Hey all, just picked up a 2004 V-6 with a manual transmission, fully stock. My short-term goal (and I know this is going to sound lame) is to get as many miles per gallon as I can reasonably do. Long term, it's going to have all the fixin's, but first things first.

I'm thinking a cold air intake will be step 1. Any comments on that or suggestions for step 2? Would a chip help much? Exhaust I know "helps", but it seems whenever I'm in a car with a good sounding exhaust, my foot just gets a little heavier, so it would end up defeating the MPG purpose!

Thanks all!

 

if you bought this for MPG then you bought the wrong car. Mod's really won't do much maybe you will see 1-3 MPG with an intake and chip combined. I never calculated mine after installing mods but its not noticeable.

 

a chip and intake are your best options for a small gain in mpg.
but its better than nothing.
the best thing for MPG is your right foot.

 

Sorry, I should have clarified... I didn't buy the car for fuel efficiency... I bought it because I miss my '96 that I had! BUT since I have it, trying to be as economical as I can!

 

I would just do what you want with it. If you want exhaust do it since it will sound much better and just try not to put the peddle through the floor board haha

but yea like I said in my previous post an intake and a handheld tune can help but just don't except a lot.

 

Buy it all its a Mustang! Have fun with your car. My cousin who has a BAD *** 5.0 says i shouldn't mod my six but Im having fun and I enjoy and im proud of my car.

 

+1 some people give me **** about putting money into my v6. but to me its all about the fun. Hell the other day someone thought it was a gt. I guess you can say its a hobby.

I put a K&N filter and true dual exhaust on my car and i not only noticed an increase in MPG but an increase of power.

 

+2 i love my sixer!!!!!!!!!!!

 

sixers can be badass cars.
at my track here in sd a guy has a blown six that can take out lots of gts

 

^^the samething in texas a sixer taking out gt's i hope to do the samething oneday

 

some people say upping the gears help with gas mileage BUT if you go too high and drive on the freeway too much then it will lower the mpg.

 

but not much mpg loss

 

one thing i have learned from owning 2 stangs so far...one 04 V6 and now my 04 GT

If ur six is manual then just shift casually around 2k rpms...but my 04 six was a auto and i only got around 15mpg around the city...

Now i have a supercharged GT and i am getting 16+ in the city and 19+ on the highway...yea its getting better milage that my six and its got 200 more hp!

 

cut all the weight out of it you can. That's the single best way to reduce fuel consumption. Coil overs and tubular control arms have a neat side effect of dropping quite a bit of weight off the car.

 

I agree with r3dn3ck. Weight reduction is good, as well as getting a X-Cal2 tuner from Justin at VMP Tuning (www.vmptuning.com) as it comes with an economy tune. So not only will you get a small increase in performance, you will also have your MPG go up.