Big front bumper improves MPG
 

Hey all, we have been reading for a long time, and now's the time to share some of our mods. This 1992 ford box van had a 7.3L non turbo motor. We bought a turbo added a innercooler and propane injection, which really improves the performance and mpg. Then we covered the rear wheels and wrapped the van with a 12" rubber skirt. The last step is the big front bumper we made out of fiberglass with a rubber skirt below. The end result we took a van from 10-11 mpg to 14-15mpg going 60-65 mph (where before we could only get 55-60mph max speed).
Thanks to all the great tips that helps us build this van.
http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...37854476_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphot...61482234_n.jpg

I think that was 10-11 *mpg*. ;-)

Either way, congrats! Great job!

yeah, thanks for the correction. Who would ever known trying to get better mpg would be so fun! Any suggestions on how we can improve our mpg more?
LM

Great Job!

I would do something with the front wheels. Looks like alot of drag there. Someone on this site sells covers for truck wheels. That should help some.

That is awesome!

You could try to make the front bumper stick out forward a little more, so the air doesn't hit a flat wall.
Similar to this, but this one is pretty extreme.http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:A...V1Bzf6oNSK8ltg

Looks very professional ! I had to read your post twice to see what all that was factory and what was fabricated. I love the look of front bumper with its angular cut outs. The look goes well with the design and even the " low and mean " theme. I can tell you have an artists eye for this sort of thing.

He ( LowandMean ) already has attached flow at the front of the vehicle.
The real gains are at the rear of the vehicle.

Looks very nice ! Congrats on those numbers. :thumbup:

Have you considered partially blocking the upper grille, leaving only the inter-cooler exposed ?

Do you have a scangauge or a device that indicates the coolant temperature (other than the gauge on the cluster) ? That way, you could further optimize the grille blocks while maintaining enough cooling.

Just my 2 cents.

A blunt front actually is better -- see the ideal template.

Rounding the front would still be better than flat...template. Perhaps filling in the gaps between the box corners and current fairing. You could add a streamlining box to the rear like over the road semis have started doing. The panels could be made to fold up so you could fold the door down.
Or go extreme, and cut the top off of the box even with the cab roof, and make it extendable with panels which overlap the lower sides of the box, like the old Alaskan campers. Cover the roof with solar panels, put some deep cycle batteries in the bed, run all the truck electrics off them, and delete the alternator. With an inverter you'd have 120 volts to run power tools at the track if thats what you need.
If thats too much, put larger radius's on the upper box corners, and make the box roof slope down starting a few feet behind the front edge, till its a couple feet lower at the rear, and still open like a hatchback to full height.