increase f350 mpg
 

hello every one currently i have a 99 f350 4x4 with a 7.3, it has 4.10 gears open dif front rear automatic built with a 1200 rpm stall, 4" turbo back and a ts performance chip and i run amsoil in everything diff trans and engine. i understand this is a heavy truck currently i drive it real easy try not to go over 65 especially if i am pulling. i own a small company in Miami where i mainly do weld repairs and hydraulic work on industrial equipment. my truck has my compressor welder and alot of tools . when i first got the truck with all my tools i was only getting about 10 mpg, then i put exhaust and chip and still only averaged about 11 mixed driving. Then my trans went out and i built with a very low stall 1200 rpm and upgraded the valve body with a nice shift kit and bam i started avg about 14 which led me to believe it was just efficient before at putting the power to the wheels. now my question is what can i do to get about 16 mpg. currently i am getting about 430 miles to a tank where i would like to be around 480, 500, i drive about 600 miles a week some times more and every little bit counts especially with the rising cost of everything now a days. btw i purchase the bio already made from a company locally here who gets it from a refinery since i dont have time to make it. sorry for the long post every body

build an aero bed cover ,it should provide some mpg improvement and keep your tools covered/safe when your away from the truck. a win win and low cost.

Sounds like water injection might be able to help you there.
But you really need to lose the 4.10 rear gears they are killing you.

don't forget about an air dam they seem to have better affects on trucks

Wow, 14 is bad for a diesel. Must be a lot of stop and go? If so, loose as much weight as possible. Oil Pan had the best advise, which is loosing the 4.10 gears.

Oh, and stop using the brakes!

I think the problem is the 7.3l, big and inefficient. i cant lose wieght i have to carry my tools and equipment im going to see if i swap over to 3.73, i also want to try a different tuner to see if i get any results, and yes i do alot of stop and go, unfortunately i dont have a choice has any one messed with lpg injection on diesels here?

I tried propane injection back in 2006.
It was ok.
But wish I had started experementing with water and water alcohol injection instead.

Disable your EGR if you still have it, or better yet disable it on demand, it may aid in winter warm up, other than that they are no good.
Take a sawsall your soot trap if you have it. Make sure you have at least a 3 inch free flowing exhaust. I recomend a straight pipe for turbo diesels that side exits forward of the rear wheel if its legal or if you know you can get away with it in FL.

A '99 shouldn't have EGR or a DPF.

Hey, monster, can you create a vehicle profile for your truck? That was we can see more details of what you're drivng.

i updated my sig with my truck info

I'd recommend going into our garage and adding your truck to it. This way you can track your fuel log, and then every1 can see your truck, the mods to the truck and your fuel economy

Agreed. Click the "Garage" link at the top of the page, then under "Your Garage" is a "add new vehicle" link.

A fuel log is also a definite must--whether or not you choose to use the Ecomodder one. Almost no one I've ever seen makes significant progress in improving their mileage without keeping careful recrds--they're essential to knowing what mods (vehicle & driving) work and which ones don't.

I think you are out of luck. There's not much you can do to get decent mileage out of those big, diesel trucks:
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ial-22938.html
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ted-12928.html
http://ecomodder.com/forum/showthrea...ckup-3171.html

First, what sort of driving are you doing? Are you driving a lot of highway miles to get to job sites (in which case aero mods should help), or are you burning most fuel at low speeds out in fields?

my driving is mixed literally this next time i fill is really going to be bad i had to load and deliver locally 3 machines i serviced one at a time and yes i charge for the fuel but any savings i can pass off to my clients means happier clients and more return clients. i made the garage im going to track my fuel usage through here and update every one as well whether its highway or city driving at the time

i forgot to mention my girlfriend me a scan gauge not sure which one though but at least ill be able to have a number in face helping me drive more efficient

the cool thing about fuel logs is you can put in the details whether it was mostly city or mostly highway so you can always compare future tanks with the past to see if you had any gains

I'm a huge believer in re-time FE feedback, however, I haven't had any luck with accurate ODB-based instrumentation on my truck. Mine doesn't directly broadcast fuel flow and air flow based methods are useless on a diesel.

I assume you '99 still has mechanical fuel injection, so I doubt it has fuel flow available over OBD, but I wish you luck.

My 99 has H.E.U.I injection and the throttle is drive by wire. Hopefully it does have fuel flow availible it would be nice to have real time economy

600 miles per week wow! I dont even want to think how much in fuel you have to spend each month. I hope you can write it off.

My dads '02 F250 7.3 automatic, 2wd gets high teens on average. He just came from an 800 mile road trip-mostly interstate, and said he got 23 mpg on the way up. Hes got a hard tonneau cover and I forget rear gear ratio but I think its 3.73. He tows a bass boat and enclosed motorcycle trailer regularly and he said on the interstate he gets about 14-15 pulling them on average. He has aftermarket exhaust and a chip that gave him an extra 50-60 lb/ft tq over stock.

On the flip side, my brother has two 7.3s in his landscape truck fleet and he is always complaining what fuel hogs they are. But they are driven mostly in town, lots of stop and go, pulling trailers and hauling heavy stuff. He's gotten as low as 6-7 mpg he figures at the worst.

