Inexpensive way to add power AND improve fuel economy! Nope!

[KevinC11]

I used to see people change their oil onto the ground in the woods, so I may be old. SAE30 and 10W-40 was the only two motor oils you could get at a parts store. When the snake oil, Slick 50 and others came out, a lot of money was spent for naught.

I bought a 2008 Toyota Tacoma and in order to get three free oil changes I had to attend a sales pitch at the dealer. The Parts Manager showed us a CAI and went on about how it will increase gas mileage by 4MPG. All for the low cost of $500 tonight only.

I raised my hand. Asked him if Toyota knows for $500 they can increase the Tacoma gas mileage by 4; why don't they include them from the factory, brag about best in class fuel economy, raise the sticker to offset price, and have no competition. The Sales Manager looked at me without breaking stride and said Toyota sells every Tacoma they build now, why change.

KevinC

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[jeepdabest]

I poured a 50lb bag of sugar into my ex wife's Jeep. I don't know what it did to the Jeep but my girl friend says she noticed an increase in thrust.

 

[me109stock]

Tuning to circumvent mandated EPA requirements that the manufacturers must meet is how these devices increase fuel economy. Take VW as a well publicized example - they had tricks in place in the ECU to get better MPGs on their diesels while still passing manufacturer EPA requirements. Once caught and required to remove the ingenious programming, the vehicles lost ~5 mpg. I'm speaking as a VW owner. After the recall correction, my Jetta TDi went from 43-45 mpg avg to 38-40 mpg avg. Interestingly, the tailpipe which after 160k miles was still silver, became coated black in about 5k miles after the recall correction. You tell me which is more dangerous to the planet... refining more fuel to make up for the lost mpgs and visible physical contamination, or the vehicle before the correction? I'm not a scientist, but I have to think that cradle to grave, the vehicle was better for the environment before the correction, as are most diesel trucks prior to all the DEF additives and other devices that cut fuel economy in half.

 

[AFD]

The Sales Manager looked at me without breaking stride and said Toyota sells every Tacoma they build now, why change.

Think there's a bit of truth to that.

Sure, the manufacturer's engineers know what they're doing to create the most reliable, most powerful, most efficient platform known to mankind and if something better exists, they would've used it (or whatever nonsense). This completely disregards that most vehicles are absolutely designed to meet a budget where cost-cutting measures are far more important than eeking out every last HP or MPG.

Depending upon their competition and certain mandates, there's very little incentive for manufacturers to improve performance, fuel economy and reliability if their current offering is still selling just fine. However, it is in their best interest to sell you parts, service or another vehicle when your warranty is up and shit starts breaking. Most marquees also have their own so-called "snake oil" performance parts to sell.

 

[four low]

I once farted into the gas tank. It gave it a small boost but didnt last long.

So who exactly got the boost ?

 

[Pig-Pen]

Ive had multiple supercharged vehicles. Lol at a blower increasing mpg. At best, you can maintain stock mpg, by staying out of boost. Even then, youre still adding a good amount weight to the vehicle with all the components.

you cannot increase hp witthout sacrificing mpg. Adding a supercharger means you will need to increase fuel flow. You cant get something for nothing.

 

[2nd 392]

Tuning to circumvent mandated EPA requirements that the manufacturers must meet is how these devices increase fuel economy. Take VW as a well publicized example - they had tricks in place in the ECU to get better MPGs on their diesels while still passing manufacturer EPA requirements. Once caught and required to remove the ingenious programming, the vehicles lost ~5 mpg. I'm speaking as a VW owner. After the recall correction, my Jetta TDi went from 43-45 mpg avg to 38-40 mpg avg. Interestingly, the tailpipe which after 160k miles was still silver, became coated black in about 5k miles after the recall correction. You tell me which is more dangerous to the planet... refining more fuel to make up for the lost mpgs and visible physical contamination, or the vehicle before the correction? I'm not a scientist, but I have to think that cradle to grave, the vehicle was better for the environment before the correction, as are most diesel trucks prior to all the DEF additives and other devices that cut fuel economy in half.

I bought a 95 V10 Dodge PU, ~12-13mpg that soon dropped to 8-9. Took it in, after extensive testing I was told “ it’s the new reformulated gas, the bigger the engine the bigger the loss, sorry” . So burning 33% more fuel somehow pollutes less , plus the “clean” gas was later found to be polluting the ground water and causing cancer ( the price was increased for the new additive, (MTB, I think) then increased again to take it out). I moved to a no-smog check county and installed ~$6K of performance upgrades greatly increasing power and raising mpg to 10-11mpg. So my now more powerful and more efficient truck isn’t smog legal ! BS on the drop, and more BS on the increase from state emissions laws IMO.

 

[Krowensby]

The only way to add power AND fuel economy to a Jeep Wrangler is to drive downhill in a strong tail wind.

 

[Tncdrew]

Ive had multiple supercharged vehicles. Lol at a blower increasing mpg. At best, you can maintain stock mpg, by staying out of boost. Even then, youre still adding a good amount weight to the vehicle with all the components.

you cannot increase hp witthout sacrificing mpg. Adding a supercharger means you will need to increase fuel flow. You cant get something for nothing.

