Apparently ITUs do Help Some?

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At risk of sounding like Carnoobie/GHT/Technologs ...

Weekend before last, I did a pretty big (for the Jeep) round trip on it. Put about 300 miles on it in one weekend. It's a 2000 Cherokee 4.0.

On the return trip, I decided to tour some storm damage along the US20 corridor in CNY. They received some "straight line winds" even though a lot of people saw a tornado.

For anyone that has ever drove on US20 through Central NY- it's a lot like this. You go up the steep hill, you go down the steep hill, you go up the steep hill, you go down the steep hill.

I had to bring back some junk, tools and other stuff with me. Easily had a few hundred pounds in the back. It managed to squat the rear end a few inches.

Anyway, on a lot of the steeper hills, I found that it wouldn't unlock the torque converter. So I had to manually force it into 2nd gear. Was pulling a lot of the hills at 3500+ RPM.

Toyota built a great transmission, but the shift logic on them is strange. My kickdown cable is adjusted to be a bit over-active to get higher line pressures. No reason it shouldn't have kicked down ...

First thing I noticed when I got back was how smooth the engine was running. The last few times I have drove it, it has idled very very smooth. There isn't a pronounced misfire, but it's just a bit rough at times.

Mostly, the Jeep does short trips to work (8 miles) and back, or random towing and hauling. Longer trips are reserved to the car.

My guess is the high speed operation may have cleared out the injectors a bit, cleaned off the spark plugs and got the cat nice and hot to burn out the crud that may have been starting to accumulate?

Even more surprising - the gas mileage was 19.75 calculated by hand!
 
Thermostat good? I swear, my truck doesn't see much of a mpg drop with a speed bump--but the engine temp has gone up a few degrees in doing so. I wonder if it simply does better the hotter it is.

Of course what goes up must come down, so if you're not burning speed off with the brakes you can regain some (most?) of the energy back on the downhill.
 
Thermostat is good. It runs at a constant 210 or so.

On one of the hills I got stuck behind a truck going about 35. Then the temperature started to go up. Once it gets to about 220 or so, the viscous fan clutch really kicks in and starts roaring so it won't go too much above that.

This doesn't DFCO like the Focus but it idles at like 1200 as I was coasting down the hills up to 60 or so.
 
I have always been surprised that even in the mountains, my overall mileage stays about the same even though half the time I am coasting and half the time I am getting 8mpg.
 
The Focus gets better mileage on rolling hills than in the flat.

but half the time it's getting 25MPG pulling a hill and the other half it's not using any gas at all.
 
Originally Posted By: Miller88

For anyone that has ever drove on US20 through Central NY- it's a lot like this. You go up the steep hill, you go down the steep hill, you go up the steep hill, you go down the steep hill.


Ahh, I remember US-20 quite well, from attending SUNY Morrisville.

And you described it perfectly.
And yes, it will give any vehicle an ITU.

BC.
 
Originally Posted By: Bladecutter
Originally Posted By: Miller88

For anyone that has ever drove on US20 through Central NY- it's a lot like this. You go up the steep hill, you go down the steep hill, you go up the steep hill, you go down the steep hill.


Ahh, I remember US-20 quite well, from attending SUNY Morrisville.

And you described it perfectly.
And yes, it will give any vehicle an ITU.

BC.


I went to SUNY Morrisville too!

Not for cows or auto, though.

I remember sliding down the hill on 20 on the east end of town once during an ice storm. Was ... interesting.
 
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