I installed the scan gauge and so far driving like i normally do, it has been showing 13.2 mpg but that was strictly city driving it go will go up when i hit the highway. And yes fuel is a big expense i can spend any where from 700-1000 a month but it is part of the work

it may show 13.2 but it may still need to be calibrated so make sure you do the math at the pump. These gauges can skew results and with my past 3 cars ive use them in the gauge has always been skewed to give me better numbers then i was actually getting and i mean by 5-6 mpgs

We will have to see after i burn a few tanks i will compare to my hand calcs and see how it compares

A pair of gauges would help. In the Cummins world it's the 666 Rule:

600F or less on exhaust gas temperature (EGT)
60-mph or lower in top travel speed
6-psi on manifold pressure (BOOST)

Big Dave and Jacob Aziza are both contributors with IH-motored Fords worth reading.

As to business use, be sure to plan each trip as well as possible. Mapquest has an option of re-ordering stops for best time/economy (as with the practice of FED-EX and UPS).

I'd pre-heat the fluids to shorten warm-up time as much as possible. Never idle and never stop (learn to drive all over again is the fair way to put it to your self).

Tires are big: commercial service highway rib (closed shoulder) as with BRIDGESTONE Duravis m500 when the time comes (or, r700). Alignment, brake drag and steering wander deserve your attention.

Someone will mention trans swap to ZF-6, but an auto is easier to live with when quite heavy in metro traffic (short periods at target travel speed versus the long periods on highways).

Were you able to use the "direct" method with the Scangauge (rather than MAF or MAP based)?

I really think you need to explore the water and methanol side of things. Snow is a big name, and they are doing a lot of advertising touting MPG gains. They also see a moderate 50-60 HP gain, but the breadth of their benefits in diesels is MPG.

With the 4.10 gears, you are turning more RPM. Slow down will pay divedends. Diesels make best MPG at or near their peak torque RPM, so find out what that is and stick close to it.

How about air intake modications?

If memory serves there have been some Diesel magazines that have seen HP and TQ gains + MPG gains, going to one of the upgraded oil pumps, and a set of performanc injectors. Yes, generally these are performance modifications, but increase in injectors is usually increased pressure and spray pattern, which should have better atomization and can equate to better MPG, if driving correctly.

• Provides better fuel economy (1-3 MPG), more power (50-100 HP), and lower EGTs (150°-300° F)


Snow Performance : Diesel MPG-MAX

The problem with snow is to get a set up that can spray nearly all the time is it will run you over $600.

True, but he has already shown a willingness to spend money for the project, with the long term benefits for the return investment (programmer, and exhaust, etc).

One of the math whizes can calculate return on investment, for 2 mpg increase versus cost.

There are DIY "how to" kits out in the market, I was using Snow as they have numbers to back up their kits.

Its not too hard to build your own water injection system.
I did.

What is likely killing your FE is the dual rear wheels, gears, and weight in the bed. Probably in that order.

Back when, I added dual rear wheels to my new (back then) 1990 Nissan 1/2 ton 4cyl truck. FE went down by at least 3mpg from the extra 2 tires, alone. I latter did a gear swap to a lower set, to better haul the 6 pack camper and tow the trailer, which dropped my FE even further.

Reduce the junk in the trunk: My pipe line welding neighbor would be on a jobsite for a few weeks, then work as an inspector only for months. He felt he was wearing out trucks by constantly carrying 800lbs of gear everywhere he went, but only used it 20% of the time. He's a bright guy, and devised a way to free up the bed space for other things, but be able to quickly and easily convert back to 'welding mode' when duty called. He built a well thought out 'skid' that contains his generator and welder, and locking boxes for grinders and other gear. This skid has both a set of 4 lifting eyes, and fork lift pockets. He built also built a companion A frame hoist that he keeps at home, in his side yard, so he can lift out and drop in the skid at a moment's notice. The fork pockets are used to drop the skid at a long-term job site, so he isn't lugging that stuff back and forth everyday.

Not a bad system, something to consider.

I dont have a cool skid system for all my tools.
What I did was put everything in smaller tool boxes. I have a bag soft sided bag with grinders, 2 wiring boxes plus one cardboard box with extra lenghts and rolls of wire, drills, hole saws and drill bits have their own box but its about to get divided into a drill box and a bit box, propane torches, tanks and solder have their own box, plumbing parts box takes up to big tool boxes, nail guns need their box, chain saws have their own little box with extra chain and support parts, sockets, wrenches and hand tools are about to get divided into 2 boxes, air tools are in 2 tool boxes, welder parts box with wire and tips and a few more. Full battle rattle is about 600 to 700lb, not counting the spare tires, pressure washer, chemicals, gas cylinders go on the trailer.
Lucky for me I almost never need to move most or all of it.

cover your gear ,to easy to pick up tool boxes and run. 1990s in compton calif I could see my service truck (one side anyway) lucky for me they broke into the passenger side and only got 5-6000 worth of goodies, all in boxes!