Ford Repair: increase gas mileage, smog checks, electric cooling fan


Question
Hi Steve,
I'm looking for a little guidance.  I have a 2001 explorer sport, 4.0 automatic.  My wife is disabled so she would love to keep this car.  At $3.50 a gal for gas it's hard.  A few things I want to try to increase my miserable gas mileage, they are:
electric cooling fan
underdrive pulley
MAS spacer
K&N air filter
2oz. of acetone per 10 gal of gas
The car runs great, but will these additions help in the mileage category?  Do you have any other suggestions?  any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks Steve

Answer
Charlie-

  Those additions will certainly help, but it's hard to expect a huge jump in mileage from any product, really.  The biggest help would probably be the electric fan since it will take a lot of stress off of the engine.  If you can live without A/C, I would ditch that, too.  Getting rid of the whole system not only remove parasitic drag from the engine, it also saves about 50lbs of weight on the front end.  But if you live somewhere that warms up in the summer, just remember to use it as little as possible.  The same goes for the smog pump and related systems.  This may not be possible if you live in an area that requires smog checks, but it's just a thought.  Aside from that, the only other things I could recommend would be a basic tune up and maybe a computer reflash.  The reflash would have to be done by either buying a chip or handheld programmer like the Diablosport Predator or any of SCT's tuners.  The programmers typically cost more but are usually able to adjust computer parameters as many times as you need to whereas with a chip you're spending $200 or so every time you want to change something.  Hope this helps.

Steve