing it on my 93, but the engine let go at 140k.

Big-Badda-Boom!

My exploder has Goodyear Wrangler GSA tires. I have them blown up to 40PSI (max tirewall is 45psi). Not sure if those are "oversized". It's just what the tire place recommend I replace my current tires with. Didn't care/know much about gas mileage, or how tires affected it, 3 years ago when I got them. I can't afford new ones, esp when my current ones have many years of life left.

As for putting a aero front on it from the newer models, That's not really something I can afford, nor have time to do, nor a garage to do it in. Plus, this beast has 188k on it and I don't want to invest much more money into it. Basically, if it has any major issues I can't fix myself, it's getting sold or going to the junk yard. I bought it for only $1,000 summer of 2006. I've put probably $2k of repairs if not more into it over the years... mainly nickle-and-dime stuff. Engine is still strong, so I'm crossing my fingers it'll last me 'till I graduate college.

[MTUboi86]

Originally Posted by bowtieguy

i think that synthetic fluids in all 3 parts of the drive train could yield some gains. if not fuel savings, it could save by prolonging components. and yes, fuel cleaner and filter, besides the normal tune-up.

did you pull the EGR off and clean it? my wife's car had the same issue. i actually had to apply oil to get it "unstuck." reinstalled it and no problem since.

not sure how obvious this is but...driving mostly in town requires memorizing of traffic light cycles. oh, and lots of patience--keep your foot off both the break and accelerator as much as possible.

I have been putting 0w30 mobile 1 synthetic in it for over the last year. I've been looking into switching the majority of my fluids over to Royal Purple. For oil, it'd save me money since I only drive about 5k miles a year and would only have to change the RP oil once every 1-2 years (according to the tech. I emailed at RP).

I had the transmission fluid drained and refilled by a trusted shop. They highly recommended I not have them "flush" it due to high mileage.

As far as I know, the diff. fluid and transfer case fluid are original. I was going to see about doing that soon here before full-on winter comes. I was planning on putting RP in those as well.

Traffic lights here aren't really timed. Most are based off (magnetic?) sensors in the pavement to detect when a car pulls up to the light. And... I only pass one stop light on the way to campus, and two on the way home ... the town only has 3 stop lights ... but lots of stop signs.

[theholycow]

If you're putting so few miles on it that you expect many years of life from tires that you've already had for 3 years, then there is no modification (except free ones) that will ever pay for itself in fuel savings. I would suggest not to bother with fixing stuff or upgrading anything, just work on your driving techniques and continue your plan of running your beater into the ground.

Or, trade it to someone for something more efficient.

[theholycow]

Originally Posted by MTUboi86

I had the transmission fluid drained and refilled by a trusted shop. They highly recommended I not have them "flush" it due to high mileage.

Old neglected automatics don't react well to getting too much maintenance. I'd have been afraid to even drain and fill.

As far as I know, the diff. fluid and transfer case fluid are original. I was going to see about doing that soon here before full-on winter comes. I was planning on putting RP in those as well.

I'd probably leave that alone, but if you do, check how much more it will cost to use synthetic fluids. Where I bought gear oil for my diffs recently, synthetic was hugely more expensive than dinosaur juice.

Traffic lights here aren't really timed. Most are based off (magnetic?) sensors in the pavement to detect when a car pulls up to the light.

Most traffic lights have the sensor and a timer; they won't trigger without the sensor being tripped, and once it's tripped they wait for a time slot to open. However, you described a 3-light town; if the lights aren't anywhere near eachother then there's nothing to time them to.

[MTUboi86]

Originally Posted by Jay2TheRescue

Which is why I said it may help mileage, but certainly if the transmission hasn't been serviced in 100,000 miles that can effect mileage and longevity of the transmission. I'm merely throwing that out there as something to look at and consider.

Another thing I forgot to mention earlier was the fuel system & filters. When was the last time the fuel or air filters were checked/replaced? Also if the vehicle is old with high mileage then a bottle of BG 44k would not be a bad idea to clean up the injectors and valves.

I have a new fuel pump (my last "new" one only lasted 5k miles ..., and warrant wouldn't cover it because it was over a year from the purchase date (by like 3 months), and warranty was only a year )

I replaced my fuel filter last summer, so that's less than 10k.

I don't know what BG 44k is. I've never heard of it nor seen it on the shelves here. I usually use Seafoam (full can) in the gas tank once ever few months.

"New" spark plugs and wires already. They're like 3 years old, but that's less than 20k miles.

I had my front-passenger axle seize up about 3 years ago, along with 3 U-joints. I notices a slight decrease in gas mileage, but had no clue they were seized up until the horrible grinding noise one day on my way home (thought something horrible happened, didn't know if I'd make it the 2 blocks home). That axle wasn't replaced because there wasn't one available in the area to replace it (even at junk yards ... because they were buried in snow), they just worked it till it un-seized and greased it really well. That could be a cause for not great gas mileage. I'll have the shop check that out next time I take it in.

[Jay2TheRescue]

I can see the wisdom of not doing a power flush on the tranny if its high mileage and never been done before.

If you're already using synthetic oil I see no reason why you can't go at least a year between oil changes. The oil in my Buick (Big White Hooptie) was last changed a year ago this week. I had Mobil1 5W30 put in it. The car has only gone about 1,200 miles in the past year. I'll probably change the oil before winter sets in, but honestly I think I can probably go 2 years, but it doesn't hurt to just do it.

My K1500 Sierra (The Beast) last had an oil change a few weeks ago. I put Mobil1 0W30 in it. That vehicle gets changed every 5,000 miles. I can probably go farther, but 5,000 makes it real easy to tell when the service is due. My next service is due at 170,000 miles. This vehicle also has Mobil1 synthetic ATF in the transmission, and has synthetic fluid in the transfer case and differential.

My Chevy C10 (Rusty) was last serviced about 18 months ago. Mobil1 10W30 high mileage formula. I'd be extremely shocked if its racked up 1,000 miles since it was serviced.

As long as you're using quality lubricants and filters (Stay away from Fram AKA "The Orange Can of Death") I'd feel comfortable going 2 years/7,500 miles at least. You can probably get away with 2yr/10,000 miles with no problems - just get an oil analysis at 7,500 miles to see how well you're holding up. If you've got a comfortable margin at 7,500 go ahead and take it to 10,000 and analyze again. Once these 2 tests are done you know how far your vehicle can comfortably go.

I'm sure I can go a lot farther on all my vehicles. Even on The Beast where I go 5,000 miles between changes the truck has 165,000 miles on it and the oil comes out looking like medium to dark honey. My oil always stays translucent and never turns black.