Tuner recommendations for better MPG ?
 

I have a 06 f250 6.0L power stroke diesel. Currently getting 12MPG (city) 15MPG (highway)

Looking to get better MPG and heard a tuner and an intake would be the best route to go.

Looking for recommendations for the tuner and intake from those who've had success with their's.

Thanks.

An aftermarket air intake is a terrible idea on these engines, the filtering/flow capabilities of the stock setup is second to none and are good to 500 HP. The SCT tuner is the way to go with custom tunes, there are some tune writers that write economy tunes, you can also get a FICM tune for economy.

I agree 100% with Brett on the use of the factory intake. It is the best for our trucks. I do however believe that to get more power you must burn more fuel and air. There fore in my opinion more power and better mpg's is an oxymoron.

Hey bud, is your 6.0 bone stock, bulletproof, or somewhere in the middle? An atlas 40 ficm tune is good for 40horse, there's also an atlas 80 and Hercules tune for your ficm. Sct programer is by far the go to tuner for the 6.0. It won't roast your transmission like those adjust on the fly tuners (stay away from that style) and stick with the stock air filter setup.

I don't know that you can find a tuner or tune that will give you a mileage benefit that would justify the cost of the tuner and tune. Any improvements I have seen are minimal. That's just the nature of the beast with a 6.0 as I can see it. You have to figure, you're powering 8k# of truck down the road.
Your mileage does seem a little low to me, however... Mine gets an average of 16 mpg, mountain and town driving. On the open road, with flat ground, I can get around 18. Towing 12K# I get about 11 mpg. Once, unloaded, I even hit 20mpg on the highway, but that was mostly down hill and a tail wind LOL. Might be something else going on with your truck. But then again they all seem to get their own mileage and that spread is pretty variable it seems. Mostly due to individual driving habits I figure.

Start with a odb2 gauge, scangauge2 is popular in fte, or the newer smartphone/ios phone/tablets with bluetooth to odb2 adaptor.

The stock gauges are useless at telling you much. You want to ensure you have healthy engine, you might have bad tstat which which will cause over fueling since engine never gets to proper temp. Also a fuel
pressure sender and analog gauge to ensure proper fuel pressure.

Plus monitor the ect vs. Eot delta to determine health of oil cooler.


Imo, ensure things are healthy before spending on tuners.

Very well said ^^^^ The mileage does seam a little low get a monitor if you don't already and see if everything is really healthy

I run the street tune that came with my SCT Livewire, I don't run my truck hard and don't go over 75 on the highways but I get get up to 21.5 mpg with it but I draft the semi a lot ........... and that's hand calulated

When I first bought the truck in my signature, I was unimpressed by the fuel economy. I eventually figured out that the engine coolant temp was not going above 140 degrees because the thermostat was stuck open. After replacing the thermostat, my mileage improved and noticed a small improvement in power too.

Overall the best MPG is running stock IMHO.

I get the best economy running stock on the highway. I do see an improvement in MPG using a couple different tunes for straight city driving (likely from faster turbo spool etc), but the highway MPG takes a dip.

12 City and 15 highway is pretty bad, unless that is with the latest strategy flash.

Josh

202,000
 

When I had all of the work done on my truck recently, I had the latest flash installed as well. Was this a mistake?:-huh

The latest flash is good for cold starts, etc but sucks for MPG.

Either way, 15 mpg highway is pretty bad unless you're talking 15 mpg @ 85 mph

Josh

My 05 is a 4X2 and gets 12 to 15 around town and 17 to a high of 21 highway. Towing the 31' 5er it's 11 to 13 highway. I agree with getting gauges to see what is going on with your engine. If you have a 4X4 it will be less but by how much I have no clue. Incidentally, if you do a lot of short trips where the engine doesn't come up to full heat soaked temps, and not by the factory gages, there's a good chance you'll never get out of the single digit range. Diesels use heat and compression to get their economy. A cold running engine will never be economical unless it's being driven over a cliff.

I appreciate the responses.

Looks like some of this stuff is over my head.

Anyone near Boston or southern NH that I can pay to help fix the problem ?

Thanks.

Excellent thread gentlemen. I am also in the market for a new tuner for power / mileage (in that order). I currently have a diablo predator (I have ran it since I drove it off the lot) and not a huge fan. 2005 F250 6.0 with 170,000 miles. All stock with exception of the stud kit. I am looking at the SCT tuner and a 4" straight pipe turbo back.
Any suggestions on SCT model and Exhaust would be welcome.

Welcome to FTE
Everyone will have different opinion on which tune writer, they are all good, I think it's best to talk to a couple of them and see who you feel the most comfortable with then buy the SCT through them you can get a better deal on it and tunes in a package.

don't have tunes but do have a 4" banks......wow!

Don't get scared off! There is a fairly steep learning curve with modern diesels. Which is why you need to learn about them. Many shops have no idea and will feed you a line of bull. Start in the Tech Folder https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/3...ch-folder.html. Read up about the ScanGauge II, it can save you a lot of money in repairs.