another record. 13 mpg over 200 some miles all highway. my mostly city average has been around 11.5 mpg.
and I've found the speed and rpm that makes the miles skyrocket with this truck. around 56 mph at 1550 rpm. i can keep the instant gauge well into and over 18-25 while steadily cruising on a level road, without a draft. anywhere else and the truck gets no further than 14. at 1550 rpm i can get a lot of usable torque without hurting economy too much. so that rpm must be this engines most efficient brake specific fuel consumption rpm. i tried looking around for a bsfc map for the 8.0 v10's and got nowhere...
I've been thinking about getting one of those plug in power programmers. from all the reviews its either gained a few hp or a few mpg's, depending on the tune you flash the computer with. kinda pricey though at $350 or so for a so-called "good one". then again for the $1000 (probably more) transmission swap i want to do it might be cost effective. but, from what I've googled, the v10's with a manual get 18+ without trying, so perhaps some math needs to be done...
with 10 mpg baseline and $2 a gallon.
price per mile at 10 mpg; $.20
price per mile at 12 mpg; $.17
price per mile at 15 mpg; $.13
price per mile at 17 mpg; $.12
price per mile at 20 mpg; $.10
price per mile at 22 mpg; $.09
price per mile at 24 mpg; $.08
price per mile at 26 mpg; $.07
current savings per 300 miles.... with aerotopper and grill block...
at 12 avg; $9
possible savings with tuner. estimated at 15 mpg; $21
possible savings with manual transmission estimated at 18-20 mpg; $24-30
possible savings with tuner and manual transmission, estimated 20-22; $30-33
while lowered a few inches, manual trans, tuner and some other bits at 24-26; $35-39
so. as i sit right now, to make what i already have into the truck pay itself off, it will take another 1500 miles or so to be in the black.
with the transmission swap at an estimated $2000 finished, and a $350 tuner, rolling at 24 mpg, would take around 9,000 miles to pay itself off.
i probably did some math wrong there somewhere, i am no wizard. but it all sounds about right.
so it would take about a year for all my planed mods to pay themselves off. which isn't too bad as i plan to drive this truck for a good while.
i just had another thought, if i waited to too all this work, vs doing it all asap, what would the total fuel costs be.
at 12 avg, over 10,000 miles; $1700
at 24 avg, over 10,000 miles; $800
dollars spent with fuel and all planned mods; $3500 ish
dollars spent as i sit right now; well, $1700...
hmm......
how about over 100,000 miles... $2 a gallon.
as i sit now; $17,000
with mods; $10,000, including the transmission and bits.
so after looking at things long term, doing the swap would be beneficial. and the inevitable cost of fuel going up in the future, would save even more.
fuel costs alone.....
how about $3 a gal, over 100,000 miles?
now; $25,000
with mods; $12,500
at 26; $11,500
$4 a gallon?
now; $33,300
with mods; $16,600
at 26; $15,384
$5 a gallon?
now; $41,600
with mods; $20,883
26; $19.230
i need to get busy...