I figured I should drop my 2 pennies in the pot too. I know they'll be allot of nay-sayers but I believe what I see so here goes. I installed the Tornado intake system (a silly little metal spyro cylindrical contraption) in my wife's 04 Expy w/ 5.4 2v NBX 4X4. It said it would increase the mgp/hp but a friend of mind told me to try cause he has it in his 03 Silverado and it works. I forked the $62+tx and 3 months later these are what we recorded off the onboard command info center:
before Tornado-
27 gallon tank (full) computer reads= 414 miles to empty. while driving I'm cycling through the comp and resetting the current mpg it read 13.7 and it fluctuates up and down as I accelerate or start on a downhill cruise sometimes reaching as high as 23 mpg. but at the end of your trip it averages out to about 17 give or take 1 mpg. off a full tank we registered a total of 344mpg with approx 5 miles till empty or so left on the comp. (My foot is made of lead as to compare with the wife and the egg that sit between her foot and the accelerator pedal)
with Tornado-
comp is sitting at 18 and as high as 26 mpg. WoW! with that said we now register approx 390+/-. I don't trust the computer all that much but these are the results and the wife is happy with that.

 

I almost forgot- $57. to fill the tank too!

 

You REALLY want to improve gas mileage? Drive 50 mph instead of 70+! Makes a HUGE difference, but who wants to drive 50 mph???

 

Ha! Getting alot more responses than I would have expected. Lot of good advice here, thanks to all...

One thing to note, I'm actually a slow and careful driver plus the fact that about 90% of my driving is on city surface street so getting over 50 is a rarity.

Hey HawaiianStyle, the tornado worked?? I posted a question about this item in the 4.6L/5.4 forum and got somewhat of a bad review on it from others...as cheap as it is I may try it anyway, couldnt hurt.


thanks all!
shane

 

I get 13.0 to 13.3 per tank in my screw 4x2 5.4 .355

I drive 2k miles a month or more and mileage hasn't changed. I have had the pcm reprogrammed, Flopro single/dual 3" with 24" 3.5"tips. I am ordering the Volant intake, and I will put a hard cover on it. If I only get 113-14 in my truck, I will just deal with it. My truck is a blast to drive. Every dodge or chevy on the road seems to want to race or cut me off to show me how cool they are.

It is a fun truck... Mileage is NO WHERE close to advertised, and I don't drive crazy.. all in all, Who cares? Enjoy your truck. Let's say you get 15 intead of 13. On a 27 gallon tank you can travel 54 more miles. So, you just saved $5.00. minimal in the grand scheme...

 

76FordF100,

I got 19.6 on a 500+ mile trip. It was all highway but also in the Blue ridge mountains for about a quarter of the trip. I kept the speed at 55-60 mph when I was on the freeway. This is actually 19.6 by doing the fuel calculation when I filled up when I got back--not the onboard computer (although that said I got 20.3).

No kidding, you can sink thousands of dollars into hardware that MIGHT give you a 5-10% fuel economy boost, or you can leave the lead foot home and see some serious mileage improvements for zero dollars invested. It all boils down to if you want to pay to put your foot down hard!

Sure, it's a truck and won't get 50mpg like a hybrid, but I put a 1/2 cord of wood in the back a week ago and brought it home. Try THAT in a gas-sipping vehicle!

4500 miles so far, and it's always a treat to drive it.

