Hi Everyone,

I hate my DPF. Every time I see a regen on the dash computer I picture expensive diesel being wasted. I'm looking for real world information from those of you who have the spartan or some other DPF delete kit. What I'm wondering:

- What is your post-delete MPG?

- Is the kit a DIY or did you have someone do it?

- Have you been in for warranty work after that and gotten any grief from
your dealer?

As with most of you, I haven't done this because I'm concerned about warranty issues. As diesel continues to rise though, It may become necessary.

FYI, I have an F450 so any delete info on that truck would be especially appreciated!

Mike

 

As far as I know it will be the same process to delete the DPF on your 450 as it was on my 350 and same on the 250. I went with Pro-Flo exhaust and Spartan and am very happy with both. The full exhaust swap took less than 2hrs with 2 guys. The Spartan was much easier and it does all the work for you after you plug it into your ECM.

MPG reports are going to vary with everyone because even after tuning, your MPG's will completely depend on how you drive the truck. I drive mine hard and fast and thusly I saw my MPG improve from around 14-15 on the highway to around 17-18. If I drive the speed limit I can see that go as high as 22-23. I don't really calculate anything around town cause I think it's just a waste of time because there is no consistency at all with city driving. More important to me than the MPG was how it changed the attitude of the truck. It's a completely different truck now and I at least have the confidence to pass people on the highway without having to worry about whether or not it's going to hesitate. And it's fun to see the guys in the sports cars almost cry when you blow by them in an 8500lb tank, haha.

I also went with an S&B Cold Air Intake to help it breathe better as there have been reports that the tuners can't get enough air through the factory box. My entire setup was DIY and my truck has run perfectly for the last 27,000km and I've only thrown one code. And that had nothing to do with the tuner because it was due to snow piling up inside the CAI when I was driving through a blizzard. All in all I am very happy with the mods and consider it money well spent in my books. Even with a small gain in MPG the system will easily pay for itself within a year or 2.

I have brought my truck into the dealer since and they saw the setup and told me they would not say a word. I was in for work on my tire pressure sensors so they might have changed their story had I been in for related issues but who knows? They did tell me to be careful if I went to another dealer because they can red flag you in Fords system if they want and then your warranty is void so that is something to keep in mind. The pros out weighed the cons to me so I went ahead and did it and never looked back. IMO it's the best money you can spend on these trucks. I'm sure other guys will respond with thier results as well so best of luck with the decision.

 

You get 23mpg?

 

Yes I saw that on my last trip. Speed limit the entire trip and nice summer driving. Truck seems to get 2-3MPG better in summer probably due to less additives in the fuel. Highest I saw in winter with speed limit driving was 19MPG.

 

23 MPG is *awesome*. And I drive my truck like a grandpa. I didn't even think about the performance improvement -- brandon - do you think that's due to the tune or losing the DPF?

One last question -- how much different is the exhaust note?

Thanks Brandon for posting so much info.

Mike

 

Hey dude I am in the exact same boat with my 450 and this was great info.

 

Are these MPGs being hand calculated or are you just going off the built-in meter in the display?

 

I installed the spartan dpf/cat delete with 4 inch mbrp dual exhaust, and s&b cold air intake about 4,000 miles ago. Hands down the best money I've ever spent on a mod, and in my opinion the best thing I could have done for my truck. Mines a F350, I'm sure all the 6.4's are the same. The kit was DIY, although don't expect it to be a gravy job the first time. I thought it was rather a pain in the a##, but just like anything, if you have to switch it back to stock it will be alot easier the 2nd time. Hardest part was getting the exhaust in, mostly because I did it myself and the dpf and cat weigh a ton and you kind of have to weasel it over the crossmembers. As far as mpg, I was getting between 11 and 12 stock. I am now up to 17.5 hand calculated, and all of my traveling is stop and go city driving. If it were highway I'm sure it would be in the 20 range easily. The main reason I did it was for the mpg gains and mostly because the constant regeneration was driving me insane! I never imagined the amount of power I would gain. It is honestly like a total different truck. And there is no more "turbo lag" when you first step on it. As far as sound, it sounds great. If I'm going through town I just stay off the throttle, and if I want to let her bark out in the country, she definetly does that. I've heard alot of obnoxious diesels, mostly dodges that sound like crap, but this sounds nothing like that. It honestly sounds like a precision tuned diesel. In my case I put about 20,000 miles on my truck and didn't have one warrantee issue, so I decided it was worth the risk to put this setup on, because I knew I didn't have a lemon or problem truck. That was the hardest part of my decision though, because you know if you blow the engine or tranny with this on you're screwed. But I drive like a grandpa also, so I figured the chances of that would be slim to none. I've read on here that guys beat the crap out of these trucks and they take every bit of abuse so I think they're built to handle the extra power. There are alot of older threads on here that were extremely helpful to me when I was making my decision, so check them out. Spartan was great to deal with and customer service was top notch. Good luck with your decision

