The Liby is a box, not the most aero vehicle around. And it sits up fairly high, and it has big wheel openings. That is the obvious. Even with stock tires, its a bit underpowered so the engine works harder to move it down the road.
Some simple tricks which probably won't suprirse anyone. Is the sweet spot for fuel effeciency is 45-65mph. Anything above 65 and millage starts to drop off noticably. Rabbit starts and agressive acceleration really eats into millage. Driving smoother and calmer can get you as much as 2 MPG's.
Minor mods you can make to get better effeciency. Forced air induction.. Those K&N Cone filter mods do little to help. Yes more air in, but warmer air in so really all is canceling out. You need to bring COOL air into the engine. Your engine is an air pump. Hot air is thinner, cold air is thicker. So when the engine compresses the air, there is more to compress (bigger force in the bang, more HP). So engine doesnt have to work as hard to produce same power. This can be done by a simple household dryer duct (flexable aluminum duct work) get it at Lowes, and cut a whole on the side of your airbox.
Air Filters - again your engine is a air pump.. If dirty filter, makes engine work harder. There has always been a debate over K&N. Does it work, does it clean the air. Basically its a two sided coin. Higher Flow / Cleaner Air. A higher flow filter is less restrictive (so more air (and other stuff) get through easier. Cleaner air has more filtering and is very restrcitive (making your engine work harder). I guess depends on how you drive your vehicle.
More expensive mods: again your engine is an air pump. Air in, Air out. the better it can breath, the least hard it has to work to produce same HP. So getting exhaust out of engine. Exhaust, headers.. Now this gets into is it cost effective to do? $500 for a catback exhaust that flows better will it save you $500 in gas saving? Eh.. I dono.. I know the headers probably were not the smartest mod I did to my Jeep. other than to say lookie lookie. But to the wife I said it will save gas. On the highway I have hit 22mpg. I am curious if I can get better on this next long trip I have coming up. I havent tried the Forced Air Induction mod on super long trip but have hit 20MPG on a 100 mile round trip before.
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