Hello peopel I have been reading and learning alot in here for past few months. I thought it was time to share my recent project I was working on this past July.
I picked up a Tahoe for $800 because it was a 4x4 and in decent shape minus the cracked radiator and lack of general maintenence.
When i first got it I was averaging a whopping
12mpg. in my 3 mile daily commute to the train supermarket and to daycare to drop off and pickup my 2 year old. i didn't use the truck much because it needed some work.
I had a planned vacation this past memmorial day weekend and needed the truck because I rented a house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina that had access via 4x4 only so no roads just beach driving. Good excuse to get her going.
I tracked my mileage and efficiency via a cell phone app called "aCar" it is a freebie that I put on my HTC Evo.
What I did. first was the Basics:
STP air filter stock Replacement
Standard AC delco Plugs
A Semi used set of Accell custom wires I scavenged off an old Race car project I have
Cap and rotor
Fram oil filter and Vallvoline Sytec High mileage oil
I had to replace the front sway bar end links 1 was missing
"Killed my front tires in no time"
I replaced the stock 245/75/16 Firestone Destination A/T tires with a set of Cadillac Escalade 265/70/17 with goodyear tires that have half tread left a nice street radial tread pattern.
I started in Central NJ just ou tside NYC and managed a little over 1,000 miles for the entire trip. We lost a couple days cause of Hurricane Earl and evacuated early.
The reduction in earing by adding tires that are slightly taller and the general maintenence heped us manage
26.3 MPG for the week long trip More than double what I started with. Now /people will think well it was all Highway remember i had the truck in 4WD on the beach for close to 100 miles
it is a true 4x4 not a awd lock the front hubs and go. that kills your mpg like mad. I even pulled a CRV that was stuck and spent 3 hours in bumper to bumper evacuation traffic ok ok I turned the car off when I was in traffic
ya caught me.
Basic maintenence goes a LONG way in performance and in MPG's
Since this trip I swapped the exhaust I am very curious as to the big improvement I will see when i get more miles on the truck. the exhaust has several small leaks that were. I noticed that the exhaust part t hat was the issue started where it was replaced once before. The stock maniolds go to a Y pipe and into a single 3" factory cat. after the factory cat it was cut and reduced to a crimped 2.25" pipe which reduced to a 2.25" mffler that expanded to a 2.5" single tailpipe!
I was excited to see that it was that bad so I went through my spare parts and started welding. I had a 4' piece of 3" pipe sitting in the garage and I picked up a Cherrybomb extreme muffler a little loud for my liking but a sweet deal from a guy I met $30 for it and it was barely used. the muffler has a single 3" inlet and Dual 2.5" exits i fabed up some new hangers and fully weded the system after alot of grinding. My welding skills are adequite as long as I have a grinder and alot of time
The performance increase is tremendous and I am managing 16mpg around town so far not enough time with it to tell just yet. I have several other improvements that still need to be done like the oil needs replacing and a new air box and a bottle of seafoam will be in my near future.
well I think that is enough for now and I am sure very few of you actualy read this b ut for those who did please let me know what you think. i am shooting for an average of 18mpg in mixed driving would be awesome for such an old motor and heavy truck. 6,000+ lbs.
I am a car nut so I can keep up with most anyone this Eco stuff is new to me so I am relearning and choosing a greener path I will always have by race cars but on the day to day I want to do better. So comments will not be lost on me.