I am researching Ford super duty PSD's as I am looking at trading in my 03' chev z71 for an 08' 250 CC short bed 4x4. Several people on here have talked about the gas mileage of the PSD with reports of up to 20 or so mpg (driving carefully).

Some have mentioned keeping the turbo boost down as low as you can (which makes sense). Is there any mod to limit the boost?

I am getting 16-20 mpg on my chevy. If I can get in to that range on a PSD I would be perfectly happy.

I drove an 05' 350 CC DRW 2x4 hauling cars for a year and am well accustomed to the boost shooting up going up hills - and it is a god send. However, in every-day driving it is totally unnecessary. Without pulling a load I think the engine has plenty of power without the boost, or very little.

What say all? Any ideas, mods, things to keep in mind?

Steve

 

If you are thinking of a 2008 with the 6.4L this is the best place for you to look for input.
2008 6.4L Power Stroke Diesel - Ford Truck Enthusiasts Forums

 

You might get 20mpgs with an '07 6.0L, but I doubt you'll get anything close to that with an '08 6.4L.

 

You might approach 20 MPG if you remove some of the particulate control devices......but that would be illegal, and that is bad.

 

I will just offer this up as a tidbit of information. Our Fire Department just took delivery of a 2008 F350 SD CC DRW, with a fiberglass utility body. Best guess, it has a couple hundred miles on it right now. I was driving it Saturday for a drill, and was messing around with the info center on the dash (its an XLT). found the "current mpg" calculator....i was getting 8.8mpg, and driving very conservatively! granted, we haven't even come close to going through the break-in period....but i just thought i would offer that up.

 

Thanks for the info. Anything I look at will be slightly used - less than 15k miles.

I was looking on autotrader and there are some good 07's, or so they look good. Also o8's are showing up too.

I am originally a GM guy. All my trucks so far have been Chevy's. I think GM really screwed up with their new style trucks so I'm switching over to Ford. I never thought I would consider one before, but it's the only good looking truck I can find I can't pull myself together to get a truck that looks like an over-exaggerated kid toy. Plus, I put several tens of thousands of miles on a 6.0l 350 with a 2 car goose neck trailer and experienced no problems. I never checked the gas mileage as it was a company truck and company gas but it did pull like a champ and was stable. I'm not looking for that big of a truck right now though, just want a good looking, comfortable, diesel truck.

There are some pretty good reports on here of good (17+) mpg on the PSD's. It seems like the good mileage is attributed more to going easy on the petal than anything else. I can discipline myself enough to do that - I already am easy on my truck now. My original inquiry related to the turbo boost was just to see if there was a way to keep the pressure down on that, other than fethering the gas petal, to get the engine to chug a little less fuel. I know it would cause the truck to be pretty sluggish, but if I accelerate slow to begin with, whats the difference?

Steve

 

KC, I'm one of those 6.0 PSD drivers that regularly gets in the 18 mpg range in mixed driving. I limit my boost to 10 lbs when accelerating. I'm not the fastest off the line but I'm not getting in the way either. Acceleration is fine as far as I'm concerned. I also make sure to floor it a couple or three times each fuel run to make sure to exercise the vanes in the turbo and prevent them from siezing. I haven't heard of any device that can be added to limit the boost. However, I'm sure you could get an SCT and have a custom program made that would do the trick. I limit mine by controlling the go pedal.

If you're looking at a 6.4 PSD (08 model), you're going to be hard pressed to find one that gets the mileage you're looking for due to the DPF and regen cycle used to burn out the excess soot buildup. However, I'm sure they can get there with a DPF delete and programmer. The downside is that doing such mods would void any warrantee on the engine. I would second BeerStalker's recommendation to go down to both the 6.4 and 6.0 forums on this site and read up.

Also, before you buy I'd highly recommend getting the VIN of the truck and coming back here and getting an OASIS report. You can post the VIN in the OASIS request thread that is pinned to the top of the 6.0 forum in the diesel section of this site. You should get a response in a day or two. The OASIS report will provide all dealer maintenance that has been done on the truck (including warrantee work). It's a very helpful tool to make you an informed buyer and will alert you as to whether the truck you're considering is a problem child or not.

Good luck on your search. You should be able to find one at a great price with all the trouble the dealers are having moving their inventory these days. I look forward to seeing posts from you in the future once you've gotten your rig.

 

Thanks for the great post. I suppose I could do mods that aren't electrical (IE tuner) and de-mod before I go back to the dealer. That might be a bit of work though.

As for the dealer troubles and inventory... Precisely. I wanted a diesel 4 years ago. Now is my chance and I have a secret wepon for digging one up. Don't ask, I can't tell I don't know how long it will take to get one, but I will be looking.

Steve

 

Welcome to the Superduty forum. I too am a "die hard" GM guy, but after test driving an 08 GMC crewcab diesel 2 weeks ago, and looking at that $47K pricetag...I just couldn't do it. TOO MANY nice features missing on the truck.

I went looking for a used F250, and found my 06 4x4 Crewcab, shortbed, single wheel drive truck with 35K miles on it, loaded Lariat, at a used Ford dealer, and walked away with it for a song...

Timing is everything. Hold out until you find the truck you want. They are everywhere. Guys are UNLOADING THEM right now. Best deals on diesel trucks in at least the last 5 years.

Go get your F series truck. I'm very happy with mine.

 

Thanks for the nice note, wagoncrazy. Glad to see someone else is up to somethig similar

I just hit a problem though, or what might be... I would like to run an OASIS report on anything I consider.. but the way I am working on this might not lend itself to a report first. I will have to get some more info from my source and see what we can do. Hell, my source could beat me to it I don't know.

Those of you that have the 6.0 (or even the 6.4 for that matter) - how many miles and what problems (gas mileage aside)?

Steve

 

There should be a waste gate on the turbo somewhere. Typically, you add a ball bearing to vacuum to restrict the vacuum into the valve, but I suppose you could plumb it into a really good vacuum source. Maybe just in front of the turbo, or re-drill the actuator to hold the gate slightly open.

 

Turbo boost pressure. Think of the turbo as a device that pumps enough air into the engine to match the amount of fuel you put in with your right foot. Therefore no point trying to modify that. Just drive sensibly.

 

Powerstroke diesel turbo's are electronically controlled. No vacuum lines etc.................

Even if you did such a mod, it is not limiting the amount of fuel going in, which would not get burnt as completely due to lack of air, causing smoky exhaust and worse fuel consumption.

 

Ah. Good info.

 

I remember doing the ball bearing mod to a 99 F250, along with several other mods. It's probably changed since then, but there used to be some type of vacuum modulation.