This type of thread goes around every couple of months and pretty much the same lines of thinking come out. I respectively disagree on the Turbo charger is like a Mother-in-law. I love my turbo, don't care for the MIL...but like the turbo with out it I wouldn't have what I have to day; take your pick on the subject wife or truck. The biggest mileage killer is RPM...I keep my truck under 2k as much as reasonably possible and I'm still getting very high teens and low 20s day after day. Over the last 24 tanks I'm average right at 20.1 mpg.
I'm doing pretty much the same thing as you Cheezit. The biggest thing that the guys that are getting mileage similar to us...have going for them is they're rolling in 2WD trucks.

 

They do, but here is the irony, you may still not see any gains with economy tunes. In fact, the anecdotal evidence is that tunes that are more aggressive in nature tend to do better then those tunes written specifically for economy.

Despite all this, even if the OP or someone else "sees" MPG gains, all the variables that go into MPG calculations are coming into play, so it is very hard for "you" to pinpoint it to any one single mod or variable.

 

Nice Bike Jerry West was my rider I built and ran B Gas Turbo 958cc Low 8.30 168mph that was early 1980. 1984 ran 7.90 around 174mph can't remember I,m getting old. Jerry's now dead from cancer. I think you will find what you know about gas engines won't help a lot when it comes to the 6.0 this is a whole different world I wish it wasn't I Have 45yrs wrenching and building gas motors and I'm lost on Diesels. John

 

Now that the playoffs are over this is getting pretty lively.
MPG variations are all over the place because:
1. humans tend to exagerate (and guesstimate)
2. factors such as temperature; head/tail winds;
3.consistancy (driving for mileage for an entire tank is hard to do. A/C on; night driving
4. big one: gas station pumps are poorly calibrated (I've put 52litres into my 50l Civic tank)
5. fuel quality; fuel temperature
6. wind drag (tail gate up; windows down)
7. don't use the right MATH or even a calculator

I'm sure you canthink of a couple more.
I had 2000 Jetta TDI and had a consitant 30 mile highway commute.
Users of Fuleeconomy.gov (big site) were reporting 20-50% better economy than I could ever squeeze out. 42 mpg was my avg- several reported 60mpg.
MPG is the holly grail; the elusive pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Pysics is the only certainty boys
FYI I have magic beans that I spinkle in my tank and now I'm getting 50MPG.
Send me a stamp and I'll send you some!

 

Hey John,
You should know TJ Hoffmeister and Kent Stotz? Kent got me into Prostreet motorcycles and the madness of turbocharging bikes etc...Kent's son Frankie ride his bike now, Kent just tunes for the most part. Nice to see the name Jerry West, damn it's been a LONG time! LOL

 

My first mods may come in the form of improving fuel economy. I typically get around 18 mpg highway and 15 in town.

Another thing that really gives you fuel economy gains you can hang your hat on is the Ford brand Cetane Boost fuel additive. Out of several fuel addtives I've tried, this was the only one that gave me fuel economy improvements. I typically get 1-1.5 mpg improvement with this stuff farely consistantly. I highly recommend it.

 

I'll chime in on this one.... (maybe a bit late, but.....)

8000-lb 4x4 rolling brick. The aerodynamics suck.

Cruise control and 65 MPH is about the best balance between productivity (miles covered) and economy (good mileage). I consistently get 18 MPG with mine doing this. Going up to 70 drops to about 16-16.5. Faster than that, it starts dropping off exponentially.

Around town is going to be 12-14, regardless of what you do. Too many starts/stops/etc to make it efficient.

Cruise control, and accelerate to speed as if there were a fresh egg under your accelerator pedal.

Oh, air your tires to max sidewall pressure, not the "comfy" pressure. You'll reduce the rolling resistance considerably. Other than that, there's not much you can do in the "mod" department. The 2006's (and 2007's, like mine) don't respond well at all to mileage tuning, and only moderately to power tuning; the factory sucked all the variability (and thus tuneability) out of the FICM to keep the EPA happy.

You can go the route that Ford did with the 2008+'s and 2011's, and reduce the gear ratio (to a 3.31) but doing both ends will run you into the $5000 range, that buys a LOT of fuel for a daily driver.

(am I a broken record now? )

-blaine

 

I knew TJ but don,t think I ever met Kent. A lot of the riders and owner are no longer with us. I owned Action Cycle Engineering in Detroit. To bad that the records of IDBA seem to be gone. Most people don't know who Mike Bruso is and many of the old greats. Jerry was one of the best I miss him every day. Jerry and I used to bump heads against Jack Omalley and John Ball from Orient Express. I hear Jacks gone now. Best of luck in your racing and your new truck. Read a article that said injector oil 200 to 1 will increase your mileage 1 mile per gal. John

 

That Article was in Diesel Power Mag the tested other additives and printed the results. You can bring up the article on their web site.FTE is a great site to learn about Diesels. Also some great people who will share what they know.

 

Thank you, John, really nice to hear from a fellow enthusiast. Joey Hahn has O/E now, hell of a tuner too!
Kent used to crew with TJ when he was running funny bike and owned Mr.Turbo. Kent went on to run the first 200mph pass on a Prostreet Bike (no bar, DOT tire), and is pretty much the ambassador of Prostreet.
IDBA used to be the ****, but just like everything else, politics and competition from AMA Prostar (now AMA Dragbike) pretty much ended that all.
Thanks again, keep in touch!

Matt

 

Some people have reported a gain in MPG with a tuner but some say the MPG stayed the same... I would assume you you gain fuel mileage with a tuner.

 

What that also speaks to is the low cetane level of the fuel you are using --- and if that is the case, there is a bona fide improvement to bringing cetane up closer to 55.

Think most places are averaging around 43ish cetane.



Very few outside of the industry realize just how good a job engineers of diesels have done and how few places there are to make dramatic new gains.

I can visualize a future where stationary diesels can go past 60% efficiency, and on road diesels realistically approach 50% in parts of their torque curve.

But that is into serious clean sheet designs.


Inherently, an internal combustion engine loses a good chunk of the energy in the fuel from pumping losses, friction, and the overhead of keeping the plant warm.



I have never met a team that was great at tuning for hp / performance do well tuning for fuel economy.

 

That is why when you go to FICM tuning(not the "hot" FICM mod, so gearloose don't get in a tizzy yet) the first thing that most places do is put the strategies from the 03-04 years on "your" truck.

 

LOL... FICM software (not hardware) tuning is generally OK by my books... as long as you don't do the inductive heating to excess.

 

I don't think they actually use that one, but I can't swear to it with regard to all the places that offer FICM tuning. I know mine doesn't have that one.