Getting The Most Out Of It
Part 1

More Power.  Sounds pretty good to me, as far as I am concerned you can never have enough of that, especially when it comes to my truck.  With the rising cost of fuel more MPG sounds even better.  The after market is absolutely loaded with products that will boost the power levels of our vehicles to just about any reasonable level you wish to attain, and some even go to insane levels.  There should be a combo out there to please just about anyone.  Many of these products also tout an increase in MPG.  I thought testing some of these products would be a great idea, and that’s exactly what I did.

The vehicle I chose to use for a test mule is my '97 Chevy 1500 extended cab 4x4, Z-71 off road truck, just like the thousands of other ones out there.  It is stock with 67,000 miles on the clock and in really good shape.  In stock trim the 5.7 vortech motor has plenty of power and tows really well, but the MPG is not too good.  With a 13.4 average there’s plenty of room for improvement.  I started out with the test by doing a tune up on the truck, which for these new vehicles consisted of replacing the cap, rotor , plug wires and plugs, fuel filter, air filter, and oil change.  I spent $150.00 on the truck.  The test mule showed NO improvement in MPG or noticeable power, but at least we have the mule properly tuned to get the most consistent future information from our testing.

What I plan to do down the road is change the exhaust system to a cat back system, upgrade the air filtration system, install a throttle body spacer, and possibly an aftermath ignition system, and computer program update (chip), funds permitting.  All of these things will make more power and should give better MPG, we will soon see.  The test mule is a late model Chevy, but products are available for Fords, Dodges, and Toyota, all with V-8 and V-6 engines.  Some of these work with Diesel engines also.

Stay tuned for Part 2.


Ted Scholl
Off Road Staff Writer