Tune It Up!

Here are some tips I've discovered:

Our 93 Mercury Villager van according to the EPA should get 17 mpg city & 20 mpg highway. It gets 21 and 24 via the following tips. (The van has 130,000 miles on it.)

I installed these items myself and saved there too.

Air filter: K&N Filtercharger cotton filter. Its reusable, and allows more air into the engine for more power. It cost $60 and the cleaning/oiling kit is $25. At WalMart, the Fram paper filters are $12.99 each. Now when its time for filter change, I visit my kitchen sink vs. the store which saves fuel. Comes with a 1,000,000 mile warranty.

Spark plugs: Bosch Platinum +4 plugs. $7.99 ea. Provides 4 ground electrodes instead of 1 for a bigger, hotter spark, which means better fuel burn, less pollution, more power, and better fuel economy. More bang for the buck:-) They have a 100,000 mile life span.

Fuel: ***Use the mfr recommended Octane Fuel*** Check the owners manual to see what your car needs. Octane availability is based on climate, so you may have some variations locally. If your car requires 87 octane, and that's the cheapest grade then kudos to you! Here in Montana the cheapest grade is 85.5 followed by 88, and 91. Our van requires 87-88 octane.
If you use the 85.5 fuel because you think you are saving money look again. The price difference is trivial for what you get. Currently (29-SEP-04) in Montana it's $1.99 for 85.5 octane and $2.09 for 88 octane. On an average fill of 16 gallons, its an extra $1.60 for the correct fuel.

We go 14-16 days or 320-340 city miles on 16 gals of 88 octane. Up from 10-12 days or 280-300 city miles on 16 gals of 85.5 This means 2 fills/month vs 3 fills/month at an average price per fill of $34-$36 and savings of $34-$36 a month.

Cleaner: Use a good quality fuel injector cleaner regularly. It keeps the injectors spraying a fine mist of fuel into the cylinders vs. droplets of fuel. It doesnt take rocket science to figure which one burns better.

Bottom line: I invested $133 for the filter, filter cleaner, and plugs 6 months after I bought the van, and now save $408-$432 ($34 x 12) annually on fuel costs, and have a cleaner burning car.