Hey everyone, I have bought my first F150 it is a 2001 5.4L and I wanted to see what I can do to rise my mpg, right now I am only getting around 11mpg and I thought that is was going to be a little closer to 15-16, any ideas on what can help, thanks!

 

I have risen mine from 12mpg to just over 16mpg with a handful of mods. the first that increased mileage were electric fans and under drive pulleys, they were good for just under 2mpg. After that I did a lot of things that did not help with mileage and finally bought a tonneau cover, that gave me just over another 2mpg. Efans, UD pulleys and a soft Tonneau cover can all be done for around $1K or less. Depending on how much you drive you can make all that back relatively quickly especially if gas hits $4/gallon again.

The under drive pulleys may not have done anything for the mileage but they were put on with the electric fans so it is impossible to tell. I check my mileage on every single tank and 90% of the time I use the same fuel pump and fill the tank to the exact same level so I have very very accurate readings over my 200K miles.

Mods that did not help mileage include a Tuner, FIPK, port and polish throttle body, 3" cat back exhaust, larger tires (making my effective gear ratio higher).

 

A good tune up may help, check your tire air pressure, needs to be what is recommended by the manufacturer not whats on the tire.

 

Congrats on the new truck! I just bought my 04 Heritage last Friday. I average about 15 - 16 mpg with my truck with my "normal" driving. Granted I have the 4.6, but you should be getting close. Things to check:
Fuel filter
Air filter
Tire pressure

What kind of driving do you do on average and how many miles are on it?

 

whats the electric fan for? and where do they go?

 

Ignore the electric fan post, that is a pandoras box that you do not want to open, and it does not save very much fuel. Your truck should be capable of reaching 16- 17 mpg without any of the mods listed, but if you want to spring for mods, here are the best values.

First off, the tuner. A tuner lets you optimize the timing and fuel trims more precisely. It can also help you get the most from other mods. I would rank a tuner as the number one mod to maximize economy.

Second would be a freer flowing catback. Don't go for a larger or loud one, but most commercially available kits can free up HP and optimize economy. For fuel economy, I recommend a baffled muffler as opposed to a straight through, through if you leave the stock cats in place, both will have similar results. With either system if you use too large a system, you will loose economy, 3" is too large, 2.5" would be better for gas mileage. If you modify the cats, you will probably loose economy, so leave the stock ones alone.

Underdrive pulleys can save some fuel under the right conditions, but for the most part these are almost exclusively a performance part. They can cause issues with the alternator. The stock pulleys should be fine.

The cover is an excellent idea, but a net type tailgate replacement is your best bet. Independent tests (including those done on Mythbusters) showed that the best was the net type tailgate (Mythbusters used an F-150 in their test, so expect the same result on your truck)

Polished intake components do not improve economy, they interfere with proper atomization, and they cause the air to stratify.

With the previous post claiming that the tuner did not help gas mileage, that would be because it is not set up properly. The tuner needs to lean out the mixture just slightly under light throttle or cruise conditions, to maximize economy. If the tune is set up wrong it will assume you want maximum power.

 

Electric fans replace the stock clutch fan on the engine. Almost all new vehicles now have them and they do help mileage. I am sure Troyers at Troyerperformace would love to hear about their tunes not being set up properly BTW. Also Mythbusters never tested a tonneau cover they simply tested the Tailgate up down myth.

I have hundreds of thousands of miles and documented numbers so take it for what it is worth.

 

Actually Mythbusters revisited the myth and used a tonneau cover the second time. That is also when they used the tailgate net.

When I first bought my truck, it had a tonneau cover on it and when I took it off I saw no difference in mileage. Maybe 0.1 or 0.2 mpg.

And I don't have any first-hand experience about e-fan mpg. But I do know for a fact that it will help with power a little bit. Put one on my buddy's dodge and there was a noticable difference when driving it.