Wow. I don't know what i'm doing wrong but i only get 12.5-12.6 mpg according to the lie-o-meter. Ill have to do a manual calculation. 2004 excursion 82K completly stock. I did the blue spring update, added gauges and scangauge II. All maint is done at 5K and proper tire pressures. Driving habits. Mainly only take if we are going for a long distance and i'm usually light on the pedal. I bought it to pull a 6500lb travel trailer. Any suggestions to help increase the mpg's would be a big help.. Thanks... Jason

 

Here in Nevada they do the full smog every year with the probe in the pipe. Even through I have welded shut the EGR to keep the hot exhaust out I have never had a problem passing smog. I do have the EGR plugged in but since I'm a 2004 it has never showed a code. I run synthetic oil and Stanadyne in the fuel. I'm not sure which helped but I get over 20 mpg on the open road at 60-65. Thats hand computed and about 2 mpg better than when I first bought the truck. I have found that going 70-75 costs me about 2 mpg.

 

My truck got 16.5 hyway when I first got it. After 4" exhaust, tuner, egr cooler delete (valve still there and plugged in.) I get between 18 and 20 hyway. Think the EGR delete helped the most for mpgs. I've been working on a dual electric fan setup also to see if that will help also. but I've been too busy to install it so far.

 

I have wondered about this before.

Is there a difference between UK and USA diesel ? Because i seem to get fairly good compared to you guys.

On a normal drive doing between 60 - 70mph on the liemeter it says 21mpg. Calculated i get 23mpg UK MPG (we have a slightly bigger gallon compared to the USA, but still the liemeter is about correct).

When towing about 3.2 tonnes - about 7,000lb i am getting about 13mpg on the lieometer and about that maybe a touch better in UK MPG.

I'm on a 2004 4 door, 6ft bed F250 harely davidson. Not a clue what gears - 60mph is about 1800 rpm.

Gordon

 

For starters I would not recommend an electric fan. The factory fan pulls a MASSIVE amount of air. And all of it is needed to cool a high horsepower small Cubic Inch small block engine. When I first bought my truck I got around 14 mpg. After the exhaust and SCT III and the economy tune from Spartan it jumped up to 16.5. Then I added a tonneau to my bed and now get 17.5 on the highway at 65 mph. Ease up on the right foot will get the most bang for the buck. My truck still has a cat and the egr. You are on the right track, you might also want to run some powerservice in your fuel also. These are about the most proven ways to increase your mileage. As for deleting emissions system companents, under current rules you will likely be ok, but emissions regs are getting stricter EVERY year and at some point you WILL BE FORCED TO PUT THAT STUFF BACK ON, especially if the tree huggers keep getting their way. JMO

 

mine gets 18mpg city and 22-23 on the hiway according to the lieometer it is completly stock

 

That's great but are your vehicle specs; sounds like a 2wd reg cab.....

My 4wd, crew, short--- avgs 16 mixed & 18 highway.
New FICM with latest program actually seems to have added about 1mpg.

 

I also have a 4x4 crew

 

It is amazing that people even look at the lie-o-meter anymore. I don't have one in my truck, but my wife's last 2 vehicles have had them and they are almost always off. Our Ford Fusion with a 4 cyl. said 25-28 on the meter and averaged 24-25 overall. 3mpg off. Our Escape says 24-25 on the meter and gets 22-23 average, 2 mpg off. My truck gets around 16 with mixed driving and 18 on long non-stop highway driving. Best I have ever gotten was 19 on a 600 mile trip. That in itself is amazing to me, I get 25 mpg on a 600 mile trip in a 3500 lb vehicle and 19 in a 8200 lb truck. I have personally seen Super Duty's get over 20 mpg, driving the speed limit. Every truck is different, but I know that I purposely drive to get max fuel economy, and I get 16-19 doing all the things necessary. I can only speak for what I can prove.

