1997 Tbird MPG (hwy) update .,..

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So, I finished a month of the internship where I had to drive 180 mile round trip 5 days a week on hwy.

Speeds avg'd about 70-80 mph about 90% of the time, rest is city/40-55 mph.

i added up all the mpg values, which i calculated every time i filled up.

worst was 20.45 mpg (this really was an outlier, imo)
best was 26.13 mpg
avg for the month was 24.58 mpg.

This a 1997 Tbird with the 4.6L v8, which now has 134k+ miles.

Gas was a mixture of Shell, Exxon and sometimes BP.
Mostly 89 octane, sometimes a mix of 87 and 89 with 87 being very little..
(car still pings a bit with 87, but used to ping on 89 too...but after the cat. converter and O2 sensor replacement - which I did before all this hwy driving started - didn't notice any pinging with 89 or 87/89 mix.)

Oil in the car is at 8,000 miles now (MC 5/30)..will change this week.
 
how long you plan on keeping the 97 Tbird? You got low mileage on that engine for age of that car.
 
Originally Posted By: sparkplug
Clean the MAF with electric contact cleaner. That solved my pinging and power loss issues with my old Crown Vic.


My old 96 Merc GM had the pinging problem until I cleaned the MAF.
 
Originally Posted By: daves66nova
My Ford's pinging was gone once i sold it and got a Chevy! LOL


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I'll agree though.
 
Originally Posted By: daves66nova
My Ford's pinging was gone once i sold it and got a Chevy! LOL


Now you've just got piston slap and failing intake gaskets to contend with instead
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LOL
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Get yourself a Scangauge II. It made a massive improvement in the fuel mileage I get with my 96 Crown Vic. 35mph in overdrive, torque converter locked, I get insane fuel mileage.
 
Originally Posted By: crinkles
try driving 90 miles at 35 MPH and it will drive you nuts!!!


Just give me some good music, and keep the people behind me from going nuts themselves.
 
Some comments on comments:

I am planning on keeping the Tbird forever :) - well, as long as I can - I am attached to it; As soon as I am out of college, even if I get a new/different car, I will turn the bird into something special/hobby/2nd car :)

some future plans:
new paint (black)
clear corners
new shocks - probably will lower about 1"- 1.5" at the same time.
new wheels: probably 17" or 18" Mustang Cobra or similar 5-spoke style.
Engine works great for now, and will keep it running as long as I can; if it dies someday, I plan to toss in a 2000 Explorer 4.6L in it.

pinging/MAF: yeah I clean it every 6 mo. or so using CRC maf cleaner; however, i can never get the hot wires 100% clean on their side facing air flow... I guess if I someday replace the MAF, then regular cleaning will keep all sides clean.
Tried Arx once when the car had 90k miles or so...don't know if it did anything OR if there was a real need for it...might do it again at about 150k miles...

This is the 1st time i kept track of MPG after replacing the cat. converters...before that, when they were bad, mpg was pretty bad. That's why I thought I'd report.
 
Any chance of doing a used oil analysis on your oil?

MC at 8k in your engine would be interesting - we saw it recently go 10k in a Toyota.
 
oops; i meant to type "2000+". Thanks. (I wasn't really sure when explorer started with the 4.6, I thought it was somewhere around 2000.)

about the used oil analysis: i might do that. will update if I do...I did add about 0.75 - 1.00 qts of oil during this OCI, and it was Havoline HM 10w30... is there any point in doing a used oil analysis as the MC 5w30 is "contaminated" by the different top-off oil?
 
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