Mileage per tankful

[cykaaro]

Has anyone tried using the "Tornado" air\fuel atomizer? I see the ads all the time, but not sure if they really do improve mileage.
I get to about 280 miles on my '98 and have to fill up with about 18 gallons.
I'm tempted to drive it around till it completely runs out to see just how far I can really go with it. Keeping a 2 gal gas can with me of course.

Been thinking of doing this myself actually. Since I changed out the guage cluster and had the new tank put in, my guage acts differently. When completely filled, the needle is on the full line, but as I drive, it immediately starts dropping, rather than what happened before with it taking a while to start to drop. When I got to under 1/8th the light would start to come on. Now who knows. Want to push it so I know what it does, but haven't yet. I've got down to 1/8th showing, but no light, but haven't pushed it past there. On highway, I got about 375km out of about 3/4 of a tank. Not sure what that converts to mile wise.

 

[BSD]

Has anyone tried using the "Tornado" air\fuel atomizer? I see the ads all the time, but not sure if they really do improve mileage.
I get to about 280 miles on my '98 and have to fill up with about 18 gallons.
I'm tempted to drive it around till it completely runs out to see just how far I can really go with it. Keeping a 2 gal gas can with me of course.

Yeah, it's a good way to make someone else money and you get nothing in return. Go to the NTS website. They had an article on it a while back. It is crap.
BSD

 

[89xj]

tornado? your joking, right???

 

[RichP]

My fuel light/alarm comes on at around 80 miles but I know my sender is hosed. I've gotten 400mi + on a tank during the summer coming back from vacation up on cape cod, straight hiway interstate with gradual turns and very few hills. Now I drive by trip odometer and fill up around 200 mi where it generally takes between 9 and 11 gallons. The few times I have forgotten to reset the trip meter the XJ lets me know about it when it's low by starting to die on corners and uphill turns. Then I Know I'm on borrowed time and probably down to 1-1.5 gallons....so I start doing alot of coasting downhills till I find a gas station. Running out of gas is not good for the fuel pump, it keeps running, gets real hot with no fuel running thru it to cool it, and can burn up pretty quick.

 

[Jackhill442]

I feel sure any 4.0 XJ of any size or level of mods won't get to 300 in town and much past 350 on the best miledge it can get on the highway. They are just all bad on gas, and anyone who claims to get 24 or whatever mpg with a 4.0 is full of it.

 

[72charger]

I have a 96 sport, with the 4.0, my light comes on early, i never pay any attention to it. I let it get to 360 miles befor i refill, and that refill is usually around 18 gallons. I live in the country, but drive to the city a couple times a week, so maybe that effects too.

 

[copperhead]

Jackhill442 wrote:
I feel sure any 4.0 XJ of any size or level of mods won't get to 300 in town and much past 350 on the best miledge it can get on the highway. They are just all bad on gas, and anyone who claims to get 24 or whatever mpg with a 4.0 is full of it.

Nope not full of it. A number of people have made over 20mpg in their Cherokees'. I have frequently averaged near 24mpg on trips I have taken. When my wife and I go to visit family and friends in Atlanta, which is about a 1,200 mile trip, we plan our gas stops at about the 400mile mark, and usually fill up with 17-18 gallons.

A check of the EPA mileage ratings for 1996 4.0 litre Cherokees' (http://www.fueleconomy.gov/feg/download.shtml) It shows the average MPG for the 2wd manual at 18/23 (City/Hwy) mpg; the automatic 2wd 15/21 mpg. the 4wd models are listed at 17/22 manual, and 15/19 auto. The EPA states they do not engage 4wd on their tests, so if you use 4wd then it will be lower. These are averages and can vary +/- a few mpg depending on driving conditions and style.

I grew up in Atlanta, so I can understand how you have always gotten poor mileage out of a cherokee, especially if you have an auto.

