1,180 Mile Tank

[darcane]

Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave

Not to take anything away from the guy with the Excursion (it is impressive), but there's a big difference between getting your in-cab display to read 32.8 mpg one time cruising down the highway and averaging that kind of mileage over 1,000 miles of commuting. My best overhead reading on my 40 mile trip to work is 44.7 mpg. Was that a good day? Yes. Do I believe I was actually getting almost 45 mpg? I wish.

I've gotten my average mpgs to read over 100mpg on the Ultra-Gauge in my Silverado. Of course, it's when I coast down the long downhill next to the gas station after I fill up.

Congrats on the big numbers! I can't get anywhere near that in my gasser.

[slowmover]

Yeah, DD, on the EX. I can find ways to get 30+ mpg on certain legs of single trips, long enough to fill up and proclaim victory.

Big congrats on the new numbers!!!

Have you looked at heaters for all fluids? Engine oil, coolant, axle and transmission?

Spent a short time in CL-8 Sterling daycab with temp gauges for the above. Same route, same conditions. Took over 40-miles for heavier fluids to come to 175F (pulling a fairly heavy 57' trailer) on level ground, 90F ambient at 65-mph.

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[Diesel_Dave]

Yeah, heaters are one of the next thing on my list of mods. Coolant heater will be the first because it's already on the engine. All I had to do was get the cord for it ($15 on Amazon). I have the cord now, I just need to screw it on. The thing is I can reach the heater hookup (with my hand), but I think I'll have to take the oil filter off to actually get it off (which I have to do shortly anyway because I'm overdue for an oil change).

I'm looking into using the coolant heater for a few reasons. Since we moved, my commute is now 25 miles rather than 40, so the warm-up time affects me proportionately more than it used to. I started carefully watching my coolant temp warm up times after I intalled the upper grill block. In the morning, with the ambient temp 60 to 70 F, it still takes around 2 miles before the temp gauge moves (140 F) and 10 miles before I get up to 200 F coolant temp. Once I get up to temp the FE definitely improves.

What I don't know is how much of the FE warm-up penalty is the coolant temp vs. oil temp vs. tranny temp vs. axle temp, etc. If I had to guess order of importance is oil, coolant, tranny,axle, but that's just a guess. Of course if I pre-heat the coolant then my oil should warm up faster as well. Eventually, I'm thinking up getting some of those pad heaters for the oil pan--maybe even the tranny & axle too (we'll see).

BTW, anyone know the cheapest way to monitor temps (oil, tranny, axle, etc.)?

[DonR]

Mechanical oil temperature guages. You may run into a problem on the long runs from the tranny & axle. That may force you to go with an electronic guage.

Auto Meter or try summit racing.

[Tygen1]

Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave

Not to take anything away from the guy with the Excursion (it is impressive), but there's a big difference between getting your in-cab display to read 32.8 mpg one time cruising down the highway and averaging that kind of mileage over 1,000 miles of commuting. My best overhead reading on my 40 mile trip to work is 44.7 mpg. Was that a good day? Yes. Do I believe I was actually getting almost 45 mpg? I wish.

I talked with the Excursion guy a bit thru PM. He did full fills on that trip, it was over a very long distand, all highway travel and the overhead matched his actual very cloesly. He seems to have been very honest in his reporting. I agree that the overhead is usually optomistic, however his tuner seems to have calibrated it.

I have an Excursion as well and have had my overhead read as high as 35 mpg, but the actual was 18.xx. My tuner threw the Overhead reading way off. I have never done any highway trips so I don't know what that would be, but I average 17mpg getting grocerys and running around town. I'd estimate my Excursion could get 24mpg on a pure highway trip.

Please keep on pushing the limits with your Cummins, I'm excited to see how far you can push it.....Is 40mpg possible

[Tygen1]

[QUOTE=BTW, anyone know the cheapest way to monitor temps (oil, tranny, axle, etc.)?[/QUOTE]

Most of the dash mounted screen tuners can display OBDII info like this. So does the Scangauge and similar devices. Axle temp is probably not and stock sensor. I'd just get a cheap Laser type tempature gauge and just point it at what ever I want to know the tempature of....tires, diff, radiators, etc...

