Re: Surprising increase in truck MPG

"Pete C." <aux3.DOH.4@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:OUmOj.9858$2g1.6097@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> jim wrote:
>>
>> Nate Nagel wrote:
>> >
>> > Ignoramus15242 wrote:
>> > > On 2008-04-18, spamTHISbrp@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 <spamTHISbrp@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> > >
>> > >>On Apr 18, 11:21 am, Ignoramus15242 <ignoramus15...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> > >>15242.invalid> wrote:
>> > >>
>> > >>>I have a Chevy Silverado pickup that is by now about 18 months
old.
>> > >>>
>> > >>>I was never able to get more that about 220 miles out of a 22
gallon
>> > >>>tank of gas, sometimes even less.
>> > >>>
>> > >>>However, the last three refills, gave me 280, 266, and 283 miles
per
>> > >>>refill. (I usually run until my tanks gets fully empty, since I
have
>> > >>>an emergency gas canister for the instance when I run out of gas).
>> > >>>
>> > >>>This represents approximately 22% increase in MPG that I have hard
>> > >>>times explaining. I see three possible explanations.
>> > >>>
>> > >>>1) Just before those refills, I did an oil change and used Mobil 1
>> > >>>synthetic oil. The previous oil changes were at a service station.
>> > >>>
>> > >>>2) The engine had a chance to "burn in" and naturally improved its
>> > >>>efficiency
>> > >>>
>> > >>>3) something is seriously mistaken in my measurements.
>> > >>>
>> > >>>I am at a loss and am very puzzled. Can synthetic oil really
account
>> > >>>for that much of an increase? I highly doubt it.
>> > >>>
>> > >>>i
>> > >>
>> > >>
>> > >>Could be your part of the world just got the seasons 1st ****pment
of
>> > >>'non-winter-blend' gasoline.
>> > >>
>> > >>Or maybe they were selling gasohol (10% ethanol) and stopped.
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > So, is "gasohol" really that much less energy dense???
>> > >
>> > > i
>> >
>> > Yes.  If your fuel is 10% ethanol, it will have about 5% less energy
>> > than an equivalent volume of straight gasoline.
>>
>> But that is a totally meaningless statement given that you are talking
to
>> a guy who is getting 10 miles per gallon which means he is throwing
away
>> (wasting) a lot more energy in every gallon of fuel than he is using.
>
> Baloney. 10 MPG is a perfectly reasonable figure depending on the
> vehicle and what you are doing with it. If he was getting 10 MPG and it
> suddenly improved a couple MPG and his pickup isn't a 1 T heavy duty
> model then perhaps has has had a problem with a bad sensor connection or
> something that was hurting the mileage and that problem has cleared
> itself. 10 MPG isn't unreasonable for a 1 T dually with a big block
> hauling stuff around, but if it's a 1/2 T SRW under ordinary use it
> should do a bit better than that. Perhaps Iggy can post the detail on
> the truck, including axle ratio so others can give him and idea of what
> he should be getting for MPG and he can see if his MPG is in the
> expected range.

I improved my MPG quite a bit recently.  I changed my air filter.  There
are 
quite a few things one can do to improve mileage that are cheap or free.

Steve