dodge ram

[darcane]

Originally Posted by ramman360

I'm doing all of that neutral and easy driving I'm not going to turn three engine off tho because it's a auto what about h2o

Did you read through and understand all the 100+ tips and 65+ mods? People keep giving you pointers and you seem to be blowing them off. If you were actually "doing all that..." you'd probably be exceeding 11mpg, even with your truck. But you gotta put some effort into it, there's not just some easy gimmick to make a huge boost in fuel economy.

If you're unwilling to put some effort in it and you must be "mopar or no car"... buy a cheap 5-speed Neon and commute in that. Use the truck only when you need to do truck things.

[2000mc]

20000miles 11mpg = 1818.2 gallons x $3.75 = $6818.25
20000miles 25mpg = 800 gallons x $3.75 = $3000
6818 - 3000 = $3818 = your new budget to find a car that gets 25mpg or better and pay for itself in 20000miles

[campisi]

I sold my 99 Dodge Ram Quad Cab (short bed) 4X4 last December. I consistently was able to get 15mpg out of it just by being smart about how I drove it. On straight highway trips I'd get 16.5mpg. I had a K&N drop-in filter (which was useless and a waste of money). I ran stock size AT tires (265X70X16) aired-up to about 48PSI. Just an FYI.

[rmay635703]

I have a 318 half ton auto dodge (just as big of a pig) and can top a little over 20mpg in the summer time with slow and carefull driving.

Your Dodge gets the best MPG with
1. No stops
2. With Quick Acceleration (approx 3/4 throttle) but not excessive accel if you will be stopping right away (conserve) momentum.
3. Driving steady around 35-45mph
4. Cost in neutral to about 8-10mph before stopping
5. Use standard stock size tires air to about 50psi.

If your tires are bigger than stock your odometer and speedo WILL be off, you will need to use this to determine your REAL FE. Also my dodge lost about 25% fuel economy with big tires.

Anyway Dodges your vintage always have bad intake gaskets ($50 fix +3-5mpg once fixed) and the transmissions electronics are always screwed up, also the rear pinion angles screw up and should be changed if they are near binding (this removes 33% of your power if they are wrong) Brake drag is also a big problem on 99-03 Dodges, align the thing, fix the intake free up the brakes as much as possible and set the driveshaft angles to the most fuel efficient position and post back here.

Other than that Dodge Autos are POOR for MPG, the transmissions have terrible shift points and are slushy and your idle speed is way higher than it should be. Your truck with an MT and 2WD would be 180degrees opposite on gas mileage. (15mpg summer without trying)
Might be worth 250-$500 in parts plus your time and effort to put in a 5sp stick.

Good Luck
Ryan

[slowmover]

Well done, Ryan. I used to have a 2001 V8-318 SLT ClubCab. No power and no mpg. Traded it for the bigger, heavier can-do-more-work 3/4T in sig. All your recommendations are spot on. I'd add changing over to the SPORT headlights with a Daniel Stern harness as well.

[grswat]

Glad to see another Mopar truck on here. Don't listen to the others about getting a different or second vehicle.

Depending on your skills/budget swapping to a manual trans will get you big gains.

If you go with an electric fan make sure you get a good and powerful one. My Dakota has a 16 and 2 12s on an all aluminum 3 core radiator and it still isn't enough in traffic on hot days.

Not sure what kind of capabilities your tuner has but you could play around with different settings on it and see what gains you can come up with.

[GRU]

The key to better fuel economy is sacrifice. You will need to sacrifice time, looks, speed or comforts. Sometimes big, sometimes small. Unless you are ready to do that you will probably not get more MPG out of that truck