A good tune up goes a long way towards getting good mileage. You might want to look into getting an electric fan as it will be less parasitic loss than the standard clutched fan.

 

For the '05-'08 SD (F250 and F350) V10 3v...I believe there are only two options for gears. That would be the 4.10 and 4.30 variety.

The mpg's between the two...are minimal...at about less 1 or 1.5 with the 4.30 setup compared to the 4.10. Also...keep in mind that if you plan on larger tires in the future...the 4.30 will allow a minimum performance hit...compared to the 4.10...especially when towing.


biz

 

I accidentally sat on the egg!

 

I ate it.

 

ewwwwwwww....

 

Well I decided to buy another diesel and got a new 6.4 on Valentine's. So far I have about 2,500miles and I average between 12.5-14.5 mpg. Love the truck.

 

Congrats on the '08! Hope she treats you well...

If you don't mind, but what build #1, #2, or #3? Just curious...


biz

 

spent 7k on do dad's to try and get more out of my 05. forget it. 12 is the av. for most of us driveing one. and there is nothing short of the raw egg that help's.

as to price i sure would be glad it's gas not diesel you have to buy. my shop's truck's are a 08 350 psd. best it has gotten no better then 9.7 tops. same for the 06 6.0er. never better then 11. imm anyone who sayes the psd gets better is full of it. esp. when we run a tank to tank book that lists gal's used for miles driven and hand calc. of mpg each load

 

I have never owned a V-10 but I am on my fourth diesel and they don't get near as bad mpg as the one's that you are talking about. The two 6.0's got 14-16 average and never under 10 even with 4K in the bed and 12K on a trailer. The new 08 is worse but always over 12.

 

aggie - some do, but on average for what they're made for, it just don't pan out.

Let's not get into another "my daddy can beat up your daddy" donnybrook.

It's all about what the engine is designed to do and what failings they have. Most, if not all regular members here in the V10 forum, know the difference and we won't lie just to make something sound good.

There are a few that traipse off in here and brag about 16 MPG on a V10, but we know better. PSD and V10 are two separate animals and need to be treated as such.

 

Only on long highway trips

 

I have always been a diesel guy and currently have 7 diesel powered machines. Without any doubt, even after using several, the V10 6.8 will not come close to the towing capabilities of a diesel. Anyone who says so is fooling themselves in a big way. That is not, however, to say that a V10 6.8 can't tow; it can. The big show stopper for me with my latest purchase was when I compared the overall cost and cost to operate between the diesel and V10 on something I don't plan to tow squat with.

Here are some given facts I considered. First, a late model used diesel (in my case Excursion) was going to cost me about $10,000 more to buy with all other things on the units being equipped the same. That is a huge difference! Next is the fact that right now regular unleaded gasoline costs $3.03 per gallon and number 2 on road diesel at the pump sells for $3.72 per gallon. That is a .69c difference per gallon. That is a nineteen percent difference in fuel cost.

Okay, let's say that I average 12 MPG with the V10. I'd have to average nearly 14.5 MPG with the diesel to break even on fuel costs. This is entirely possible, but I'm not finished yet. I keep up with the maintenance on my vehicles to the point of being obsessive. To change the oil in my diesel pickup it takes about 14 quarts of diesel rated oil and a larger, more expensive, oil filter. So, just for easy math, let's say that I pay $3.50 per quart for oil and $12 for my diesel oil filter. That means it costs me $61.00 to change my own oil in my diesel. For the V10 the oil filter costs about half that amount (I don't use elcheapo Fram filters on anything) and it takes 6 quarts. So, a simple oil and filter change on my V10 costs $27.00 assuming that I pay the same price for oil. Since I change my oil and filter about 4 times per year with my current use, that means it will cost me an additional $136 a year (34X4) for the diesel.

So, between the fuel cost and maintenance costs, the diesel is simply not going to be less expensive per year for me to operate. It most likely will cost me more. Now, since I don't plan to tow anything heavy with this unit, how am I going to recover the $10k extra I spent on the diesel? Sure it will have greater resale value later on, but I could use that ten grand on something else in the interim or it could earn interest. In pure simple terms, I will never get it back and the diesel is going not only cost me more to buy, but more to keep and operate. Since I do have a need to tow a 20k plus trailer frequently I will always need a heavy duty diesel around (the V10 can't compare to being able to tow that amount - I tried and it wasn't pretty in comparison) but I didn't need it now and it simply costs more all the way around now. Back when diesel was .50c less per gallon than gasoline the math would work out differently and then it would depend on how many miles you drive and how long you'd keep the unit.

Taking those facts into consideration, I'll take my V10 6.8 over the diesel alternative every time when I don't need to tow heavy. Do the math on the 12 MPG "gas hog" when comparing it to a diesel and a guy would have to have a real need for the diesel to buy one now. Granted, I know some guys who buy the diesel just because they feel that "it's cool" and they love that diesel sound. But, hey, it's their money. And to think, most people practically call me "Diesel" because of all my diesel equipment!

 

Gas vs diesel again.

 

Not really. I'm big time diesel but sometimes it just doesn't make sense. Tied into the fuel economy (topic of thread) and fuel prices (underlying topic of thread) one should put a pencil to it and apply their intended uses.

 

Don't get me wrong, I have am not saying one is better that the other, they both have their positives/negatives. The only gas truck I have owned was a '94 F250 straight six with 250K on it. It averaged around 15mpg but I never towed with it. The main reason I went with diesel again was because of the high number of miles that I rack up. 50-75K a year and I never know when I will need to tow my trailer in an emergency dry ice delivery. I was leaning toward gas for the exact reason's that Dargo posed, less maint., lower fuel cost and less bugs to work out. I bought a job build #3 so hopefully ford has worked some of the problems out. Either way, the Fords are much better looking and drive smoother than the competition. The Chevy duramax I rented was much quicker and got better mpg but I didn't like anything else about it. $41K for a loaded diesel Lariat was a great deal too!