[Hatya]

I have spoke to a couple of guys, 1 has a 6.4 ford, another has a 5.9 dodge. These guys have done extensive tuning and exhaust work to their trucks and both claim to get ungodly fuel milage compared to my 2011 6.7

I mostly use my truck to transport trailers around the country, The guys i spoke to said they get 17+ mpg pulling big trailers, 5th wheels and such. And empty they are getting like 23+ mpg at 65-70.

I currently get like 10mpg with big 5th wheels. I would gladly invest the money for all of the DPF DEF EGR tuning kits if i could gain a substantial increase in my fuel milage.

Im just worried that these guys are exaggerating a bit.

If anyone can confirm such MPG increases please let me know.

 

[jpaddock]

Ya they are definantly exaggerating. Between me and my buddies we have every Ford or dodge pulling trailers with every combination of tunes and your lucky to get 13 pulling a big trailer with any anything. Some throw the over head off to show those numbers. 23 is easy to see with an empty 6.4 tuned especially a 5.9! You cannot even compare a new truck to a 5.9 though.


The rcd 585 up'd my 6.4 huge though
Went from 16.4 on perfect conditions to low 20's empty.

And from 6-8 up to 12-13 with trailer

 

[6.4lStrokin]

You wont be getting any feedback from a tuner company about the correlation between fuel mileage and the deletes, since technically they are illegal for on-road use. Check other forums, and other threads on this website, there is plenty of info.

 

[broth]

I have a 6.4 spartan tuned and pulling my 40' 5th wheel I get 9-10 nothing better. Their #'s sound a bit high. Even my small gooseneck stock trailer 24' the best I have seen has been 12 more 10-11 on average.

 

[commtrd]

I have spoke to a couple of guys, 1 has a 6.4 ford, another has a 5.9 dodge. These guys have done extensive tuning and exhaust work to their trucks and both claim to get ungodly fuel milage compared to my 2011 6.7

I mostly use my truck to transport trailers around the country, The guys i spoke to said they get 17+ mpg pulling big trailers, 5th wheels and such. And empty they are getting like 23+ mpg at 65-70.

I currently get like 10mpg with big 5th wheels. I would gladly invest the money for all of the DPF DEF EGR tuning kits if i could gain a substantial increase in my fuel milage.

Im just worried that these guys are exaggerating a bit.

If anyone can confirm such MPG increases please let me know.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I WANT A TUNER AND EMISSIONS DELETES!

 

[Gearloose1]

The devil is in the details.

What does the torque curve look like post tuning?

How are the mileage claims verified?

What sort of controlled tests are being run?

If you honestly think there is 25% gain in fuel economy from just electronics tweaking... I got a bridge to sell you.

Modern engines just do not have that much slack without major changes.

 

[silverpeteok]

my cummins has put down a best of 14.5 mpg pulling my regular load of a 26ft enclosed stock trailer with a load of cows those were pretty ideal conditions

 

[neeltburn]

I get 12-13 with mine pulling 10,500 toyhauler. That can drop to 10-11 in the mointains.

 

[John_G]

There are a LOT of people who correctly and honestly report MPG numbers, the problem is two-fold:

1) You don't "know" who those are, for sure.
2) Most people don't calculate it correctly.

MPG is simple, miles actually driven divided by gallons used. Bigger tires, different gears, tire inflation, wind etc ALL play a role in the real-world accuracy of any calculation. Ford's "Lie-o-Meter" is off by as much a 2 MPG on a stock vehicle, maybe more on aftermarket tires. Almost always to the plus side too!

 

[Gearloose1]

Tuning for additional power is not that hard.

It involves injection of and combustion of additional fuel to generate more energy.

However, tuning for fuel economy, is nearly a totally different job, as it involves reduction of output that is "unnecessary" to keep a vehicle moving at speed.

It often involves sharp compromises in drivability (e.g. the systems that turn off cylinders and sharply retard power output. No tuner I know of is using Cylinder deactivation, but it can be done --- or a form of it simply by sharply varying injection output at the "dead" cylinders.

Or, things like cutting power and torque output to ensure that whatever fuel that is extracted burn.

Now, if you slashed RPM max to 1,500 or below, a sizable efficiency gain is possible from lower pumping losses vs. power output --- at the expense of performance.

The bottom line is, software controlled options are pretty limited --- thermal efficiency is pretty much regulated by the basic engine design.

If you want to start talking hardware changes, there is a bit more wiggle.

But not 25%

 

[Hatya]

I completely agree that these guys stating towing milage in the hi teens are exaggerating. this would be a 60% + increase over stock. Since I tow almost daily if i could find 2-3 mpg then the investment would be well worth it for me. The DPF/UREA delete alone would probably add up to be a big savings alone.

I may just wait until im out of warranty before I think of installing any of these items.

 

[Gearloose1]

I'd be interested to know if you can bypass the DPF/Urea without the computer shutting you down!

 

[strokin6L]

I'd be interested to know if you can bypass the DPF/Urea without the computer shutting you down!

Tuners have already done it without issues so far.

 

[Gearloose1]

Passing a California smog inspection and voiding the warranty on a $50,000 truck are not issues?

 

[jpaddock]

Well I guess il stay out of California then. It's legal were I'm from and most dealerships will install them. I just sold my tuner with rcd tunes and delete to a dealer. Everyone knows the rules, but your on a diesel performance site arguing that tuners arnt good?!?

 

[Gearloose1]

your on a diesel performance site arguing that tuners arnt good?!?

I believe I can tune, and meet all EPA rules that apply to my vehicle.

 

[Rcannon]

I believe I can tune, and meet all EPA rules that apply to my vehicle.

Your point is moot considering you are in the 2011 forum.

 

[strokin6L]

Passing a California smog inspection and voiding the warranty on a $50,000 truck are not issues?

you never said anything about that. You asked about if anyone can bypass DPF and urea without computer shutting it down...and in response to that i said that it has already been done without any issues reguarding that the computer doesn't shut the truck down when getting bypassed or deleted.

And as far as getting smog tested in Cali or warranty concerns....that's the owners problem. If the person wants to take the risk...so what. If i had an 6.7 i'd be deleting all that crap and be adding a tuner in as fast as i could. Warranty doesn't matter to me at all so i wouldn't be worried about the warrant being voided if i had one. I know alot of techs at the dealer and have some close friends who are ford diesel techs that don't care about the factory stuff being deleted or bypassed and the addition of performance aftermarket stuff.

 

[southern-stroke]

You have to pay to play. 'Nuff said. The EPA doesnt care about your fuel milage, if it was up to them, they'd quit making diesels altogether. That's why they make things so hard on us all.

 

[darren32]

I got H&S Black Maxx to turn off my CEL because Ford can't. It had been on for 6 months and I have been struggling with poor performance and poor fuel economy. The Black Maxx with EGR, DOC, DPF and urea delete works perfectly. I could not be happier with it. My fuel economy is greatly improved (from what it was with my CEL on). I will hand calculate next time I am on the hiway but my lie-o-meter told me I was getting nearly 20 MPG driving for 300 kM and 105 km/h (65 mph) un loaded.

As for warranty, I don't care one bit. My other option was to get rid of this truck and that would have cost me pretty big at this ponit (if anyone would even buy it).

H&S tells me that soon they will enable me to lower my TPMS pressure so I will be able to get that light off my dash as well.

Driving around with no CEL and no TPMS will be very nice!

Thanks to NADP and H&S, I am FINALLY loving this truck again!