New here, 06 silverado

[mja1]

Hello all, I have a 2006 chevy silverado 4.3L 5 speed, single cab/short bed, thats been modified a lot, mostly for speed but I'm trying to go the other way now for better gas mileage.

I use the truck for commute to school, work, and play & moving cargo/hauling so it carries a bunch of gear about 100+ lbs worth all the time. Found a bunch of driving tips on here, and managed to increase my mileage (with stock tune) from 18mpg to now 21.6mpg (80% highway). When the truck was completely stock it was getting 22.5mpg at best (with a 3.42 rear and open diff). Thanks for all your tips on here, will be trying out new things and will begin tuning for mileage in a few weeks! My goal for the truck is 25mpg without too many crazy aero mods.

Truck has a vortec supercharger + intercooler (recently took off s/c it blew some bearings, was old and ran it at 12 psi, may rebuild later or go with a turbo later on), 3.90 rear gear, detroit trutrac, performance clutch, cold air intake, exhaust and a bunch of non-aero mods like a canvas rear seating area and a jump-bench seat (jeep style in the bed) that can carry 2 extra passengers when needed.

[slowmover]

Welcome!

You'll enjoy using those skills for FE. Have a look at the many threads on "aerolids" as aerodynamics and gearing are your true friends (past driving fewer miles yet more skilfully to accomplish the same ends).

Be sure to enter your truck on the fuel log. Percentage changes to the average mpg is what it is about, IMO.

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[mja1]

thanks slowmover, I found it under the garage section, thats a nice database on here. It asked me to put the EPA rating which on the website was 14/20 mpg, but on my window sticker when I bought the truck was 16/22, did the EPA change the mpg rating in the past few years?

[s2kinteg916]

Welcome to the board

[MetroMPG]

Originally Posted by mja1

It asked me to put the EPA rating which on the website was 14/20 mpg, but on my window sticker when I bought the truck was 16/22, did the EPA change the mpg rating in the past few years?

They did (revised for '08, I believe). People are entering the "new" EPA values.

[mja1]

Thanks guys! I like this forum everyone is pretty chill on here.

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

They did (revised for '08, I believe). People are entering the "new" EPA values.

Do you know what was changed in '08, something like compensation for higher % ethanol, or was it the EPA driving test changed?

[Daox]

They revised how the EPA tested vehicles by bringing them up to higher speeds and running A/C during the tests, stuff like that.

[larrybuck]

Welcome! When reality hits; we ARE the NEW performance of the future here.

Sounds like you have some good plans a 'cookin!!!

[MetroMPG]

For older vehicles, they didn't re-test them. EPA just applied a correction factor to the previous ratings to lower them a bit.

[mja1]

23.9 mpg this tank, the best I've had yet! Can't wait to see what it'll do with a little work, the 25 mpg goal doesn't seem like too much now.