Fuel economy mods

[LCAM-01XA]

Actually WMO makes my fuel economy better - I see no more than 20mpg at 1700 rpms with straight diesel, however even a light 3:1 mix with WMO gets me up to 22mpg! That's 1700-1750 rpms constant, on mostly level roads, with or without cruise don't matter. My road speed is 52mph, as I have 4.10 rear gears.

 

[david85]

WMO has higher BTUs per gallon, so in theory it should help MPGs. Might be a little concerned about possible head gasket problems with higher mix ratios though. We know that a badly functioning CDR valve can contribute to head gasket failure because cylinders #7 and #8 tend to get most of the extra oil mist in the N/A IDIs. Just a thought

 

[Diesel JD]

Same story here, started out with C6 and 4.10s, it was rare for me to see 15 mpg on D2 on the highway, I swapped to 3.55s and suddenly I was in the 15-17mpg range even with B100 on the highway empty or fairly light. Still see very poor numbers in town and in suburbia, usually 11-13mpg empty. I'm swapping in a manual(still no OD) which should help some, it will hopefully at some point get a Doug Nash overdrive but that will have to wait, I'm outta cash!

 

[david85]

The worst I've seen with my current setup was 12MPG mostly in urban contitions towing, and driving hard with my foot. On the flipside, I have also seen 20 MPG if I am empty and use mild hypermiling (coasting in neutral when possible).

Even with tall gears like this, driving style makes a big difference. I would guess you could get another 2 MPG from a manual tranny, but I think a 5 speed is worth waiting for.

 

[FordGuy100]

Yeah, I was working on building a HHO system, but I kinda got tired of experimenting and not getting anywhere

So here is what I'm going to do. I'm going to inflate my tires to the max pressure, maybe a little under. Then, this Sunday, hopefully if I order tonight some AutoRx will come in, and I will change the oil and oil filter and put in regular Delo 400 with the AutoRx treatment. This might skew results in the long run, but hell I'm going to do it to cut my oil consumption down so I can start running synthetic oil . Its time to do an oil change anyways, I'm over 3,000 miles now, I think I'm approaching 4,000 miles

I'll also change the air-filter, its about time to do that now. On second thought, I think I wont, I'll rig up a custom intake of my own in the next month.

Then I will try to get a 2-3 fill up average.

I will also be using Power service fuel treatment during this whole thing as well, the recomended dose.

 

[Full Monte]

I have also removed my canopy from the truck, and when I am empty I have the tailgate up. Have not tried with the tailgate down or removing it.

Did you see the episode of Myth Busters where they tested the pickup tailgate in various configurations for impact on mileage? It turns out that a mesh tailgate gives the best performance.

 

[david85]

Haha, every forum I sign up on makes mention of those guys. That cement truck was so awesome.......what were we talking about again??

Oh right MPGs.

Yes I remember that revisit where they used Adam's dakota instead of the new ford F150s in the first test. I seem to recall that while there was and advantage, it was still so small that it was within the margin of error. There seemed to be some heavy traffic too, so that might have thrown the results off conducting tests as the traffic changed over the course of the day. And I don't think they ever did test with no tailgate at all.

 

[FordGuy100]

Haha, every forum I sign up on makes mention of those guys. That cement truck was so awesome.......what were we talking about again??

Oh right MPGs.

Yes I remember that revisit where they used Adam's dakota instead of the new ford F150s in the first test. I seem to recall that while there was and advantage, it was still so small that it was within the margin of error. There seemed to be some heavy traffic too, so that might have thrown the results off conducting tests as the traffic changed over the course of the day. And I don't think they ever did test with no tailgate at all.

The cement truck will go down in history as being one of the most awsome things I have seen on T.V.....I liked how the Jamie guy jumped when it exploded when they were like 2 miles away.

Anyways...so yeah I wont lie....I am not a fan of those mesh tailgates, I just dont think they look good. Thats just me though.

 

[Agnem]

WMO has higher BTUs per gallon, so in theory it should help MPGs.

That is evidenced by the higher EGT's that I regularly see. However, I don't see more power or better milage because of it. I think it takes more air to burn WMO than diesel, and a lot of it goes out the exhaust as black smoke and wasted fuel. Maybe a turbo'd truck would do better.

 

[TooManyTrucks!]

This may be of interest, though it was done with a gasser 460, IN THEORY some of the mods should respond to diesels.
http://www.performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/

http://www.performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/photos.html

http://www.performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/specs.html

http://www.performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/features.html

http://www.performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/results.html

http://www.performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg/about_mpg.html TEXT ARTICLE

http://performanceunlimited.com/projectmpg2/ Semi-related


http://www.dieselworldmag.com/content/view/111/36/

 

[RLDSL]

Okay guys, I'll get this thing back going again.

Without further adu....here are my less than steller results

Starting milage: 122135.25 miles
Ending milage: 123053.7 miles
Fuel consumed: 59.356 gallons

For a average fuel economy for 918.45 miles of.......drum roll please.......15.47mpg .

So ya....ignorance is bliss....all this time I was thinking my truck was doing good on fuel economy, looks like it isnt. So...now I'm going to re-read this whole thread and figure out what I am going to do first.

now I haven't gone back through all these pages and re-read all this, so you may have already covered this, but before getting all misty eyed about the mileage, have you re- calibrated that odometer/spedometer setup to match your tires size , or at least worked out the math to where you can compensate for it when you calculate for fuel mileage?

I finally broke down and calculated my tire difference and I think I'm actually getting about 4.2 % better than what the meter is reading

 

[david85]

I used google earth to calibrate my speedo over a 98 mile route. Was accurate to .5 KM if I remember right.

 

[Papabear]

Well thats good to know.

Couple questions:

How much fluid does a T-19 hold?
How much fluid does a BW1345 hold?
How much fluid does a Dana 70 hold?
How much fluid does a Dana 44 hold?

got to www.amsoil.com it will answer all your questions what fluid to use as well as volumes if i remember correctly

 

[FordGuy100]

now I haven't gone back through all these pages and re-read all this, so you may have already covered this, but before getting all misty eyed about the mileage, have you re- calibrated that odometer/spedometer setup to match your tires size , or at least worked out the math to where you can compensate for it when you calculate for fuel mileage?

I finally broke down and calculated my tire difference and I think I'm actually getting about 4.2 % better than what the meter is reading

Nope, I havent. Should have thought of that though.

got to www.amsoil.com it will answer all your questions what fluid to use as well as volumes if i remember correctly

Yeah, I'm set up with an account on amsoil....I'm all set

 

[RLDSL]

Nope, I havent. Should have thought of that though.

I used the tire size calculator over on Miata.net to help figure things out on mine