I run an engine block heater, oil pan heater and trans pan heater on my ZX2. In cold weather, if I don't use them, I can see as much as a 4mpg difference in my single commute mpg. If your gonna get heaters, I'd heat everything to get the best possible results. I also run my heaters year round. I got 10 dollar stick on heaters for my oil pans and they work great. I start out around 100 degrees on all my fluids

[Diesel_Dave]

Originally Posted by Tygen1

Please keep on pushing the limits with your Cummins, I'm excited to see how far you can push it.....Is 40mpg possible

Thanks for the encouragement. I'm not sure about 40 mpg...but I intend to find out

[ExplodingDinosaurs]

If you don't need real-time temperatures, Harbor Freight has an IR thermometer for cheap.

I plug my Dodge diesel in religiously. I put it on a timer so it does less time in warmer weather. I haven't noticed that it helps or hurts the fuel economy, but I haven't done a rigorous test, either. Without the heater it takes one to two miles to get as hot as with the heater. The dash screen will say between "< 100" (very cold night and parked outside) to as high as about 125 F.

The motor is a huge 1200 lb (544 kg) lump of metal. I have noticed it throws off heat for a long time. One question I had was would it be worth throwing a blanket over the motor (after it cooled a bit so as to not melt anything).

AC Propulsion has said part of their secret for great range on their electric car was the charger used a field coil on the motor, which then warmed the tranny.

Originally Posted by Diesel_Dave

Yeah, heaters are one of the next thing on my list of mods. Coolant heater will be the first because it's already on the engine. All I had to do was to get the cord for it ($15 on Amazon). I have the cord now, I just need to screw it on. The thing is I can reach the heater hookup (with my hand), but I think I'll have to take the oil filter off to actually get it off (which I have to do shortly anyway because I'm overdue for an oil change).

I'm looking into using the coolant heater for a few reasons. Since we moved, my commute is now 25 miles rather than 40, so the warm-up time affects me proportionately more than it used to. I started carefully watching my coolant temp warm up times after I intalled the upper grill block. In the morning, with the ambient temp 60 to 70 F, it still takes around 2 miles before the temp gauge moves (140 F) and 10 miles before I get up to 200 F coolant temp. Once I get up to temp the FE definitely improves.

What I don't know is how much of the FE warm-up penalty is the coolant temp vs. oil temp vs. tranny temp vs. axle temp, etc. If I had to guess order of importance is oil, coolant, tranny,axle, but that's just a guess. Of course if I pre-heat the coolant then my oil should warm up faster as well. Eventually, I'm thinking up getting some of those pad heaters for the oil pan--maybe even the tranny & axle too (we'll see).

BTW, anyone know the cheapest way to monitor temps (oil, tranny, axle, etc.)?

[slowmover]

Heaters have been on my list for nearly thirty years, since reading (and re-reading) Sikorsky's Drive It Forever. But as a South Texan and n a commuter but rarely, it's not ever been quite practical. The cost of one of these Cummins TurboDiesels has me re-thinking it.

Cord Install Ideas

The Farther North, the Higher the Recommendation of KIMM HOTSTART

HOTSTART

CTD Block Heater Controller

WOLVERINE Heater

ESPAR D5 Install on CTD

ESPAR: Impressions After Installation

In a discussion some years back on BITOG was the oil analyst recommendation to avoid cooking the oil; above 150F starts to be a problem due to localized hot spots.

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[slowmover]

Came across this [temps] report on TDR:

Thanks for the reply, your 3.73's will make a big difference in 6th versus my 3.55's so yes, you probably can pull 6% with 18k.

I just hauled a 22k gcw load to Showlow from Snowflake, only 28 miles of 55 and 65 mph highway and stayed in 5th for test purposes. I set the cruise at 65 and on a one mile 6% grade I dropped to 62. I think at 2500 rpm I was over my trq. peak. Max EGT's was 1000 * post, at 28 psi boost. The next time I will slow down to 55 or 60 and try the same test.

When I arrived in Showlow I checked the gear box temps. The rear axle was 130*, the transfer case was 120*, the tranny was 150* and the engine oil pan was 160*, water was 190*.

Pulling Bobcat on GN flatbed