2000 Expedition Idle Fuel Flow

[Shabadoo]

Does anyone know how long a 2000 Expy with the 5.4L engine could idle before running out of gas? Or how to calculate fuel flow at idle? With Hurricane Matthew coming I may need to use my car to power some small essential stuff (nothing too power hungry). I've got a few mods such as a 200 amp alternator and no engine driven fan which may affect my specific fuel consumption but I'm just looking for ballpark numbers.

 

[1955moose]

Sounds like you need to go buy a nice Honda Generator with plenty of power. I've got a 2000 Eddie Bauer 4x4 that gets 10/12 per gallon driving it, I'm going to shoot in the dark idling, about 1 gallon every 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on your driving mileage per gallon. Why not fire it up and run it for 1/2 hour. Take a before and after check on guage.


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[Bedrck47]

And I thought this was a trick question

To many variables to even try to guess

But a generator would be a much better way of having extra power.

But if you want ball park figures then take a guess, because your guess may be better than my guess or the next guys guess

 

[Shabadoo]

Thanks for the replies, I appreciate the estimate moose. I agree, a generator would be better but, unfortunately, it's not in the cards right now. I'll field test it and see what I get. I was just curious if anyone else had tested to see how long it would go.

The hope is I won't need to resort to using the car for power but only time will tell

 

[1955moose]

The only way you could get anything accurate is run your tank real low on fuel till it sputters out, real hard on fuel pump because of heat. Then add 1-2 gallons run till it dies. Again very hard on pump and sucking crud from tank. But other than that it's not like driving where you can divide gallons into miles. You might want to get a 5 gallon can or 2 and keep them in a safe spot away from ignition, and keep your SUV full of gas. If and when storm hits gasoline may not be available for days, not to mention food/ water.


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[Bedrck47]

I would think that MOST people don't use their Expys for emergency back up power

 

[1955moose]

Well if your strapped with expenses, like most young families are, gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. In the Bay Area were lucky, the only time we lost power for any length if time was the 1989 earthquake.. Someday the big one is gonna hit San Fran, and we all will need our expy's for power.


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[stamp11127]

You need know the wattage of the items you want to power, alternator amp output at idle, then you can calculate the watts produced at idle and compare to the amount of draw on the system.
Alternators don't output max amps unless the engine is above 1500 rpms or higher. Your's should be about 40-50 amps minus what the car is using.