My Beast (4x4 Suburban)

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

The already quoted e-fans can be sourced at junkyards for cheap. The ones out of a Ford Taurus or a Chevrolet Lumina APV with dual-zone A/C provide enought cooling.

Another thing I'd consider is a full under-body pan which can be made out of marine-rated plywood, also used in many race cars, including rally cars.

You might know some truck engines from Cummins and Detroit Diesel have fiberglass valve covers and oil pans. I wouldn't disconsider to make at least an oil pan out of fiberglass for weight-saving reasons, but would coat its internal face with silicone (that liquid one used to make gaskets and seal leaks) due to its higher resistence to high temperatures. There were even some racing Porsches fitted with oil pans made entirely out of silicone, but it seems too soft for a road vehicle.

[oil pan 4]

The problem with weight reduction on a suburban is you can spend a lot of money to get nearly no return, if you drive a lot of highway miles a 100lb reduction is only going to get you a 0.1mpg improvement.
In stop and go it might help a little more.

[brucepick]

From http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...tml#post333966

Originally Posted by Nerys

unless you do hard core city driving (block to block stop and go) or mountanous terrain without ability to EOC. then mass has very little "realized" effect on fuel economy.

I massed 455 pounds (440 now :-) I used to be even heavier.

sister is 350 plus my 200 pounds of crap.

drop off sister and emptying the car has almost ZERO measurable impact on fuel economy

an object in motion remains in motion till acted upon by an outside force.

IE once your "going" at whatever your cruise speed is mass has almost no further impact.

mass only really comes into play during a change in velocity ie accelerations but only positive accelerations (speeding up)

this includes accelerating to a higher speed and "climbing" (which is a vertical positive acceleration even if your not changing speed your Vspeed is changing)

so for many of us steady state highway semi highway cruisers mass is irrelevant. what we want is minimal drag and lower rpm (larger tires)

now you city drivers its a different ball game. you want TINY tires to reduce acceleration loads aero is completely irrelevant and mass is EVERYTHING.

SO if your a cruiser you going to switch to 155/80/13 tires and aero the crap out of your car.

if your a city crawler or mountain crawler your going to want the original 12" tires and you want to STRIP the car of all non essentials.

I am a cruiser so the extra mass of another battery is literally irrelevant and immesurable on my fuel economy.

however the HUGE difference of removing both the alternator and water pump from the equation should have a pretty large impact on fuel economy.

[ecomodded]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

The problem with weight reduction on a suburban is you can spend a lot of money to get nearly no return, if you drive a lot of highway miles a 100lb reduction is only going to get you a 0.1mpg improvement.
In stop and go it might help a little more.

Are you sure a 100lbs reduction in vehicle weight saves 0.1 mpg ? I have always heard a 100 lbs reduction in weight saves 1 mpg. With 0.1 % of gain a 1000 lbs reduction in vehicle weight would save 1 mpg, not !

[Gealii]

Originally Posted by ecomodded

Are you sure a 100lbs reduction in vehicle weight saves 0.1 mpg ? I have always heard a 100 lbs reduction in weight saves 1 mpg. With 0.1 % of gain a 1000 lbs reduction in vehicle weight would save 1 mpg, not !

ive always heard every 100lbs is 2% so it could be .1 mpg depending on your mileage

[oil pan 4]

That 100lb for .1mpg is purely highway at 60mph.

In real world driving, with stop and go, hills, turning I found with fuel logs as little as 400 to 500 pounds can reduce fuel economy by pretty close to 1mpg.

In a car that only weighs 2500lb and gets 50mpg, 100lb would make a lot more of a difference.

[Miller88]

My highly stressed 2.0 4 cylinder in my 2500 pound car is going to be a lot more affected than an extremely low stressed v8 in a 6000 pound truck.

[nmtmechengineer]

My brother has the same truck. Except ours is the k2500 looks like yours is the
1500 because of those 6 lug wheels.

Our hesitation problem came from the TBI the spring for the fuel pressure regulator was old and did not return to its proper length from what I remember.

All this was done with smart driving in mind and looking to improve hwy mpg.
-Initially the truck was getting about 13mpg hwy at 70mph
-Did full tune up with new MSD ignition coil. was getting about 15 to 16 mpg hwy at 70mph
-Did full exhaust and new street tires. Same 15 to 16 mpg at hwy
-Huge K&N 14x5 filter, Airaid TB spacer, TBI mods and injector spacer. Hwy stayed the same.
-Used Airtabs VG's on roof no improvement.

BIGGEST GAINS came from Blocking Front Grill completely after installing electric fans and March Underdrive Pulleys all at once. Hwy MPG was 18-19. I did a small report on it for my Technical Writing class.

Other mod not listed where Hypertech Chip. This really woke up the truck for the city driving maybe it add some MPG. I never measured them because my brother started driving the truck after. Oh yeah, it did have the side steps installed when we bought it, they are like side skirts.

One thing that came to mind was the Front Air Damn thing was missing you could probably find a used one and chop it up and make it work. Because I'm assuming you probably don't want to remove that heavy deer catcher.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Miller88

My highly stressed 2.0 4 cylinder in my 2500 pound car is going to be a lot more affected than an extremely low stressed v8 in a 6000 pound truck.

Higher stress really kills the fuel-efficiency. But often the displacement is not the most significant issue in that matter, we might remember the role of the peak power and torque RPM bands

[Sporty Modder]

Well guys thankyou for all your input, I have been driving this rig back and forth to work, (walmart18mi round trip) ,but not filling it up to record mpg's. It just hurts to much. I am going to have the Celica back on the road soon.
I got rear ended recently and my truck didn't get scratched, the 04 Expedition that hit me had to get towed away. Glad I wasn't in my Celica...Anyway wanting to park this thing and get 30+mpg vs 15+. my focus lately has been working on the Celica and not this truck. I have a 83 Blazer that needs an engine, and have been contimplating swaping motors between the trucks, and possibly the front clip. anyhoo onward we shall go.