Hello out there

[cgrey8]

What does the Mountaineer get for fuel economy? Since I have the same engine, I'm just curious if it is considerably less or about the same.

[v8ranger]

Its been pretty bad anymore. Dont know why. I first thought it was because of the egr tube that goes to the right header that was causing my exhaust leak and bad fuel economy, it was cracked. I fix the egr tube and still had a small exhaust leak. Thought it was a ex manifold gasket, wrong again. So I took the manifold off and took the heat sheild off and the manifold was cracked. So I welded that up, WIPPPEEEEE not more leak. Not sure what my milage is now, havent gone threw a tank of gas yet. But my milage was about 15 to 16mpg. When we bought it a year and a half ago it was getting about 17 and about 19 on a road trip. Will have to see how it does over the weekend, we are going on a road trip so we will see. During the winter it was getting about 14. I even thought about taking the front shaft out for the summer to see if that would help with the milage, but about the time I did that I would need the AWD.

[87sc302]

Chris,

Sorry for the situation but will put you on our church prayer list , if thats OK with you.

Hang in there.

[cgrey8]

So far, so good. I've got 3 more days, including today, of the rough stuff. And the roughest I've had it so far is bad afternoon nausea and some light skin irritation similar to a sunburn in the area that the radiation is treating. Next week's treatments narrow the exposure to only the area that was identified in the CT scans as a recurrence just to be sure the broad coverage radiation I've been getting for the past 3 weeks got it all.

I'm done after next Friday (the 3rd). After this Friday, I think the worst will be behind me. But until then, I'm taking any help I can get...medicine, prayer, and sympathy accepted. Being nauseous is almost as bad as torture especially for someone like me that LOVES to eat.

[gorgo]

i usally dont fall for claimes like this but i was watching horsepower tv and they did a dyno test on a 350 motor using different plugs to see if the claims were true. they did 3 brands of pluges on the same motor and conditions. and the e3 showed a 10+% increase in power and milage. for me the 50 bucks was recouped in just a couple of weeks of driving. the power increase i cant say for sure the truck goes like a scalded rat anyway with just the stock exployer motor with 2.5 exhaust. above 2000 it just keeps going. the low end isnt what i expected but the exhaust might open it up to much for the lower end torque. i ended up using header wrap all the way to the mufflers because of a heat problem with the trany being onlu afew inches off the exhaust. it all goes down the pass. side most the way

[v8ranger]

Hmmmm, I might have to get me some of them E3's. I would love to get a better exhust, cat back system. I think the stock sounds like crap. I cant find where anyone offers a cat back system for it. Did you find someone that did? or is yours custom made?

[gorgo]

i had to have mine made. because the truck is sopost to have a cat on it i had a heck of a time finding someone to put exhaust on it. after it was all said and done it cost me 400 bucks and i supplied the flowmaster 40's. if i had to do it again i would probley not use the 40's. they sound really nice, but are a bite loud. at 70 on the freeway they are rappin out really good. a buddy of mine says you hear this thing coming and expect something else. neighbors love it at 5:30 in the morning when i leave for work.

[MalcolmV8]

I don't trust dyno's for tiny HP differences at all. I had my Cobra dyno'd three times within about a 30 minute span and each time it made more HP. Between 1st and 3rd run it made 15hp more. Had I done anything in between runs I would have sworn it just made me 15hp more.
There are just to many variables and engines are not 100% consistent every time. So when HP TV or any other show swaps out engine oil and says they just picked up 5hp I just roll my eyes. I did nothing and got 15hp between my runs

[v8ranger]

I would have to agree with all the hype they put on parts. Put this on and gain lost more power!!!!! or even put this on and double your gain from before!!!! Ya I dont look to much into those thing either. But for my wifes mountaineer, if I can gain MPG, hell im all for that. It has plenty of power for what it gets used for. Pull the boat on the weekends and back and forth to work for her. But if I can gain 1 mpg, the part/parts would pay for its self. I hate the idea of spending $6.99 per plug. And if it doesnt help, I just flushed $60 down the drain. Thats almost a tank of gas in that hog. lol. But when you put them E3's in you got better mpg? What did it go from?

[gorgo]

my truck was getting around 12 or 13 before now it is 14 to 15. i was supprised with the gain but everylittle bit counts. i pretty much drive the same route to and from work. 50 55 for about half the 30 miles. when i noticed it i used my gps to check milage for two weeks and it worked out to 1-2 miles. i looked back at what i paid and it was only 5.50 for the pluges. and when gas is 2.95 to 3 bucks every little bite helps. thats no freeway. freeway just eates gas like crazy

[v8ranger]

Hmmmmm, I might have to invest in them. I am going to see what my milage is when I fill it up tomorrow before we leave on our road trip. Got to see, if at all, if the exhaust manifold being cracked was my problem before. Then will see how it does on our road trip and maybe get them next week.

[cgrey8]

If you already have an ignition box, how likely are these plugs to help anything?

I would almost expect that an ignition box levels the playing field so that it doesn't really matter what plug you run....copper, platinum, itanium, splitfire, multi-prong, side-gapped, etc. With an ignition box, the spark is so powerful that it just doesn't matter the sparking device. Or is there still benefit from one sparkplug to another even given an ignition box?

[widetireranger]

I honestly believe there is a difference between plugs. I once owned a '66 Ford F100 with a 351M in it. It had a Duraspark box on it and got around 11 to 12 mpg. I switched in some Splitfires and my mileage went up to almost 15 on the highway. It was such a big difference, I pulled them out, installed the old plugs just to make sure. Sure enough, I was getting better mpg's and a ton of more HP's!
I was gonna by some of these E3's and put them in the Ranger but they don't make them for the older Ford heads with the large sparkplug.

[Warpig Racing]

I put a set of them E3's in my 05 camry about 2 months ago. I didnt do it for any other reason except i got them on sale on amazon for $1.23 each with free shipping thats cheaper then the cheap plugs at local parts store.

I did not notice any increase in power. I did not notice any increase in fuel economy. They look cool but am very skeptical that they really deliver 10% more power. Maybe if the old ones were fouled I personally would not spend $50 for them in my ranger.

here is a question. What does nascar run? What do Nitro cars run? I would expect that they would run what ever truely deliveres the most performance unless their sponser will foot them the difference between winning and loosing. They have the R&D funds and test trials to determine what is performance and what is marketing BS. Just my $0.02.

[gorgo]

my motor is just a stock exployer more. it tended to run alittle rich, may im just using the fuel better i dont know. but it did make a difference im my setup. 1 or 2 isnt much but i drive mine everyday it adds up. sooo even if it was only 1 or less when plugs get changed every 50 or 6o grand it pays for it self anyway. its only a couple a cases of the good beer i spent.