 

i dont usually go by the lie o meter but the one in this truck seems to be more accurate than other vehicles i have been in. I had it down to 1 mile to empty when i pulled in for diesel the other day because there is only a handful of places in the county that have it and the one in my town was out. My F-250 used to run out of fuel when it said 13 miles to empty my moms jeep usually runs out around 7 miles to empty i was getting a little nervous watching the miles tick down but i made it

 

i'm in socal, do electrical contracting, and have a van that tips at
10,500#. so we have a similar situation, except you probably have
ladder racks and your wind drag sucks compared to mine.

i'm probably 90-10 city/freeway, and i get 12.5 mpg composite.
freeways in socal aren't a whole lot better than city streets most
of the time.

i've got a banks IQ and economind tuner on it, and just went thru
the engine, so it's all fresh. here is what i've observed over time:

tire pressure between 40 lbs and 80 lbs has no effect on my milage.

where the banks IQ is set, has no effect on my milage. doesn't matter
if it's at #2 (fuel starved economy) or #6 (+100 hp, +150 tq)

if it's lean, you have to bury your foot deeper to get spooled up and
rolling. if it's stronger, a good squirt from the light gets you up to
city speed shortly, without the burying of the foot.

one of my customers was frothing fanatically about a product called
ethos a few years back, and i tried two quarts to see what it did.
it almost completely eliminates exhaust smoke, and doesn't change
the milage a whit. at a retail price of $40 a quart, i'll take smoke,
thank you. don't inhale. it worked for one of our presidents, i'm told.

there are fuel defoamers and filters and such that make various
claims of increasing your milage. i'm not running any of them.
entrained air in the oil i'm sure will effect combustion, if it's uneven.
but if it's evenly dispersed, i'm guessing that there is enough
flexiblity in the engine controls to accommodate that.

some folks are running CNG/diesel, feeding it off a two stage
regulator directly into the engine... the diesel fuel component
gets the burn started, and the CNG provides a cheaper source
of btu's than #2 diesel... and the stock engine controls are able
to regulate that without recalibration, so i'm guessing the small
amount of entrained air in the fuel feed is mostly of concern to
the people making devices to remove it. if i've just insulted
anyones sacred cow, forgive me. i may very well be wrong,
but industrial process flow is something i've done a fair bit of.

the gearing on my van is tall, and doesn't seem to increase the
milage at all... the vehicle is under a full load as a result of it,
whereby a shorter final gear ratio would reduce the load on the
engine, so it probably would waste fuel, as the engine wouldn't
be fully utilized, and spinning at a higher speed, lightly loaded
so to speak.

now, the banks IQ unit has a "economy" display. you punch in
what you paid at the pump, and it displays in real time, how
much you spent since you turned the rig on this morning.

it's accurate over a tank of gas, to within 2% of the money
spent.... burn up a tank of gas, and see how much it says you
spent, and on $75, it's consistently $2 low to what the pump charges.

so, it's pretty accurate. and it'll make you want to barf.
driving up beach blvd from pch to the 405 freeway, is $3.40.
you start driving differently, when you realize the difference between
a gentle start and a hard start is $0.31 every time you do it.

every.single.time.you.do.it.

these are the things, in order of importance that i have found to
offset the cost of my fuel.

don't turn on the key in the morning.
don't step down hard on the skinny pedal.
don't step down hard on the wide pedal.
take the 1,000#'s of stuff that you aren't using out of the truck.

and the single biggest fuel cost reduction i have found?

put it in the bid.

everything i know about fuel savings comes down to this:
there is no free lunch.

lighten up the van, lighten up the foot, and throw $400 on that
job 100 miles away, and enjoy the ride.

EDIT: as for smogging, i set the banks at stock, unplug the
display, and go to my friendly smog guy... he gets in, blips
the throttle, says..... ah, good, no soot... and passes the
van.

and he's a test only station. this may change in the future,
but for now, he is just looking for gross polluters.

i have to drive past orange county diesel often, and see
all the trucks with stacks and such sitting around....
that dog, very shortly, won't hunt. not in calif.