Many of the recommendations apply to every vehicle:
- keep rpms down
- anticipate stops and slow down early
- keep tires inflated as high as allowable/tolerable
- keep fluids clean, synthetic fluids if possible

Diesel specifics:

- cetane booster

PSD specifics

- keep the stock air filter, it filters way better than aftermarket and it flows better at our rpm ranges
- stock intake keeps dust particles from dusting the turbo and then you have to clean/rebuild it
- ensure proper fuel pressure

Also you need to work the PSD occasionally to exercise the turbo vanes and to clean out the carbon.

2wd and like cheezit i can see 21+ on hiway going 70+/-. Going 75 it drops to 19 +/-

 

I, obviously was speaking of gasoline engines. I wasn't speaking directly to diesel engines and I should have taken into consideration that instead of "fuel
economy", I should have realized it was about diesel economy. I am sorry that I made myself seem, uneducated. Keeping the RPM's up during shifting is necessary to maintain steady fuel mileage. Instead of double clutching and other techniques that some truckers use. If it is an automatic, I'd have a hard lood at the gear ratio.

 

Somehow I missed this thread all along here.

1st off:
Welcome EXTREMEFUN1300 ! I frankly don't understand why some of our FTE'ers come off so hard on a new member . I think your question(s) are fine and somehow we've gotten away from what used to be our mantra here of: the only stupid question is the one that goes unasked.

You have a sweet looking truck and even sweeter looking bike, Matt. You mention only needing to tow 7k, so it is very probable to get away with taller gearing, and since you are a motorhead you likely can do the work yourself, $5k is an uninformed and idiotically high estimate to convert gearing -- you are so low miles that you likely only need a mini install kit. Most of our trucks were ordered with 3.73 gearing, is that what you have? Take into consideration the terrain you tow in as well.

If you don't need the 4wd, a 2wd will get much better mileage and do the same job. Height will kill mileage as others have mentioned so stay away from lift kits, big tires, etc.

Most of the other mileage tips have been covered, but something I think folks have missed is your post #11 where you talk about tips on keeping the truck running/reliable, so let's go down that path, shall we?...

If you start searching on Bullet Proofing you'll get scads of stuff that can be done, both proactively or when you see an issue cropping up. 1st and foremost is to get set up for monitoring your truck's vitals. Some of the slickest stuff out there are apps written for the iphone/ipad and droid phone/tablet worlds. For the apple side the gear you want is Dash Boss and it's data gateway; for Droids it's Torque Pro and a bluetooth ODBII device. Both of these have interfaces that just plug into your truck's ODBII port and both will give you many of the extended Ford PIDs (identifiers for sensors custom to Ford that are above and beyond the standard OBDII set). One very nice thing Dash Boss allows is adding in external inputs -- there are some things there is no sensor for (stock) so folks add them. Other folks use ScangaugeII (SGII) which is a simple text based system that is well understood by many here, but tough to set up and limited in what it does.

Let me run down a list of stuff to consider for an '06:
you'll want to monitor the voltages on your battery/charging system and FICM (Fuel Injection Control Module). Generally the 6.0s came with undersized 110A alternators (unless it was ordered with the high output or dual alt set-up) and those 110A units have a tough time even keeping the batts charged and low voltage has lead to early failures of the FICMs. You often can predict FICM failure by watching the main voltage and if it's dropping under 45V, it's going out. There are several places that repair them inexpensively (compared to a Ford part) and one of the favorites is Ed at FICMrepair.com

The stock fuel pressure regulator has shown to run (at best) close to being too low, which will harm the injectors, and Ford came out with a simple upgraded spring to raise the fuel pressure. Some folks check the pressure 1st, some just do the upgrade (like me) since it's cheap and easy (less than $50). It's called the "blue spring".

clean fuel and clean oil is essential and using Ford filters or the OEM (Racor) is required. Many folks run synthetic oil, I think it's more needed in cold climates. I'm running a blend, so there you go.

There are potential issues with both the EGR cooler and Oil cooler from getting clogged on the coolant side. They run in series with the oil cooler getting coolant 1st and then it goes to the EGR cooler. Both coolers have fine passages and our motors are known to have casting sand swirling around in the coolant. So 1st you monitor your Coolant temp in relation to your Oil temp. General rule of thumb is at operating temp and cruising at 65 on a flat highway your oil should be no more than 15 deg above coolant temp -- higher indicates your oil cooler is likely starting to clog. Extreme clogging can reduce the flow to the EGR cooler such that it will fail and you can get coolant in the intake or exhaust -- worst case is enough coolant on shutdown get's into one or more cylinders and causes hydro-lock, bent rods, blow head gaskets... Many folks either change the EGR cooler to a stronger design or delete it. The oil cooler can also fail and you get oil in the coolant and/or vice versa. Flushing your coolant helps prevent this as well as running a coolant filter.

There are a couple of areas on the High Pressure Oil System (runs the injectors) that have had issues and have Ford redesigned parts: the Snap-To-Connect (STC) fitting right off the HPO Pump can have a sudden and catastrophic failure where it blows off and cracks a cast aluminum engine plate ($$s to fix) and then there are dummy plugs ans standpipes on the Oil Rails that have had o-ring problems that are now upgraded.

As long as you are not messing with tuners, you are unlikely to suffer head gasket issues. Particularly if your truck is a late build '06, as they did have some problems with the robots torquing the head bolts improperly at the engine factory that was corrected around the end of '05 (mid model year '06).


Most of the rest is just keeping up on the maintenance and the 6.0 is one hell of a nice work horse.

There are lots of tips and tricks in the 6.0 Tech folder, so take a tour through there.

Lots of nice and extremely knowledgable people on this forum, so hope you stick around, learn, enjoy and likely you'll end up helping someone else out down the road...

 

Matt, I am looking at building a Novak style water/alcohol injection system for my old 1981 F100 with a 302. Many have done it and it costs about $7 -$8 to build the Novak style. It is supposed to give you about 2 mpg and more power by raising your effective octane rating to about 115. I am really interested in this and will have it done in about 2 weeks. I will give a report on what I find. My old 1981 is perfect for this mod because it doesn't have a computer that will try to override what I have done. This is a very low tech way to go. But I have read all the info and it has been done by quite a few people.
I know it sounded like snake oil to me at first too. But since it is complete DIY and no one is making anything off this particular way to go, I feel pretty safe. I don't know if that is what you were looking for, but it was just exactly what I was looking for. NOw if this works for me, I may go to the more expensive DIY system where I use the smog pump and even change out the pistons. But for now I will be happy if I can just get a little more power, a little cleaner engine, and 2 mpg more than I get now. Baby steps for me!