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Originally Posted by 101Volts
What oil Brand, Line and Viscosity have you been using? I read there were three different engines available in this vehicle. If you're using 10w30 switch to 5w30 at the next oil change if your engine's not too worn, 5w30's gentler on cold starts and better for cold start mileage.
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Hello 101Volts,
I'm Using 5w30 "whatever is cheapest at the gas station" and/or whatever the oil change place uses. This is the 4.0 OHV non-SOHC "Cologne" V6. When I got it it was leaky. I've been working on it and I think I have most of the leaks fixed, but need to do a good scrubbing of the gunk and drive a while to be sure. No synthetic oil until I am sure the leaks are gone, blowby/contamination of oil is low, heads aren't cracked, headgaskets aren't on their way out, etc. It'll take a while to get it at a good starting point, then maybe I'll look at at least a semi-synthetic. For a cheap truck with over 150k miles on it that is known for cracking heads/blowing head gaskets I'm not that keen on putting something in it that could get ruined quickly, and I don't have the secondary filtration/oil analysis tech to do long drain intervals. If I could find info on whether the amount of oil in a filter is enough to replenish the additive package at reasonable change intervals, plus info on what level of filtration is "really" needed to keep the oil film healthy and not sludge things up, I maybe could go synthetic. Not going into the engine for oil system mods, though, so if the stock oil pump can't handle an additional bypass oil system, ain't happening.
Driveline will get synthetic when I get around to changing it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by 101Volts
Add an air dam for HWY mileage; they can be made cheaply in a moderately robust fashion with floor matting and hardware. Your bumper might already have holes in it that you can add the bolts to. Don't make brackets with bent plastic like I initially did, it broke too easily; metal brackets are mandatory. Don't make the dam scrape the ground either.
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Mods will start with a gauge of some sort, then removal of the roof rack, etc. before I get to add-ons. Conveyor-belting type air-dam is on the potential list, as it will hide all manner of ugliness under the rig while I save up for tucking the driveline/gas-tank above the bottom of the framerail and add full skidplates. The plan is to make a daily-driver/weekend warrior off-road rig out of it. Cheaply.
I'll likely mostly be fixing stuff I find wrong with it vs. modding it though, at least for a while. Right now I need to shift my "wrenching time" focus to house projects that have been languishing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by FordMan
I run the Dongle and the Dash Command app myself
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Hello FordMan,
How accurate have you found the app to be? What Dongle are you using, any problems with it? Dongle and Forscan is one possibility I've been looking at, and all of the apps appear to use the same basic OBD2 info, though Forscan may have some Ford-specific PID accesses that update a bit faster or similar.
I do want a feedback gauge, and I have a spiffy new soldering iron to play with. Trying to strike the balance between "works great, does most of what I want, but was expensive and didn't need the soldering iron" vs. "was really cheap, requires soldering, but the setup got me so frustrated I threw it in a gallon of gas and burned it out of spite". Might go with MPGuino and a separate dongle/app for code reading. Anyone ever get a 'duino board to both run MPGuino code and the code needed to act as a gateway between the OBD2 port and a wifi shield? IE, be both an MPGuino and an ELM327 wifi dongle in the same package? I love it when I can make one thing do more than one task at the same time.
I need to read up more on the Ultragauge, too. I forget whether it has problems with MPG accuracy when one cuts the fuel feed for engine off coasting (if I get an electric power steering pump to keep air out of the lines, thus preventing the HORRIBLE death-wobble-like-vibration that results) or on-demand DFCO at arbitrary rpm/throttle position (WOT should give less deceleration than "regular" DFCO). I also still can't tell how much less accurate it is than the MPGuino - and with a base goal of "beat 20mpg consistently" I don't even know how accurate I need it to be. I keep a paper fuel log so I always have math to fall back on, at least.