Ok what can we do to get better mileage out of these diesels? My truck is bone stock as far as mod’s go. What things have been proven to work?



I am driving 2005 6.0L F350 King Ranch long box. Last trip was all freeway and hauling fishing gear, so virtually empty and 4 guys. Got 17 MPG !

 

17 mpg is decent just keep your foot of it by always monitoring the tach keep the rpms low and keep the engine tuned up proper tire pressure etc

 

Exhaust and intake mods helped me. I have a fairly stock truck with slight mods and I get 17 mpg (hwy) with 35" tires. Before the mods I was getting 14.5 (hwy). Look at my list of goodies below to see what I have done.

 

What's a sneaky pipe turbo up-pipe with EGR blocker plate?

 

A pipe that cuts off the exhaust flow to the intake system (to lower emissions) only the dealer can't tell if it's been changed because inside is where the block off plate is, they can't tell unless they remove the "sneaky pipe".

 

I failed to mention that my truck gets smog checked, here is something to think about. Last year when I had the Smog checked my trucks emissions where much higher with the EGR working. This year the emissions were down to almost nothing on there scales. So the EGR is a worthless piece of crap that plugs up the intake, heats up the right cylinder head, and lowers the MPG! I am so glad I did mine! 2005 and newer have an EGR up-scoop that directs the exhaust into the EGR, blocking off half of the exhaust flow robbing power.

 

Anybody got any tech infor on this? Like a how to? Thanks.

 

When I first got my 04 with 33's on it I struggled to get anything over 16 mpg bone stock empty. After a Green Filter, 4" exhaust (kept cat on for now), 05 intake elbow, zoodad mode & spearco intercooler I can average about 17.5 empty. That's driving like a granny keeping under 70. None of this did a thing for my around town mileage. Hopefully after head studs, a good tuner, egr delete and cat delete I'll pick up alittle more but,,,, I still have a beef with a duramax down the road you know. hehe

 

I average about 20mpg, but I have a manual tranny, which I think helps a lot. I check my tire pressure weekly and have a SCT Livewire. I also use additive and fill up at the low sulfur station instead of the ULSD.....I also have to drive like an old fart and keep speeds at around 55mph. I save the fun for the charger

 

I hate to break the news to you but there are very few mods that are cost effective. In the big scheme of overall product cost-to-miles gained-to-fuel savings it's a VERY difficult margin to acheive.

Lets use a few common mods (intake and exhaust) as our mods and we will use $3.20 for the current fuel price.

Mods cost total= (AFE StII $500+ MBRP turbo back $500)= $1000
Fuel mileage gains= Lets say we gain 4MPG to be fair. Stock we will say 16MPG/modded 20MPG
Truck tank size= 38gallons.

Stock fill up cost @ 35 gallons for fill up= $112
Stock distance driven @ 35 gallons= 560 miles
Cost to drive 560miles per mile= $.20 per mile

Modded fill up cost @ 35 gallons for fill up= $112
Modded distance driven @ 35 gallons= 700 miles
Cost to drive 700miles per mile= $.16 per mile

WOW a savings of $.04 cents PER mile driven. You will have to drive 25000 miles to recoup the $1000 investment in the mods THEN you start saving money on fuel.

Do my numbers figure out right?

 

You bought a "Super Duty" 17 is decent. I get 13 to 15 around town and 17 to 20 highway on cruise. If you want better mileage buy a Honda. Putting 2 to 5 grand in the truck for better mileage is definitely a losing proposition. You won't live long enough for the payback!

 

I am an all stock except for a straight pipe exhaust and I get 20.2 at 78-80mph during 100% highway driving with the cruise control set. My truck is an 04 4x4 Excusion 6.0 I get 15.8 at the worst and 17.1 at the best in town and mixed driving. YOu probably could help you mpg's by getting rid of that stock muffler, I kept the cat in place on mine though.... I replaced my stock air filter too around 40k miles and that seemed to help too. I could not believe the ammount of dirt I shook out of the orig air filter???? I have gotten 17.6 before on a highway trip but it was during the California Santa Ana winds, I had a serious head winds an that really drove down my mpgs!! Oh yeah one other thing I do run the power service cetane booster additive nearly every tank.........

1. Take out the stock muffler and replace it with a 3.5" pipe. THis might cost $50 bucks and IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!
2. Try out the cetane booster, like power service etc....It helps mine around 1 mpg...
3. Air up those tires to 75 PSI cold
4. Use the cruise on the freeway all of the time that you can
5. Install a new FoMoCo air filter if you are over 36k miles. THey say they will last for much longer, but if you saw all the dirt in mine, it had to be slightly restricted by 40k miles...

 

We have a bone stock auto 250 CC FX4 short bed w/5,000 miles that avgs mid 19mpg on the Hwy according to the ScanGaugeII, this is driving 70mph or less and being smooth w/the throttle. Fresh oil helps MPGs, but then the cost vs benefit aspect as previously mentioned comes into play when you're using 13+ qts. As stated just monitor the air filter and fuel filters.

 

My truck is identical to yours and after adding a tuner and synthetic oil i picked up about 1.5 mpg interstate(16.5-18). I already had a turboback exhaust, intake and zoodad. Around town mileage seems to have picked up too, not sure how much though and it runs much better cold with the tuner.

 

Airing up the tires to 75 PSI cold is just going to wear out the center tread sooner. Buying new tires will more than offset any savings in fuel.