-Copperhead

 

[Jackhill442]

Maybe Atlanta's fuels are formulated differently, but I have always been angry about my fuel economy. I have a 4wd auto, and I don't see why it would do so much worse than a 2wd manual. The 4wd is always in 2 hi and it only weighs a couple hundred pounds more. I probably get about 12 in town, which is horrible, and about 18-20 on the highway, no matter how much I top it off and drive with a feather foot. I also keep it in a perfect state of maintenance. Is there something else I can do?

 

[Two Jeeps]

When I first bought my Jeep, it was running pretty bad and needed gas all the time. I think I was getting roughly 160-170 miles per tank.

18 months and some serious tuning later, I'm now getting 270-290 to a tank of gas - and that's all in town - no highway at all. Other that getting new, plain-jane exhaust from the collector out - I did everything at home and on the cheap. The last, and best improvement came from the exhaust. My muffler was full from the broken parts of my original 170K mile catalytic convertor. After replacing that, my Jeep now runs roughly 10° cooler is going much further between fill-ups.

FWIW: I have also have a 2WD Grand Cherokee with the same engine that gets 350-380 out of an average tank of gas (once got 426). Why is there a difference between the mileage of 2 and 4WD? The top two reasons I can think of is that a 4WD is heavier, and geared differently. Oh, and I live in Atlanta as well.

 

[RichP]

Also keep in mind that the gas suppliers are always looking for ways to stretch a gallon of gas with different additives. Over the last few years we have taken major hits in milage on all the cars and all at once over a week period. I know the suppliers are doing something otherwise there is no logical reason for almost the same 30-40% decrease in milage on the XJ, the Olsmobile and the first TJ we got last year right after every body fills up and runs thru a tank of gas. When it happens here in the NE PA area I usually post on the blue mountain jeep site and get alot of responses back that others are having the same issues 'all of a sudden'. If you all of a sudden get a really bad decrease in milage after filling up an almost empty tank and nothing else is changed it JUST MIGHT BE the gas so keep that in mind.
All those different gas brands you buy are from the same base gasoline, those big pipelines dont pump Exxon one day, Mobil the next and Sunoco the day after, all those pipelines end at a common depot and all the different gas companies buy the same base gas from that depot, move it to their depot and add their magic elixers. Chevron might be an exception, they do own their own pipelines in several states that go to their own depots but chevron is not a biggie here in the NE.

The other reason I know this in my gut is because I travel to NJ alot, after 2 tanks of over priced garbage gas locally and then a fill up in NJ and then have the milage jump back up where it was on both my XJ and the wifes Olds that says something.

 

[TacticalFats]

My light comes on between 180-200 in my 97 XJ 4.0 with no mods and 84k on the clock. I'm thinking the gauge is out of adjustment, too. Every other car I have ever owned (including 2 YJ's, a TJ and a 95 XJ) had gauges that would stay past "F" after filling for a while. Pulling away from the pump after a fill up, the needle is below the full line. This would explain only getting 200 miles before the you're-about-to-be-walking light comes on. It runs great and is very well maintained.

I'm considering doing the Kramer, also, keeping a little can of gas with me, but it's Ice Station Zulu cold this week in NJ, so it'll stink with the windows up.

 

[Churchlady]

Could there possibly be any difference in O2 sensors? I swear my mileage got a little worse after I put in new ones. Should I have stuck with OEM ones?

I also had a brake job including rear drum adjustment. Could the adjustment be off causing a bit of dragging?

Maybe it's just the winter gas additive thing that's made my mileage drop.

 

[csr_011]

I still say that gas is all the same.....Depends on the condition of the underground tanks and how often the tanks are refilled by the station. Some go through a ton of gas a day, others may last a week before they refill. That and the temperature changes has to have some effect of the fuel even with the different additives. Some stations around where i live in Kearney, NE get refills daily, others maybe twice a week, i go with the two stations Holiday and Casey's cause i know they get filled at least once a day.

I dont know........ but i get about the same mileage between the two. Have filled up at other places and seemed to get less mpg.

Driving conditions, temperature, and driving methods all play a big role on mileage. When its colder out you let the vehicle idle more and run the heater and fan at full bore, in the snow and ice you spin tires, when its hot you run the A/C.......

Cory