Hey y'all, had my Ranger put away for the past year due to puking water. Finally got off my ass and did the water pump and thermostat housing. Everything is running good, but she's really sucking down fuel.
Filled the tank up, right to the 16 gallon mark, but I've already smoked about half a tank, but only have around 60 miles on the odo, all town driving besides about 10 miles. They say I should be getting 15-16mpg, but it's looking like half that.
I was having a lean code pop for both banks over the last 1-2 years. Would typically just clear and ignore, but decided to toss new upstream o2 sensors on since they were cheap (Walker 350-34539), and the old ones looked pretty sour. Not sure if the computer has caught up yet to the new data, but the gas needle still seems to be dropping fast.
I did the spark plugs at some point in the last 2000 miles, and plan to check if they've fouled up at all since seeing the lean code, but I'm wondering what else I should be checking, or if anyone's got a similar tale with an easy fix.
My plan is to pull, clean, and regasket the intake next, after seeing some gunk in a vacuum elbow I replaced coming off the passenger side, and maybe run through some other vacuum lines to make sure everything is solid, although I don't really have any performance indicators of a leak (that I can tell). Other thoughts are maybe a stuck fan clutch, but I'm not sure how much that would affect fuel mileage.
Worth mentioning it's got all new brakes, but the tires are completely fucked. Might have a bad passenger hub, and the front wheels seem to be off camber. The alignment isn't too off, but it's certainly not perfect.
Thanks for reading. I'm just a simple DIYer, but any insight would be very appreciated. Fkin Ford Ranger!