I know that you dont buy a truck for good MPG, but 11-13 MPG is killing me and my pocketbook. I am about to hit 2k miles. I know that my engine isnt broken in yet, but what mods can I put on my truck to help me out. Some people have told me Filters, chips and other things, but I dont know what is best. So I look to my fellow Ford owners for help. I need better gas mileage.

 

I started simple. Went with a tonneau cover and aftermarket exhaust.

 

I think the best thing you can do is keep your foot out of it. I have had my 4X2 Screw Lariat, 5.4L, 3.55 gears for about 16 months now (16000 miles) and have consistently gotten between 16-21 mpg. I drive the freeway more than city stop and go traffic also.

Most, if not all aftermarket products that claim to increase your gas mileage are a waist of money. I installed a Leer tonneau cover and saw maybe 1-2 mpg increase, but it is heavy and a soft tonneau may do better. Don't know what gears your running, but I'm sure that makes a difference too. Good luck!

 

I agrea with ACTS. When I got my focus I was getting 23-24 mpg all the time. But as soon as I let my foot off the pedal the mileage increased dramaticaly. I now average 30+mpg city/highway mix. But yeah drive like your 60+ and try a bed coverl lol. Also full synthetic motor oil couldn't hurt. If you don't see a mpg increase you'll atleast feel a smoother, more rev happy motor.

 

I put my soft tonneau on and saw a 2-3 increase in MPG. Didn't really change my driving style. But I will not disagree if you have a case of the lead foot try to back off some. That will definitely help.

 

Welcome to FTE. 11-13 sounds low. You might want to see if you have the latest PCM program from Ford. It might help with not only mileage, but also throttle response. I think it all depends on how good of a relationship you have with your dealership. I am good friends with the service manager at my local dealership, so I had it done for free. I have seen some posts about you being charged. I guess you could tell them that you think the engine feel sluggish, etc, and so forth...just something to get you in there to have them look at it. What size motor do you have? Gears? Tire size? Average miles per week put on, and how many per trip/commute? All of these will have some play in the mileage you get.

 

My truck started at 12-13 it's first weeks. Today it gets 22+ on the open road, and 15-16 around town.

I have made many mods to my truck, and driven it about 6k miles. I have checked mileage every time gas is added, and always checked correctly.

None of that "Gee, I had a half tank, put in ten bucks, then drove fifty miles, and still have a quarter tank. I musta got 20 miles to the gallon" nonsense.

I have found some interesting things about mileage and these trucks. I also got a scan gauge, a useful tool for checking many of the variables involved.

I also have too much time on my hands...

Things worth noting on these beasts;
They are very heavy, and thus use a lot of gas on any kind of hill.

They get rotten mileage cold.

They do much better warm, almost like an old style carb.

They do get better mileage with the tailgate down, only a very small amount, not worth the bother.

A good tonneau gets you at least 1+ mpg on the highway. A canvas might get a small fraction better, and flush with the top of the bed type would be best for mileage. I'll keep my Fold-a-Cover.

These trucks LOVE to highway. By that I mean steady over 40 running. Over 20 mpg is normal for 100% freeway driveing.

These trucks freewheel like an oldstyle overdrive. You can coast forever, on the slightest down slope. Coasting is free money.

Warning, freewheeling gets good mileage, gets good trans/engine life, is hell on the brakes.

When you climb the slightest hill, you have plenty of power, but if you use it, it costs. A lot.

Backing off to just as much power as you need is the key to better milage.

Yes, a more open muffler gives you more power at top end. Don't bother to hope it will give you significantly more mileage. These trucks have a good stock exhaust on them. Not great, just good.

Don't fill your tank every 50 miles or so. It will drive you nuts. Putting to and from the gas station is the worst place to get mileage. Short hops, engine cold, and these things don't fill up evenly anyway.

Get a mix in your driving. The more straight running, the less stop and go, the better your mileage is.

Do get any reflash you can. There is no doubt some of the factory flashes reak.

K&N air filter, love it or hate it, seems to bring more gas mileage. Not getting into any arguments on this, I have checked it 500 miles each way, and got .2 mpg better with the K&N vs. new Ford unit.

