So I took the T-bird out for a drive yesterday (it hasen't been out in two weeks) and I'm kinda amazed at the mileage I got. In mixed city/highway driving (on the highway I was doing 70 with a couple, uh, full throttle trips to 100 :hick: ) I got, get this 20 mpg! The best I could do on the same trip last year was about 18 mpg. I guess for some reason the GT40 intake and 2.5" cat back added some gas mileage. I'm thinking about a switch to mass air next summer (gotta pay some bills first) and getting another 1-2 mpg. Every little bit helps since the T-bird runs on premium and it costs $4 a gallon :nannerbang:
Later I had to drive the 95 to the store to get some stuff for dinner. After driving a fox with a 5.0 HO I forgot how slow a MN-12 3.8 Bird is :toilet:
Start a fuel log at ecomodder.com. Log your MPG findings and note your increases over time :)
Ive went down on my mpg a bit lately cause Ive been screwing around with my car a lot instead of driving for fuel economy completely. Woops.
You can get a Tripminder in your 5.0 bird, which believe it or not can actually help you improve your MPG a lot by giving you real-time feedback on how hard you are driving your car. Is your 95 OBD-I or II? If its a II you can get a "Scangauge" to give you feedback on basically every sensor in the car, including instantaneous and average MPG. If its OBD-I theres other tools you can use.
Your 3.8 bird is rated 17 city, 24 highway, and 19 combined by the new EPA standards. You should be able to easily manage 20 city and close to 30 highway with it.
An 88 5.0 bird is rated 16 city, 24 highway, and 19 combined. A 5.0 auto stang is rated the same. I would think you could get close to 20 city and 25 highway with it.
Driving habits affect mpg the most, hands down. You cant get good mpg if youre on the gas a lot.
I run premium in my daily driver. I average about 23mpg with it not running 100%.
I love my 2.3L.
Still waiting for someone to top my 40mpg (3.8 V6, C5 trans)...
:shakeass:
I have a trip minder on my car as it has the full digital dash. It says 20 mpg avg fuel economy for yesterday:D .
The 95 is OBD-I. I drive it for economy and get ~18-20 mpg. It's just slow as hell that's all.
Another thing to consider is the place you get gas. If you really want to know then buy gas at the same place from the same pump each time. Each pump is different and they all give you different amounts of gas.So as you can see going to a different pump can affect your mileage. It could be that the last pump you were at gave you more gas than the other pump.
I bet you could wire in a trip computer from a Mark VIII to the 95, or maybe even a tripminder since its still EEC-IV. Mount it in the glovebox or console or something.
I have to suggest starting a fuel log if youre interested in improving your economy. Just seeing a graph of your fillups or your average economy, it encourages you to set a goal for a certain mpg number on your next trip or fillup, and encourages you to try techniques for better economy. At ecomodder they have a fuel log and a trip log. The fuel log is basically for calculating your mileage at fillups, miles divided by gallons. With the trip log you can use your trip computer to give you mileage readings for individual trips and over time get averages for those individual trips. So you can have one trip on your list be "Home to work" and have individual mpg readings for each trip to work, and build up an average for it. You can improve the way you drive to work this way.
You can also try modding the body of your car to reduce drag. I blocked off a good part of the grill on my gf's shadow, half of it with a piece of plastic and another part with the front license plate. Have to wait til it needs filled up again to see if it improved anything. Having the car aligned got us over 3 mpg instantly.
What kind of pressure do you run in your tires? I run 46-48 lbs in my 44 lb tires and 40 lbs in her 35lb tires.
Its like I said, driving habits affect your mileage the most. Try to coast to stops as far as you can. Try to predict red lights, if a light is green and you know its gonna turn red before you get to it, just coast to it, watch other people fly up to it and end up slamming their brakes to stop at it. Coast to a red light, and watch people fly up on it and stop, then you just drive right past them when it turns green.
If you happen to stop at a red light that you know takes a while to turn green, put the car in neutral and shut off the engine. When youre idling at a stop, youre getting *0* mpg. This works good for me cause my engine starts really fast, doesnt take its time at all.
20mpg is decent for an HO warmed over like that, and that gear. Do you do more city or highway driving? What kinda instant mpg do you get at 55mph cruise?
You reduce intake and exhaust restriction and your engine doesn't have to work as hard to get the air in and out. You've reduced the pumping losses and increase efficiency.
Yeah but its so hard to put a nice flowing exhaust on a 3.8 cause they sound so embarassing :D.
my buddys got flowmasters on his 65 banger stang
its not to bad
Im gonna be lucky to get 18 in my mark, I have a heavy foot. I average 7-8mpg in my moms b/fs jeep. Thing does some SWEET AWD powerslides cross main roads hahahaha
My digi-dash readout is stuck at about 16-16.2 MPG. It was always exactly 16.5 when my dad drove the car, so of course it was S.O. then, but according to my mom he flew around in it LOL.
I tried to drive the thing like a granny when I first started driving. I did practically everything bhazard does. Partly because I was a very cautious driver in the beginning, 3 years ago. Back and forth to school around town, (I do little highway) I could make it do 18. No freakin' more. The H.O. conversion made it go down.
Its in the 16s no matter what I do. So, I have fun, because it's got more power and it's just too much fun randomly dropping it down into 2nd and holding that at say 40 mph along the main drag through town and toying with it. Hell, moderately accelerating to about 30 or 40 holding 1st and then letting it drop into 3rd actually made it go UP as opposed to lumbering through the gears.
My guess is its the 2.73s and the extra weight this thing must have in comparison to say a sport tbird. That and maybe a suburban area is WORSE than city, because its stop and go but up to higher speed. Whatever. It is what it is. Maybe the 3.73s will help. :evilgrin: :laughing: I dont care either way I'll pay it's waaaaay too much fun.
Ever try hitting "reset" on your tripminder?
Actually yes I have before just for shiznits and giggles. Didn't change anything :hick:.
not bad. i get about 24 in the turbocoupe.
To be fair I was driving uop and down Lake s drive for an hour. Lake S Drive has 2 stoplights and a 55 mph speed limit. I was barely pushing the pedal as the car has enough power that you really don't need to jab the throttle to get good forward momentum (unless one wants to spin the tires :burnout: ). I went 60 miles mixed highway and stop and go, burned 3 gallons of gas, and the dash tripminder says 20 mpg. So either everything is spot on or they are all fibing together.
oh im gonna try to get to the 35 mpg mark in my sc. Right now im getting around 30 mpg.
Actually, not really. I've had some of my best fuel mileage runs happen even after several runs at the track. I normally get 22-24mpg with a mix city/hwy, but 100% hwy, I've gotten 33mph.
Key word. After, not while you were racing down the track.
Yeah, but I'm talkin about all that on the same tank of gas. As in...drive to school and work all week (maybe a couple of stomps on the pedal in between), go to the track, then tank up and see mileage. Funny thing, sometimes I'd try to stay off the gas all week and I'd get worse mileage than I did when I was messin around and running at the track.