Hey all, I know this post is going to get blasted real quick, so before anyone jumps on me for the "we didnt buy SD's for great MPGS" realize, i know this. But as my SD is about 80% daily driver, and 20% worker, I would like to stretch the normal days out as much as possible. (As im sure most would)
I had already thought about adding a Flowmaster muffler to get a little growl out of it, but I got to looking at the HyperTech E-CON tuner, which you pretty much plug in, pick your tune, and take it out. Simple. Suppose to save 2-6 MPG. Which I would be surprised (but happy) to see even 2mpg, but If I were to add the tuner, a muffler, and intake, would I see any real gains? I mean anything in the 3-4 area? or is that too much to ask?
As I said, I had thought about doing just a muffler and intake, for some sound and performance increases, but if I could add a tuner and get more, why not?
In that perspective, what kind of differences would I see performance/MPG wise of a cat-back verses just a muffler, and also K&N air filter VS a full intake system?
I am not super-halin', nor am I taking it to the track days, obviously, but it would be nice to get the full use out of the engine.

I guess to sum up, what kind of difference can I see from a stock SD, against one with a muffler K&N filter, and tuner, vs a full exhaust, and intake system with tuner? Is it worth it to go "FULL" everything, or will it not be as noticeable..?

2011 250 6.2 gasser

 

With a muffler, maybe 1 mpg hwy increase. Aftermarket airfilter...zero....
Testand Corporation conducted an ISO standards test on automotive air filters which can be viewed at this link: http://www.dieselbombers.com/chevrol...r-testing.html. All I can say is this explains in detail the reason for

(Arlen) SPICER wrote,

“Now that I am not doing the tests and my objectivity is not necessary, let me explain my motivation. The reason I started this crusade was that I was seeing people spend a lot of money on aftermarket filters based on the word of a salesperson or based on the misleading, incomplete or outright deceiving information printed on boxes and in sales literature. Gentlemen and Ladies, Marketing and the lure of profit is VERY POWERFUL!

 

Give Mike Butler at 5Startuning a call. Tell him your objectives and ask what kind of results you can expect.

To be honest, unless you keep the truck for 5-10 years you're never going to pay for the exhaust, intake, and tuner in gas savings. You might be able to pay for the tuner (with custom tunes) in 2-3 years, but each truck (and driver) reacts differently to tunes.

 

I do plan on keeping for about 10 years. my last truck was 9 years. But I figured that about a 2MPG increase would be about $800 a year savings.
Thats based upon $3.87 a gal, at 15,000 miles a year.

 

With regards to “Chips” and “Tuners”, years ago it was the best that most could do to enhance the ignition timing, fuel curve, transmission shift points, etc. It was (and still is) very important that a person verifies that the “Tuner” is ASE certified in both ECM and Transmission programming and IMHO be have current certification by the OEM whose vehicle you want to modify. There are plenty of persons who advertise their programs to be the best and even offer custom tunes, but in all reality, very few actually have credentials in these areas- but that’s not to say that some of these “geniuses” haven’t really caused damage to a few vehicles- just jump over to flatratetech.com and read just some of the comments from the MSE techs!. Perhaps what is equally important is the parameters that can be adjusted are set by the OEM vehicle software…so there is really no “magic” in what they are doing anyway.

IMHO, if you live near any major city there are excellent tuning specialists with dynos who for the same price (if not less) will tune your vehicle taking into consideration your specific needs including environmental conditions, for your specific vehicle. IMHO, the best bang for the buck!

If you are comfortable and understand how to tune a vehicle, you can also do this yourself. There are several software programs available, that “Speak Common English” that will allow you to tune your vehicles ECM. One company is HP Tuners, they have a website….they offer two core programs, one for those who are doing dyno tuning and one for the home-garage mechanic (which is priced at about the same as most of the “canned tunes on the market) …this version limits the span of adjustments as a safeguard against doing something outside of the oem scope……basically, keeps you from doing something “too stupid by accident” (grin)- in essence, if we were still running carburators......."The fuel mixture screws on the carb have physical limits set so the engine cannot run too rich or too lean"

 

so the tuner would pay for its self shotgun

also its not about how long you keep your vehicle its about howmany miles, i put 46,000miles in 1 year XD

 

True, but most people only see .5 MPG (or less) of a gain (my gain has been .4 MPG).

Based on that how long will it take to pay for it?

 

Just had a DP tuner installed for better MPG, but glad I bought additional tunes as well. I'll let you know what my MPG increase is, if I can keep out of the performance tune for a full tank!

 

Im in the same situation with my 05 5.4L. I normally just use it as a driver with the occasional load on it. I normally drive 50MPH+ all the time so idk if that would make any difference or not. Ive found that an SCT tuner from 5star or a Hypertech work well for these gassers. Any thoughts?

 

Thoughts? Nah - don't have any.