1996 F150 with 5.0L, 4x4, (mod's in sig). Tunes are 87tow/per, 93 tow & 93 perf. I run 93 octane always, I've been doing this for more than 1 year and I never change the tune. 93 octane gas, towing 3000lb boat most every weekend. With and without the boat hooked-up I get better mileage. Went from 11.9-12.6 before the tune to 14.5-15.3 (in stop and go city traffic) with the tune. Last fill-up (and I check every tank) 189.6m/13.1gal=14.47 AND I DRIVE THE SH*T OUT OF IT!!! When towing I average 13+mpg. Straight highway, no tow and 70-75mph, cruise and no a/c I get almost 18mpg
249m/14.3gal=17.4mpg.

This is how I figure it--
an example of a truck that gets 15 mpg,
and a 1.5 mpg increase with a chip running 93 octane:

87 octane, 15 mpg, $1.25 gallon - 8.3333 cents fuel costs per mile
93 octane, 16.5 mpg, $1.45 gallon - 9.0625 cents fuel costs per mile

87 octane, 15 mpg, $1.50 gallon - 10 cents fuel costs per mile
93 octane, 16.5 mpg, $1.70 gallon - 10.3030 cents fuel costs per mile

87 octane, 15 mpg, $1.70 gallon - 11.3333 cents fuel costs per mile
93 octane, 16.5 mpg, $1.90 gallon - 11.5151 cents fuel costs per mile

87 octane, 15 mpg, $1.90 gallon - 12.6666 cents fuel costs per mile
93 octane, 16.5 mpg, $2.10 gallon - 12.7272 cents fuel costs per mile

87 octane, 15 mpg, $2.10 gallon - 14 cents fuel costs per mile
93 octane, 16.5 mpg, $2.30 gallon - 13.939393 cents fuel costs per mile

My gas price as of last fill-up was
$2.37 per gallon @ 14.47mpg=.1637 cents per mile.
87 was $2.23 and without the tune I get 12.6=.1769 cents.
Premium is cheaper.

The higher the gas prices, the more parity you get in the operating fuel costs
of the vehicle, plus the bonus of more power. Once the price gets over a certain amount, it costs less to operate with the chip (this is assuming you don't have a lead foot, which will negate the mileage benefits of more power). The lower your stock mileage, the quicker the pay off.
Guys who get 13-15 stock mileage may spend a lot less money on gas
with a premium tune with current prices.

Hope that this helps the discussion, these are my findings, yours may be different. Increasing HP increases economy-given the same set of standards and driving conditions for that truck.

It may take forever to make back the money I spent on the tuner but I like the fact I get better mileage, have fun driving the truck with the increased HP and the satisfaction of surprising other trucks/cars/ricers when we line-up and thats not very often, but occasionally. The grin on my face lasts for days!!!

Randy

 

priceless IMO

 

Hi everyone,

Just had to drop by this thread, which has some excellent data and observations that should be of value to most of us, as well as a little bit of incorrect info. For example (I'm talking primarily about the 5.4 3V engine F-150's) - until the 5.4 3V came along in the 2004 F-150, we never saw an F-150 gain 2.0+ mpg from the best air intake kit - regardless of the fact that we have seen posts here from people who purchased (for example) the Air Force One intake from us for their 97-03 F-150 5.4 2V's and swore they got 2 more mpg - we never saw that much and we've tested virtually every intake kit on the market for that configuration.

Then comes the 5.4 3V engine in the F-150 - due to the extremely restrictive stock factory intake, we see power gains of 25 HP at the rear wheels at just 3000 rpm from the Air Force One - the *peak* gain at 5000 rpm will run anywhere from 8-12 HP, but the HP & torque gains in the areas of the rpm range where we actually spend our time driving 95% of the time (idle to 4000 rpm) are HUGE for an intake tract change, and contribute to higher MPG gains than we have ever seen before from any intake kit on F-150's. So I agree with Les with regard to the intake kit being a great mod for MPG on the 5.4 3V F-150 - though I do not agree with the comment about the power gains being so "modest" that you don't notice it. Hard not to feel the AF1's gains in the seat of the pants at any throttle position up to about 4000 rpm even in these heavy vehicles - and the power numbers don't lie, another 20 HP at the wheels just 2000 rpm, 25 HP at just 3000 rpm have never been seen before (or since) from any intake kit for any non-supercharged F-150 - but then there are some people who just don't "feel" things in the seat of the pants - which is why we say don't judge ANY performance mod by seat of the pants feel.

I agree with Les in that the AF1 (or the Airaid intake, those are the 2 we approve of and do the best job, respectively, on the 5.4 3V F-150 of any on the market) is a type of mod where you are much more likely to settle back down to "normal" driving a lot sooner than with our custom tuning - this makes perfect sense, as like jpdadeo says, hands down nothing compares to the bang for the buck of our custom tuning. The worst dyno we've done with our 87 octane tuning in the past few months on the 5.4 3V was 25 HP peak gain at the wheels on a Mustang dyno, which always shows significantly lower numbers - that's a *huge* gain on a gas engine from tuning for 87 octane fuel, and the torque gains are much larger still. So NO, our custom tuning does NOT require the use of high-octane fuel - as virtually everyone knows, we provide *your* choice of 3 different tunes, and darn near everyone with our tuning who is not running a blower or nitrous has at least one 87 octane tune.

Yes, you most certainly *can* see even better MPG gains from our tuning than you can see from the AF1 intake kits - once the novelty of the new go-fast part has worn off - but that tends to happen much sooner with an intake kit than with our tuning, just as Les alluded to - our tuning makes so much more *overall* difference - raw power, performance gain, drivetrain response time, overall driveability, feel - sheer enjoyment of driving is so vastly improved with our custom tuning that it generally does take longer to have driving return back to normal - and for some it never does - compared to doing the intake kit by itself, for example. Valid point!

Now our custom tuning - that too, can and in many cases does finally pay for itself with better MPG - while for others, our tuning can never "pay for itself" with added MPG due to how they drive with our tuning installed, or inaccurate MPG data, fuel formulation changes over time, etc., etc. There are numerous variables that all add up to an AF1 or Airaid being a LOT easier to pay for itself with MPG on a 5.4 3V F-150 than our tuning - most importantly due to the much larger *overall* impact our tuning has on so many aspects of the vehicle's driving characteristics. Les makes a good point here - and one that does not conflict with our tuning being the best performance bang for the buck as jpdadeo mentions - both are true.

Guys - I could go on and on, but I'm not trying to advertise here, just trying to make a simple point - please - let's try to get a little less heated and allow for the other person's perspective without trying to enforce your *opinions* as "absolutes" on others - where if they don't conform, then they are "wrong" and you are "right." Aren't we here to try to have fun, share info and ENJOY EACH OTHER'S COMPANY & and our shared love for these vehicles - I think?!?

Thanks for **everyone's** contributions............

 

Had to add this as another post due to the 5000 character-per-post limitation..

Just wanted to also thank "watsonr" and the other posters who point out that the higher that gas prices go, the easier it is to justify the use of using premium gas with our custom tuning to get maximum power, performance & MPG gains. This is due to the fact that the price delta between 87 & premium staying at a national average of 20 cents a gallon - whether gas is $1 a gallon or $3 a gallon - as they mentioned.

Excellent point.......now I'm going to run to get caught up on other threads!