Fuel economy

I have a 2006 4x4 ford ranger with the 4.0L, I am trying to figure out how Increase the fuel economy. There are allot products out there that claim they work but I know most of them are gimmicks. Is there any proven equipment that actually works? I just bought a HydranOx 5000 kit for my truck that adds a small amount of hydrogen to the air intake. The company claims it will give up to 20% better fuel economy. I,ve seen this before on old navy subs. They would vent they battery compartments (a hydrogen rich atmosphere) into their engines, this would increase their horse power, reduce emitions by burning the diesel more efficiently. It acts as a catalyst.

Is there anything else I can do?

Nothing works but driving speed limit, accelerating slowly and steady, avoiding warming up vehicle/unneeded idling, and maintaining air pressure in tires. Everything else that “saves” is snake oil.

Make sure the engine is well-tuned, drive more slowly, make sure the tires are properly inflated, keep the AC turned off, remove unnecessary loads. I think those are the biggies.

Assuming you don’t have a vested interest by promoting this worthless scam here, you can fatten your wallet by not spending it on this bunk.
What a crock.

There’s lots of snake oil out there. Save your money.

You have a 4.0L 4x4 pickup. Trying to get good gas mileage out of this is futile. If you have aggressive tires, changing to a less aggressive all season tire (summer tires if you live in the south) will certainly add a few miles per gallon, and driving as if you have an egg on the passenger seat will also help, but you’ll never get decent mileage out of that beast.

I agree with what others have said.

The best thing you can do to save fuel is drive less. Pick a day of the week to not do any driving. Sunday works best for me. Plan all your chores on your way to or from somewhere else so that you don’t have to make a special trip. If your family has two vehicles, one large and one small, share the small one more. Instead of taking the Ranger because the other car is gone, wait for the other car to get back and take it.

You didn’t mention what kind of mileage you are getting. 20, 18, 15 mpg? How many miles on the engine? If they are very low, this truck could still be in its break-in period. Typically, I believe these trucks with the 4.0L OHC engine and 4X4 will get around 20-21 mpg highway.

Besides driving the speed limit, and accelerating lightly, here are a couple things that may help…

  1. Clean the MAF (Mass airflow sensor). This is located inline of the air filter. This can be removed and cleaned with an auto electrical contact cleaner.
  2. A good high-end set of wires. The lower the resistance, the better.
  3. Double-platinum plugs- good conductivity and longevity.
  4. Replace the fuel filter
  5. New O2 sensors may also do the trick, but if it’s not switching the check engine light, they are probably okay.
  6. Less aggressive tire tread. I found this can make a 1-2 MPG difference
  7. What size tires are you running? Stock, or oversize? If you are running larger tires- i.e. 33’s, lower gears may be in order- i.e. 4.10’s or 4.56’s. The right gear/tire size combo can do wonders for mileage. I went from 3.08’s to 3.55’s- thinking the mileage would certainly get worse, highway miles are about the same, and city miles went up a couple mpgs now that it is easier to get going, and the engine sits right on it’s little power curve at sensible highway speeds.

I am no proponent of the off-the shelf gimmicks such as the “tornado”, water-injection, fuel de-ionization, or whatever these systems are. A good, solid tuneup is the best remedy for poor mileage.

FYI, I’m getting around 22 MPG highway, and ~19.5 MPG city with my '91 4.0 OHV (2wd) Ranger. Not bad for a truck w/ 200K miles and considering the MSD wires and double-platnium plugs I’m running have a little over 100K miles- next month’s tuneup may up the MPG’s a bit more, hopefully.

Yep, agree. You didn’t buy it for the gas mileage but for some other reason. Only sure way to increase mileage is to sell it. Gentle driving, good maintenance, reducing weight, etc. will all help but not much.

I,ve seen this before on old navy subs. They would vent they battery compartments (a hydrogen rich atmosphere) into their engines, this would increase their horse power, reduce emitions by burning the diesel more efficiently. It acts as a catalyst.

On the diesel-electric subs, hydrogen was available for free as a waste product from the batteries. It’s explosive, so they had to get rid of it one way or another. It would do no harm (and might even help a bit) to run it through the engines. In your case, though, you have to buy the hydrogen (in one form or another), and will not get enough out of it (if anything) to warrant the cost. In other words, you got suckered.

P.S. Hydrogen is not a catalyst for anything. It’s only two atoms (H2) and can’t break apart or join other molecules.

I agree with alll the above. Hydrogen does not have a high heat content, but if it is free, as in certain industrial situations, it might make sense to burn it. I would not recommend the average citizen come anywhere near hydrogen. Just spent 4 months in a plant that uses hydrogen in its processes, and the safety precautions were brutal, much more stringent than in a refinery.

The best way to save gas is to drive less, drive as though there is an egg betwen your foot and the gas pedal, and keep the vehicle in good condition. An electric block heater for your engine, started about 1.5 hours before you start up is a great gas saver; the engine will heat up very fast, and never get on the real rich mixture used for very cold starts. It also extends engine and battery life.

convert it to rear wheel drive only if possible. If it is geared really low, for max towing, change the final drive ratio for better economy.

I agree with keeping your vehicle tuned and maintained. I personally drive a '99 Tahoe and I get about 22 highway driving 70-75mph…what I did was changed my filter over to a K&N and installed the Tornado in my intake; man, what a difference it made. I also keep fresh my fluids fresh and that also helps. My vehicle has 131,000 on the odo and still purrs like a kitten!!

jugghead5719 wrote:

I personally drive a '99 Tahoe and I get about 22 highway driving 70-75mph…
what I did was changed my filter over to a K&N and installed the Tornado in
my intake; man, what a difference it made.

This doesn’t help unless you tell us what your mileage was before the Tornado and K&N were installed.
More important, please substantiate with details to help us understand why such devices (like the Tornado) help in your vehicle, when for thousands of others, it only helped the wallet of the person selling the device.

I’m currently driving a 4x4 Ranger with the 4.0 engine as a company vehicle. It gets about 19 mpg in normal driving. This is a HUGE improvement over the older Ranger I had with the same engine, which hardly ever got better than 15 mpg.

I doubt there’s add-on device that will make a significant improvement in mileage on this vehicle. If there were, Ford would have installed it at the factory.

If, by some miracle, you achieve even a 1% or 2% improvement, I will be surprised. Hoping for 20% from the device you purchased is a pipe dream, and in my opinion you have wasted your money. But good luck anyway. Keep your fingers crossed.

If the HydranOx 5000 works, try the fuel line magnets for another 20%. Then install a Turbinator. Soon you will be making gasoline.