 

HI all, I have a 2004 F-150 Screw Lariat 4x4 w/3.73 LSD. i was looking at the intake tract an di noticed all the huge "noise cancelling" cavities on the intake pipe. for the majority of vehicles with these when removed and suitably replaced without the silencers both horsepower and Mileage were improved...i can only think of one car directly but that is the Ford Cobra reportedly ~40 horses from reomving and replacing with a K&N performance injection kit. i havent had much highway time at all in this rig, except the testdrive. but town driving where and how i do it id around 10.5 to 11.8 according to the computer. yes the engine is still new and probably not competely broken, thats cool. after the lin-x gets sprayed im going to be hauling a good amount of pea gravel, fill dirt, lumber and such for a while. i posted this in this thread as it pertains to my question and i didnt see th epoint in starting another. i have been looking at installing

K&n Performance injection Kit
a dual exhaust of some sort(prob, edelbrock, Borla, or etc.
i would either like to get the ECU tuned or have an aftermarket chip in it(i really want the chip to get rid of the weird acceleration characteristics it has).
im getting a shell for the back as well. what are anyones opinions? especially regarding the Intake kit? please advise if i should make another thread

 

You couldnt be more wrong. Most vehicles are not geared to get the "best" fuel economey at 50 M.P.H Also take into consideration INERTIA... I drove several hundred miles a week for years in many different vehicles. On the highway, most vehicles get better average MPG at speeds around 70-75 MPH. The whole 55 saves gas crap is a product of the 70's tree hugger propoganda... it's about as valid as global warming being caused by spray paint. Do the math yourself... Now obviously city driving and a lead foot are not efficient.


Bean

 

W/ my 4.6 / 3.73 LSA I have been trying something that has seemed to get me the most for the gal.& $... I have been not burning more than 1/2 tank & keeping it filled once it hits the 1/2 mark. Doing this for a soild month & keeping records on miles,gallons & $'s spent not letting it drop below 1/2 tank I spent LESS $ & got much better mpg than if I let it burn the tank dry. When I was allowing it to go dry (fumes) the mpg dropped noticible & the $ spent for the month was even higher than I figured it to be. I really can't complain because doing the math myself @ the pump I am extremely happy w/ the mpg this V8 is giving me.

If you don't mind pumping gas more than usual & would like to save some $ give it a try & please let me know how you turn out. The wife doesn't mind seeing a few gas slips for $25 but when she was seeing the $50+ slips thats another story.

 

The 55 speed limit was to save lives also! And if you do a little research it did work saving lives. I have drove a tank of gas most of the time at 70 then the next tank I ran under 60...There was a 2 mpg differance so my truck must have the wrong gears in it.

 

Well, I drive 80 on the highway (on long trips to Lubbock) and get 16MPG... that's with gunning it usually 6 or so times on the trip to pass people where I gun it up to 90 or 100.

I figure if I didn't pass people, then I would probably get closer to 17 or 18MPG, but it would take me that much longer to see my fiancee, so I choose to pass when people are going below 75 or so.

 

Installed a True Flow CAI in my 04 Lariat Screw last night. Filled it up this morning. I will let ya know how things turn out. As soon as I get some pics I will add them to my gallery.

 

After it is broke in it is all in your driving habits. Smooth driving is the key.

 

Wow, I would be happy if I got 13 miles to the gallon! I have a '04 Supercrew Lariat 4x4 with a 5.4 (2,700 miles) and im getting just under 300 miles a tank (30 gallon tank). Not only that, the gauge and computer thing in the dash arent correct. I was driving the truck last week and the computer said I had 0 miles left and I had only driven 245 miles on the tank. So I filled up a gas can, bungy corded it in the back and drove it until she ran out of gas at 289 miles! I've taken the truck to ford 4 times now and first they told me the truck needed to break in, then they supposedly did a mileage test with a computer and said it came back with 13 miles to the gallon. I told them they're results were wrong because im doing the math and I know what its getting. If I cant get this resolved, I might be looking at lemon law. I love the truck other than the mileage, but 8-9 miles to the gallon is unacceptable. I have 2 friends with the same truck. One is a supercrew xlt 2x2 5.4 and the other is a fx4 4X4 with 5.4 and both dont even get a low fuel light until 380 miles which means probably 430 miles to the tank. I could only wish

 

Also, most of my driving has been city, but I had to drive to San Diego about a month ago ( I live in LA) and I still got 10 miles to the gallon!