Vacation summary

[NHRABill]

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.

[Schelter]

Thats excellent! I just sold my '97 C1500 Suburban and 18mpg was all it could muster on the highway (I had the notoriously bad injector system) Did you pull off the roof rack yet? Pretty simple to do, just grab some screws to fill the holes, not that you need to, but it looks better.

[NHRABill]

I actually took it off when I stripped it down and redid all of the bodywork on it I repainted it myself. I did have to put it back on along witht he running boards Because I used a rooftop carrier for our luggage and my wife is vertically challenged (short)

I should have added that I did have that big carrier on the roof that would definately have hurt the mileage. When i have more time I logged all of my gas stops and mileage along the trip in my phone I will pload and keep better records of it. Unfortunately it is that busy time of year where everything happens and I am short on time.

The start of me doing the body and sanding it down.



Diveway paint booth



Just finished unmasking satin finish due to 5 coats of Laguer that was not wet sanded and buffed



Packed for trip

[Schelter]

I kinda like the satin look

This was mine....lowered for mileage increase of course

[skyl4rk]

Looks good

That is interesting that the exhaust makes that much difference.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by NHRABill

Packed for trip

Turn the roofbox around and it'll be more aerodynamic.

Blunt front is OK as long as the rear is faired.

[NHRABill]

Originally Posted by euromodder

Turn the roofbox around and it'll be more aerodynamic.

Blunt front is OK as long as the rear is faired.

Thanks f or the Suggestion Euromodder... The roof carrier is off the truck now and only goes on when needed. it takes 5 minutes or so to do it myself. Next time Out will give it a shot

[NHRABill]

Just looking throuh my phone and I pulled the last 6 visits to the gas station up this includes the trip to NC and all of those 3 mile driving days in a traffic ridden college town that I live in.

Past 6 trips to the Gas station I had purchased:

123.02 Gallons of 87 octane regular

Average cost of 2.52 per gallon

Average MPG 16.041
Minimum MPG was 11.893 (worst mpg between all fillups)


I go 332.13 miles between fillups
and get 20.5 gallons of fuel when I stop on avg.


I just drove 150 miles today and will do so again tomorrow and I filled up at the beginning of the ride driving an average of 70-72mph for today and I hope to do the same tomorrow. This will give me my highway mileage I have been searhing for. Driving style was moderate only heavy when entering the main roads. I will try and refuel at same gas station on my way home tomorrow I hope to only have used 11 to 12 gallons giving me a 20mpg normal driving.

I know if I use driving techniques "pulse" like I have read in here I can do better but I need this real world baseline number to start. It is difficult for me to come up with a highway niumber when I live in such a crowded area.

[NHRABill]

Originally Posted by skyl4rk

Looks good

That is interesting that the exhaust makes that much difference.

Exhaust makes or breaks a cars performance and ability to burn fuel properly too much backpressure will heat the valves too much and leave behind carbon deposits too little resistance can do the same thing but reversed. Exhaust is more than just a few hollow pipes and a muffler to quiet down a noisy motor it needs to be tuned just right.

If you really want to see some cool stuff exhaust related research the Pontiac G8 exhaust system it was tuned in a way to use its own noise to cancel itself out ... Quite fascinating from an engineering point of view. A friend of mine has a G8 and knwos I dig stuff like that so I spent a couple days reading the science behind their chalenge to remove the drone of a 400hp cars exhaust as it drives down the highway in Overdrive.

If I remember I will sstick my phone under the car tomorrow and take a quick shot of what I did a few guys with similar model trucks wanted to see what I did..

BTW I am a budget person I do all my own work and for 25% of what it would cost elsewhere and I do it better.