So this week I had to travel three times to a site about an hour and a half from my house. The engineer in me said, Hmmm...three days and there happens to be three Tunes in the edge that need mileage figures...must be fate.

Disclaimers: This is not a perfect test, the three trips were done on consecutive days but the temps varied a few degrees, wind changed direction and strength, the moon's phase was 2 days off between the first and third day and there wasn't time to have MGD come verify the tightness of my seatbelt (you know I love you). Your mileage may vary, this was a test for me and me alone. I live in Denver, that's 5800 feet above sea level, the air is thin here so mileage suffers, power suffers but the good news is my truck still weighs as much as yours.

The Test: 5 minutes of street driving to the highway, 1 hour of 70mph with cruise on (no such thing as a flat road here...lots of hills) 10 minutes of street driving to destination....return in reverse order. Pretty simple. I took it very easy on all accelerations...looking for MPG on this test. All MPG's read on lariat stock system...no I didn't fill up each day and check the accuracy. I assume if it's inaccurate it should be equally inaccurate for all tests and it's the difference I'm looking for. The result surprised me to be honest, but these are the results so I thought I would toss them out for others to make fun of.


The Results:

Level 3

- 15.4 mpg

Level 2

- 16.8 mpg

Level 1

- 17.5 mpg


Now, I bought the Edge on my trucks second week...about 1800 miles into it's life, so break in was certainly still going..but my best mileage prior to the edge was a tank at 15.5. Unfortunately it will be a while before I need to repeat that trip out there, but next time out I will do an identical run with the stock program back in...I'm curious what the comparison is. My 04 suburban did this run with an average around 17...stock.

Well, there you have it. Make of it what you will...that is how the edge treated me the last few days.

Bill

 

I manually calculate the MPG on every tank. I've found the MPG readout to be off as much as .5 MPG, not always the same.

 

Once you get your truck broke in all the way you’ll do better I’m sure. I consistently average 16mpg plus, local driving; interstate driving nets me a solid 20mpg if I keep it under 75mph. I use a 93-octane performance tune

 

You are at sea level sir...I moved here from central florida, pretty surprising the difference in performance up here. Even with a turbo to compensate (my car, not truck), still a large difference.

Bill

 

I'd almost be willing to bet that it will be close if not almost identical to level 1, since level 1 doesn't do anything but change shift points. Especially if you are on the interstate...unless the truck has to shift from OD to 3rd a lot.

 

Break it in right and IMO even with the thin air you’ll get better mpg than that. You have to break in these modular engines right though, for max performance which will in turn equate to max mpg

 

I am not far from billdenver. I have a 5.4, 3.73, 4x4 Screw. I get 20mpg on hwy driving 70 on stock motor. Does that mean should get 21 to 22 mpg w/tuner?

 

Is there any type of consensus on how to break these engines in?

 

I thought the same thing with my '97 F250 when I moved to CO from Ohio. Definitely not as big a difference in elevation as Bill, but I lost about 1.5 MPG after the move drive around on the flat front range. The truck had about 80K on the odometer, so I'd say she was broken in. I tried different brands of fuel, but never regained that mileage. I also took it over to Grandby from Lyons through the park which resulted in about 12 MPG, but the mountains had alot to do with it. That truck was suckin wind by the time we got to the visitor's center at about 12,000 feet. My '05 gets about 17.5 on the interstate around here, but when we drove back to Ohio over the holiday, she got around 19.5 by the time we reached home. There is definitely a difference in the air.
Meant to say I thought the same thing as billdenver.

 

I noticed something yesterday that may have scewed my numbers. I stopped to fill up my tank and while there switched programs from tranny only back to the tow tune. After the program loaded I simply started the truck...didn't turn the key OFF then start it. Directions don't say you have to so I didn't bother. Well, I had about a 45min highway drive home at that point and the mileage on the readout was horrible for a 70mph cruise. After I got home I dressed for dinner and headed accross denver. Same kind of driving but this time the mileage was heading upwards at a very quick rate. I'll be turning the key off after each program is put in from now on. May have been a fluke, but the first highway run showed 13.x for 45 min...when I arrived across town (same 70mph cruise), it was pushing 17. Now that I think of it, we had something like the same trouble at chrysler when we were developing one of the engine control modules. No reason why it should need a power cycle..but sure acted different with a new chip in it if we didn't.

Again, just throwing data out there for others who care...

Bill

 

Well, the information you provided has been interesting, regardless of the accuracy.

You know, it is virtually impossible to remove all variables. You engineer/science guys are too f#$%ing precise sometimes...

 

interesting numbers. what octane fuel were you running on each run?

 

I ran the same 87 (edge set on 91..I'm at altitude) for all three tests. That means the last test was a bit lighter load than the first..and I'm beginning to suspect the numbers are invalid because the first test I didn't power cycle the unit after changing the tune to the performance tune (may be why the numbers in that test are low). Not sure if the power cycle thing matters, but from what happened yesterday it does seem possible. Anyway, I'll be doing some more testing of the mileage as time permits. Go fast is great, but for the 40K mileage a year I put on this truck...I want mileage more than anything else.

Bill

 

What is the proper way to break in the 5.4? I have 3k on my 2005 and want to see what I need to do to get good mileage.

 

How To Break In Your Engine For More Power & Less Wear !

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

It’s controversial but it works