[pfcjj]

Mechanically, it's actually in decent condition. I bought it from a guy and he's had some work done to it. I believe he was the 3rd owner and I didn't really ask him about the mechanical maintenance he had done.

I swapped out these recently;

- Air Filter
- Fuel Filter
- Spark Plugs
- Plug wire
- O2 sensor (although I think the wires and not the actual sensors are bad)
- Flused coolant

I did what I could with the hand tools I had. I recent 450 mile road trip netted me a rough 13 mpg. Which is pretty bad. My old GTi 1.8 Turbo would net 30 mpg on average, and thats with very spirited driving (bad comparision)

I was monkeying around the engine bay and had found what appeared to be fuel stains on the the # 2-3 exhaust manifolds. I'm thinking that this car has a leaky fuel rail. I asked a mechanically inclined room mate of mine and he had stated that my car only had 1 fuel injector that runs through the fuel rails). I looked on autoparts store online and could not find a fuel rail replacement part.

Another possible scenario might be a leaky valve cover gasket, which I am going to replace soon.

I need to do something about this horrible gas mileage situation, as I am going to PCS to Fort Campbell (or the 101st Airborne Division) and is about a 600 mile trip. Gas alone @ 2.85 would cost me $135.

Any ideas?

 

[tractorking]

Sorry I dont have any help for your problem but.....

Gas out here in California is hovering around $3.10-$3.50 a gallon if that makes you feel any better.

 

[bigpoppax2]

I assume you gapped the plugs correctly?

What size tire are you running?

A few other items that may help your tune up would be a new distributor cap and rotor. If the cap and rotor are bad then the new wires and plugs didn't really help at all.

what part of the country do you live in? Mountains or flatland? With that kind of milage you may want to look into a compression test. I'd say it might be time for a rebuild. When was the last time you adjusted the valves? The valves on the 2.6 need adjusting every 15,000 miles.

I was getting about 15mpg with my 2.6 88 Trooper with 6" of lift and 33" tires here in the mountains of WV

Joe