 

To the responders-

What Spartan kit do you have? HP tunes, dpf or dpf/cat deletes and what hp is providing the mpg #'s

 

My buddies truck that I do all the work on has the Spartan Phalanx with the DPF delete. We installed the tuner and delete pipe a year ago next week. This is a really easy process to do. It takes longer to download the stock file and flash the computer with the new tune than it does to delete the DPF. If you are doing a full exhaust, it will take longer. Truck is a Job 1 08 with 34k miles. It has an 18" lift and 40" tires. Obviously this thing is going to suck around town, but on the highway its insane. Stock at 70 mph, best it would do was 8-9. Running the delete and 175hp tune, it bumped it up to 13-14. Best tank was a trip to Gatlinberg running the 210 tune. First tank had 378 miles on it and we topped it off with 25.2 gallons for a handcalculated 15 mpg. Not bad turning 40's. As for warranty work, it has been in twice. Once for the fuel tank bracket recall and the Venturi T and new radiator. It was deleted and tuned and the dealer didn't say a thing. Second time the TCM died and I towed it in. I put the DPF back on in the parking lot and they helped me roll it in a bay and replaced the TCM and put the updated Ford flash and sent us on our way. Not all dealers will work with you this way, but we are lucky and ours does. It is definately worth the investment for the Spartan setup. Hope this helps.

 

I have the spartan dpf and cat delete. I got the 150, 175, and 210 tunes, and I spent the extra couple hundred dollars for the 275 and I'm glad I did. I've been running mostly on the 275, tuning down occasionally to the 150 for towing. The higher horsepower tunes get the best mpg.

 

You're welcome for the info, I try to be as helpful as I can because that is what this site is for. The power improvement to me was almost worth more than the MPG gains but in this case we win all around. My gains are completely due to the tune and I would guess you might gain 2-3 MPG (might be guessing high here) by just deleting the DPF. The exhaust does sound different but I ran the muffler that my Pro Flo came with so it's not stupid loud on the highway. It has the 550hp hair dryer sound around town but as others have said you can still make it bark on the highway if you want.
All my #'s are HAND CALCULATED, my lie-o-meter said an avg of 30 MPG on my last trip and that hand calculated to around 22.8 MPG. DO NOT beleive your dash after the tune because although it looks good and gives you that "money well spent" feeling, it's not accurate. But not to worry cause once you hand calculate and drive the truck you'll still have the same feeling. All of my #'s are with the 275hp tune as that is all I have run on my truck since the day I put it in. I should remind all those that are reading that this is also on my stock suspension, stock wheels truck. Don't do like some guys who run this setup on their lifted trucks with 37" tires and then complain that they are only getting 16-17 MPG, common sense can only take a guy so far with that. Good luck to all who are considering this setup.

 

I have the SCT DPF delete and run it on stock tune, so no added HP. I have an 08 F450 4X4 with 4.88 rear end and I now get 9.6 mpg towing a fully loaded stock trailer where as before I would get 7.5. with no load on the HWY I get around 15mpg at 70 mph.

hope this helps

 

So is it a fact, that the higher HP tunes have the best mileage? Seems counterintuitive, but that's great if it's the case.

Great feedbacks. I told myself, if I can get to 30K without a major warranty issue, I'll be getting the Spartan. Only about 10K miles to go.

 

Yes the higher HP tunes seem to get the best MPG. Seemed odd when I first heard it but I had it explained to me that the higher HP tunes make the diesel work more and keep them running warmer and that's what a diesel likes. That is just the basic explanation and I know there is more to it than that but that is all I needed to know. At least that is what I heard, maybe someone else can give you a better reason?