my MPG sucks.

LaserRed95GT · Mar 16, 2013

KillNThrill24 said:
Not gonna lie I saw this thread and wanted to say... "my MPG sucks" <--- You drive a Mustang!

But a standard tuneup is gonna be your best bet to squeeze any more MPG's out of it man. I get 21 avg in mine.. But I think I just get lucky lol

I know, I know, everyone in every MPG thread always says buy a different car or something. I was given the car as my first car, not the smartest choice for a 16 year old (18 now), especially when the air bags and ABS don't work. lol

21 mpg is pretty good, course your 4.6 to my 5.0, it better get more MPG!

I would take 21mpg with open arms, that's two short of the mazda 6 I drive (it's technically ford?!).

belber095 · Mar 16, 2013

hey i get like 18 city in a 6er... lol.
just be thankful you got the power to compensate for the shitty mileage!

Orange 94 · Mar 16, 2013

Some of you look like you get better mileage than my v6... n/a... With the sc its even worse, mostly because its running really rich and i have a hard time keeping my foot out of it...

KillNThrill24 · Mar 16, 2013

Hahaha bud my 5.2 ZJ get's around 13mpg if I'm lucky. I can't WAIT to get my Mustang back on the road for mileage alone! Haha. But shit I wish I had a Mustang for my first car, but my first car wasn't bad. But yeahh I know the 4.6 beats 5.0 in MPG haha but hey it's the price we pay for fun

Ferocious · Mar 16, 2013

I average about 14 mpg all city driving.

But idgaf. If I wanted good gas mileage, I would've bought a prius shitbox.

Orange 94 · Mar 16, 2013

Ferocious said:
I would've bought a prius shitbox.

lmao! I'm pretty sure you'd rather take the bus instead... Have some dignity that way

LaserRed95GT · Mar 16, 2013

It does seem like some of these people get better mileage than some v6s 0_o

and yeah I'm pretty fortunate to have a mustang, let alone a v8 as my first car

Also, even better is that it's a 5.0, simply because everyone is running the 4.6s if they've got a v8 round here, seeing a 5.0 is a rarity!

Rallim · Mar 16, 2013

I don't monitor my mileage when I drive it because I'll cry.

02's and the cats are probably your biggest issue right now IMO..

poisonbl · Mar 16, 2013

My GPM's not terrible, abused '94 GT with at least 170k (200+ is my guess, odometer issues ftw).

With far too much of it being wintertime idle/city driving (I've been recording since mid Oct), I'm down to about 14.9mpg average (11.5-12.5 for the worst stretch), but late summertime/fall I averaged around 16-17, still mostly city, with a peak of 22 on nearly pure highway (to say I was behaving myself in the least for that trip would be a bit of a stretch, I might add). Only thing done to it by that point was an oil change, tires, thermostat, and radiator/heater hoses.

A few things I have planned before the end of next month (another long business trip at the start of May coming up), however, will hopefully clear up a couple minor issues I'm seeing as well as improving fuel and/or fun a little.

CC'S95GT · Mar 16, 2013

I'm getting 18ish in my 5.0 5 speed and 4:10 gears. Mostly hwy driving at 70-75mph.
Definately look into new cats and o2's if they're origional.
As a side note, my engine has 200,000+ and passes the sniffer every year.

ScottyDsntKnow · Mar 16, 2013

I got ridiculously good mileage out of my 95 Cobra when it had the 3.08s in it. Like 24mpg+ good. Went to 3.73s and "bolt ons" and bumped timing to 14 degrees and it'd still get 18-20 on the highway. After the HCI it was pretty bad but that is to be expected.

The 4.6 in my sig gets 19-20mpg hand calculated city/highway mix but I get on it pretty good when I drive it since it is a weekend fun car and is restricted to sunny days with 0% chance of rain and no crap on the roads either.

As for mileage issues, these engines will keep almost new compression and oftentimes look brand new when torn down at 100k+ so getting 16mpg is not exactly normal but it all depends on driving habits. What you should do:

-New plugs/wires. Autolite 25s for E7 heads and get MSD 8.5 wires not the autozone shitwires or some other no-name brand.
-New O2 sensors
-Clean/replace all filters (air/oil/fuel/even trans if you have an auto)
-Drain/fill your rear diff, you'd be amazed at the laquer you get out of those things at 100k... you should have seen my Expo when I bought it at 76k...
-Obviously change oil/drain fill transmission. You can also do the converter flush trick if you've got an auto to get all the garbage fluid out of it.
-If you've got the original H pipe on the car... cats are likely clogged or partially clogged or at least one of them is blocked up some. Get a new catted H pipe or run an O/R unit if your state has no emissions or you just don't care and don't think the cops will. I ran an O/R pipe for YEARS in DE/NJ just swapping back to the stock pipe for emissions day.
-EGR, if you've got no EGR codes you are probably ok although it doesn't hurt to check your smog garbage. I kept the external EGR setup in my 5.0 but I trashed all the other smog garbage like the crossover etc... I bypassed the smog pump but left it physically on and would hook it back up and run a heater hose straight to the stock pipe/cats on emission day.
-Seafoam... you'll hear 100 success stories to every horror story with Seafoam which leads me to believe that those who have issues with Seafoam are victems of user error or their motor was about to go out anyway and the Seafoam just made it arrive a few miles early. My take on it is don't bother with it unless your engine isn't running like it should. Yours isn't so you might benefit from it.

the.greg · Mar 16, 2013

I think mpg primarily comes down to driving style. I have gotten 10 mpg city before by boosting everywhere, driving like a moron.

One time I got 22mpg mixed hwy/city by never surpassing 2000rpms. It was really boring so I quit doing that.

white95 · Mar 16, 2013

If you have 10k on a trans rebuilt, your fluid should be a-ok

MustangChris · Mar 16, 2013

so your cats ARE clogged? take it to a shop and have them replaced/removed.
replace your o2s, i know they are expensive, but they last for years....

hard shifting in the tranny? is it an automatic?

mygreengt · Mar 16, 2013

Seems appropriate.

LaserRed95GT · Mar 17, 2013

Sounds like i'll being doing the rear diff, I'm sure its never been done.
Got the plugs and wires, doing that tomorrow if I get the time!

MustangChris said:
so your cats ARE clogged? take it to a shop and have them replaced/removed.
replace your o2s, i know they are expensive, but they last for years....

hard shifting in the tranny? is it an automatic?

They do not glow red.I'm assuming that means my cats are not clogged.
Would just getting them chopped out and replaced to make it an offroad h-pipe work though? It's an option I want to look into
They sure are expensive -__-, that'll be a paycheck or two away before I can replace the o2s

And yes, aode, shifts hard sometimes. Like say, for example, I am driving at around 40mph, the car has yet to shift into 4th, it kind of hesitates to think if I'm done accelerating and then it'll figure it out and shift harder than I remember, but it's been a year or so.

g36 monkey · Mar 17, 2013

All of this is well and good, but checking your tire pressure is one of the biggest things that can kill mileage.

And idk wtf you v6 guys have trouble. I pulled 30 on the stock motor, and I get about 26 with this one, and I've never really done an all highway trip to really gauge how high I can get it.

I average 18 stabbing it everywhere lol

MustangChris · Mar 17, 2013

cats go as cheep as $60.00

i always suggest replacing instead of deleting, but on 94/95s deleting is a simple option.

http://www.jegs.com/i/Flowmaster/389/2220120/10002/-1