The stock oil is darn good for milage. Not sure I'm going to stay with 5-20 this summer,(heat here goes completely off Fords recommended scale).
The Motorcraft oil is VERY good, at least this year. Don't know when it's coming up for a new bid.




To those too young to know that an overdrive does not refer to your top gear, freewheeling is when the trans(or converter) is designed to 'slip' instead of engine brake when you back off on the throttle.
Note your tach drop way down when you have your foot off, 'coasting' down hill. On a truck that 'engine brakes', it takes a steep down grade to keep it going without giving it gas.

Other note about overdrives, old style. They were a 2 speed automatic transmission on the rear of your (usually) 3 speed stick. One gear was direct drive, the other usually .7 to 1, thus 'overdriving' your rear end. Like a modern truck with a 2-speed rear, they allowed you to have 4.11 gears, but then when you 'shifted' up to overdrive, you had the equivlent of 2.87. Plus they 'de-clutched' or freewheeled if you backed off the throttle, allowing your engine to drop to idle when you were going down even a slight grade.
They were mostly fassed out because of brake complaints... Brakes wernt all that good in the 60-70's. And gas was cheap. And people wanted automatics, not better sticks. Or four speeds you could hammer.

They were probably the best concept in transmissions ever made. Five forward ratios, you only needed the clutch in first gear, etc.

Chris

 

watch how you drive. if you get a tonneau thats like 300 bucks isnt that like 150 gallons of gas you can buy. the only think i feel that helps and is worth the money is a chip

 

I highly recomend swapping mufflers. After changing to magnaflow 14" muffler im getting about 1mpg better. With Supercab FX4 doing 50/50 highway city I avg right on 16.5 mpg. I also am running Diablo 93 octane tune which might have helped a small amount.

 

I've gotten as high as 20.3 mpg and as low as 15.5 mpg with my 2005 V6. Yesterday I got 18.3 mpg. I expect to get about 19 mpg but would like to get 21 mpg overall.

Three things are most important. Drive like you have an egg between your foot and the gas pedal. Get off the brakes and coast to a stop when possible. Keep the tires up and forget all of the gimmicks. Keep the speed down. You won't get there much sooner by going 75 mph than you will at 65 mph. They don't work; including the bed modifications. Actually, an open bed creates a turbelence that propels the airflow over the vehicle. Tests have actually shown that removing the tailgate will decrease the mileage. Logically, this doesn't seem possible but this is what the wind tunnel tests showed or so I have read.

I've probably driven over a million miles and have tried everything to improve mileage. A steady and light foot on the pedal, proper air pressure in the tires and slow down. If you speed you will never get decent fuel mileage. It just isn't possible.

There is one other thing to look at however. Investigate the rolling resistance of the brands of tires. I'm dubious of these claims but won't rule them out. Some have been found to vary as much as 2 mpg. I recently did some investigation on my Escape and this was one of the main considerations besides the noise factor.

 

There is one thing to remember, there ARE a few of us who do have SOMETHING not quite right with ours. Some of us suffer from extremely poor fuel economy. I have driven two trucks, one that had really good MPG (04 f150 XLT SC 4x4 a rental) --averaged around 16mpg. Now I purchased an 04 (f150 FX4 SC 4x4) and it is getting around 10mpg or 8mpg towing two snowmobiles. I think the best I got on the highway was 12mpg.

Is there anybody who had THIS (poor mpg) issue have Ford reflash their trucks and have an improvement in fuel economy? I hope this is the fix but I have been reading that a few have THOUGHT they had the reflash saw no change.

 

1) Tonneau
2) Use cruise control even at slow speeds when possible to avoid lead foot
3) A better air intake will get you 1/2 to 1 mpg, but with the price tag, the payback is perhaps 2 years.

 

How do you know if you have the latest flash for the computer?

 

You have to check when your truck was built(on side of door) and check which version you have, should be labeled on computer. I don' t have the exact cut off dates as to when they started putting the new flash in (Sep 2004??). Also you can check your computer and see if there is a dealer label on top of the old label showing they updated it

 

Pretty happy with my mileage stock. Average 15.2 hwy/street (lowest average 14.8), I have gotten as much as 20 MPG at speeds of 60 to 65 on the hwy. After 70 the mileage drops pretty quickly. This is on a 5.4 3:73LS SCREW Lariat.