Probably has everything to do with your right foot.
Bought a new '09 Miata. 25K miles later after consistently getting an average of 26mpg, I supercharged it. After a series of tuning sessions, the car was much more fun to drive with 225 rear wheel hp. After the conversion, with everyday easy driving the car returned an average of 40mpg.
That is, unless you drove it hard (which I didn't do too often).

 

[STW]

In the 90s/00s, you could remove the noise baffle from the air intake and get some low% power boost while improving around town fuel mileage. Stock intakes are much improved today...

Same for my 2000 TJ. It had a giant set of baffles and heimolz(?) reservoirs all along the intake line between air box and throttle body. Couldn't figure out what it all was and learned in Chrysler design and marketing documents they had worked hard to quiet down the intake (to compete with the Honda CRV in 2000). They described how all those pieces resulted in a quiet intake. Which you couldn't hear anyway over the rest of the TJ noise. I did my homework to learn what kind of intake tube shape made for best torque (the 2.5L fourbanger needed all the torque help it could get; hp was hopeless but there was hope for torque). After my research I put together a long, straight-ish, smooth bored, air tube with no restrictions, and noticed an increase in torque. And increase in intake noise, haha.

That was just a case of Jeep/Chrysler building toward a different goal that I didn't care about. Everything about the setup of my current JLR engine seems like it was built for the same goals I have. Study, seeking good information, and sensible reasoning can help you figure out scams and not waste your time and money.

Back then in that big Jeep TJ market some of the CAI setups offered for TJs were based on good engineering and would have been fine--as good or better than my own setup. But some were based on poor engineering and wrong principles, even if they looked cool and cost a lot of money. Do your homework before spend your money or fall in love.

 

[Pig-Pen]

Probably has everything to do with your right foot.
Bought a new '09 Miata. 25K miles later after consistently getting an average of 26mpg, I supercharged it. After a series of tuning sessions, the car was much more fun to drive with 225 rear wheel hp. After the conversion, with everyday easy driving the car returned an average of 40mpg.
That is, unless you drove it hard (which I didn't do too often).

you somehow figured out the impossible. You should let the automakers know that they can increase mpg by 65% by adding superchargers to their vehicles. By your logic a new GT500 should get way better mpg than an n/a GT. a C7 Z06 (supercharged) gets gas guzzler tax while the n/a version doesnt. Hmmm…

 

[Tncdrew]

you somehow figured out the impossible. You should let the automakers know that they can increase mpg by 65% by adding superchargers to their vehicles. By your logic a new GT500 should get way better mpg than an n/a GT. a C7 Z06 (supercharged) gets gas guzzler tax while the n/a version doesnt. Hmmm…

Belittle me all you like. I've been driving for nearly 50 years, and believe I'm fairly well schooled in figuring out fuel mileage. The car's fuel computer confirmed it as well. Even the guy I sold the car to last summer texted me later commenting on the fuel mileage.
It really isn't hard figuring out why the mileage increased.
Have a good one!

 

[2nd 392]

There is a pill you can buy for $3.00. You just drop it into your fuel tank and add water.

I am taking orders now.

I’m not falling for that one, unless it’s satisfaction guaranteed. If it doesn’t work do you send me another pill just like the first one? Well Do Ya- Huh?

 

[2nd 392]

Probably has everything to do with your right foot.
Bought a new '09 Miata. 25K miles later after consistently getting an average of 26mpg, I supercharged it. After a series of tuning sessions, the car was much more fun to drive with 225 rear wheel hp. After the conversion, with everyday easy driving the car returned an average of 40mpg.
That is, unless you drove it hard (which I didn't do too often).

Yep— purpose and use. I put a smallish low 8lb boost B&M with a single 950 DP upgrade on my 454. Minimal increased fuel consumption with normal use, until you Used the available extra power. My full performance build 6-71 blown 350 Chevy fed by two competition series 750’s was completely different. It went “Flush” just starting it.

 

[Whaler27]

Tuning to circumvent mandated EPA requirements that the manufacturers must meet is how these devices increase fuel economy. Take VW as a well publicized example - they had tricks in place in the ECU to get better MPGs on their diesels while still passing manufacturer EPA requirements. Once caught and required to remove the ingenious programming, the vehicles lost ~5 mpg. I'm speaking as a VW owner. After the recall correction, my Jetta TDi went from 43-45 mpg avg to 38-40 mpg avg. Interestingly, the tailpipe which after 160k miles was still silver, became coated black in about 5k miles after the recall correction. You tell me which is more dangerous to the planet... refining more fuel to make up for the lost mpgs and visible physical contamination, or the vehicle before the correction? I'm not a scientist, but I have to think that cradle to grave, the vehicle was better for the environment before the correction, as are most diesel trucks prior to all the DEF additives and other devices that cut fuel economy in half.

Yep! The recall on our 2016 Grand Cherokee ecodiesel was similar. The reflash significantly reduced the power and fuel economy, so we burned 10% more diesel and had less fun doing it. The reflash also caused the check-engine-light to go on and off intermittently for about 18 months.… Three trips to the dealer for that. They “fixed“ it every time, but the fix never lasted more than a couple days. We finally threw in the towel, which is a shame, because my wife loved the GC until the government fix. It was still as tight as a drum after 6.5 years and 55,000 miles — my wife’s favorite family vehicle ever.

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