My 455 Buick, which is one of the most inefficient cars on the board, idles at about 2.5% duty cycle. My injectors total 288 #/hr, which is about gallons per hour, and 2.5% of that is about 1.25 gallons per hour.

That is a 455 (7.6 liter) engine with a bit of cam, so I'd guess your car (far more efficient than mine) would consume about 1/2 of that.

-Bob C.

I just checked the Scangauge on my truck, and its using .64 GPH at idle with the heat on high. That's a 1998 GMC Sierra K1500 with a 350 V-8. It has 165,000 miles, but is in excellent mechanical condition. I'd say in a 94 Explorer that is in good enough running condition that the Check Engine light doesn't come on, that there's no way you're using more than that.

We made it!
 

We made it!

Thank you for all of your help,

We had planned on worst case Scenario of 1 Gallon per Hour, but the longest we idled was for 12 hours (we passed out) and burned around 6 gallons of gas,

It was actually an amazing trip, it was fairly smooth, ice heaves were a bit scary when you weren't expecting them,

2400 Miles in 106 Hours isn't bad though 22 miles an hour, but that includes sleeping :)

It was actually pretty silly crazy at parts of it, we rolled into a town on Just a bit above E at 4:45 AM and fell asleep at a gas pump, thinking we would fill up and go when they opened, and we woke up at 8:30, got our gas, went inside to pay, and asked when they opened, they opened at 5 AM but she thought she'd let us get some sleep :)

That was Watson Lake, Yukon, and that driving stint we made it to Dawson Creek BC

We got gas in Fort Nelson and thought about spending the night, but at -40F we thought if we turned our car off, it wouldn't start, so we pushed on to Dawson Creek BC which it turns out, it was just as cold there, but having driven from 8am, until the following 2am, we fell asleep at another gas station (After having filled up) I was so proud of our 15 year old car, the heat never failed us through the night at -41,

Fun Fact, at -41, if you don't use your power steering for awhile, it feels like you don't have it anymore,

Not so fun fact at -41, if you don't use your brakes for awhile, they get stuck down when you use them, so if you ever do this drive, don't listen to your mechanic and use compression braking as much as possible, because if you go an hour without using your brakes, it can be really scary when they get stuck down

Another fun fact, when you are in the middle of nowwhere, hundreds of miles between gas stations, knowing you wont make it if you don't fill up, it still sucks to pay 8 bucks or so a gallon for gas

Oh, and if you were hoping to get icecream in Toad Yukon in the middle of winter, they laugh at you :(

My GF shot video of us walking 20 minutes to the Liard Hot Springs when it was -35C according to the Camp manager by the time we made the spring our faces had frost on them, and by the time we made it back to the car, it felt like our bodies were actually burning from the cold,

One last fun fact in this overly long post

If you let your cat sniff outside at -41F They will sneeze for 15 minutes, and then run away from open windows for an indefinite period of time (she still flinches when we open them here in Bellingham, WA

:thumbup: Thank you for the update!

That's funny about the cat. :)

It's January already? I must have fallen asleep myself ;). Glad to hear you made it, and thanks for sharing your cold weather trip experience. I've only stayed at one lodge on the Alcan (Actually in Alaska between Tok and Anchorage), but I was pleasantly surprised at how nice it was. Still, at -40, I'd have left my engine running, too.

Glad to hear all y'all survived! And your G/F is still with you! And the cat!

But anyone else reading this...don't try this at home!

BTW...what's the temperature of the hot springs? Did (could) you go in?

Poor cat! I would get away too.