Battery Cable Upgrade

[ksa8907]

Ya know, I was thinking about this thread and I though to myself, "Maybe I should upgrade the power wiring on my car." Then I realized neither of our vehicles have an alternator....

[Taylor95]

It still wouldn't be a bad idea if you don't have an alternator. A lot of people report their windows working a lot better and their headlights are brighter after doing the upgrade. Plus having nice, heavy duty cables are always nicer than the flimsy OE ones.

[mad_b]

Is very hard to compare fuel spent, mainly on a several days/weeks timespan. A bit of change in winds, driver mood and self control, air umidity, air temperature and density, traffic, load in the vehicle and mainly your will to proove the concept may influence the MPG. It is prooved that changing only the way that the driver conducts the car can change results up to 30% yes, thirty percent.
I do agree that maybe your wiring could be rusty and providing a bad electrical contact overall. However improvements to electrical (ignition-sorry I don't know, is your car diesel?) can grant more fuel efficiency, in your case comparing the state of new cables against what was in the car. Maybe just cleaning up the endpoints contacts would yeld the same improvements (even if dilluted among other factors of your economy scenario).

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted by Stubby79

He doesn't gain MPG from freeing up wasted electricity; he restores it from having better signals from his sensors, better spark and the like. Just cleaning the ground connections is usually enough, but replacing things would freshen them up as well.

Cleaning grounds is a normal practice in the geo metro community. It made one heck of a difference to my Miata, and my Ranger was doing all sorts of weird things before I cleaned it's grounds, like trying to die when I turned on the turn signals. Restoring power and MPG is just one reason to do it.

I have no experience with those specific vehicles .

But I also was thinking that better electrical connectivity might result in the electronics being " happier " . Thus positively impacting their performance , and the vehicle operated more efficiently ? Better MPG ?

Kind of like , if the Wife is not happy , no one is happy . If the Wife is happy , every one is happy .

Wyr
God bless

[raylit20]

I had a 4.0 ZJ that I ecomodded and hypermiled. The mods were not as effective as learning how to drive for economy.

Every little bit helps though.

The Ford yellow top injector swap is a good easy next mod if you haven't done it already. And the 99+ up 4.0 intake manifold is also a cheap and easy upgrade.

After driver training I managed to consistently average 23mpg highway in my Jeep. For a rolling brick that isn't as terrible as it could be.

[Taylor95]

I currently average around 22-23 mpg highway

The 99+ manifold is in the works actually. I already have it; I'm just waiting to be able to afford a Banks header and exhaust wrap before I install it

There's a couple of things I have noticed since having a scangauge. My gas mileage is really terrible when my engine is cold. I really want a block warmer but I live in an apartment right now. I also get terrible mileage while accelerating, so I think that mods like the newer manifold will help a lot.

[Ecky]

Originally Posted by Taylor95

There's a couple of things I have noticed since having a scangauge. My gas mileage is really terrible when my engine is cold. I really want a block warmer but I live in an apartment right now. I also get terrible mileage while accelerating, so I think that mods like the newer manifold will help a lot.

These are both also true of my Insight. Mods which help it to warm up faster or feed it warmer air help, but don't fully offset these.

[slowmover]

A cold engine is unavoidable. Given stock equipment, there is always a penalty which is right at 45-miles at 45-mph or better. All fluids and grease must come to their specified operating temperature BEFORE heat burns off condensation and acids formed. It takes close to 90-minutes on a 70F day before tire temperatures stabilize. Thats where warm-up ends.

A short trip is ANYTHING less than this.

FE is, in one sense, cutting cold starts to a dead minimum.

Coolant temp is only one step. Oil temp is more important for “reading” the warm-up process.

I had several XJs. Great motor architecture in the 4.0L. Literally the reason Chrysler bought Jeep.

Temp control is not the vehicles strong suit. Asking a straight-six to work under a load means airflow. Once all that mass heats up, it isn’t shed easily.

Be glad it’s EFI. That’s 90% of the battle.

Straight axle vehicles are plagued by bad steering & handling. Can’t push it like a rice-burner. So, don’t. New HD shocks & tight front end are important.

Tires & brakes should last 70k given best quality parts.

Tires themselves are where savings occur: closed shoulder highway rib

.

[Taylor95]

I've thought a lot about fluid temperature management actually, though I'm really limited by not having a garage right now. Apart from a block heater I would like to try one of those magnetic oil pan heaters. A transmission cooler would work nicely too I think.

I have new shocks I need to install. Unibody stiffeners are in this Jeep's future too. I've heard that those really improve handling.

An idea that I've been toying with is getting a tune for fuel economy. I will have to get my Jeep tuned anyway after I rebuild the engine. I think lowering shift points in my automatic would be good. If it is possible I would also like to lower fuel consumption at idle by like 10% or 15%.