It seems that owners of the F150 with a 5.4 are reporting mileage readings of 15 - 17 on the highway, and 11-14 in the city.

What can you do to improve this? Does adding a cover to the bed help? Leaving the tailgate open? Adding a better air intake / air filter (although I would guess that the added expense of the high perf air filter would negate any savings here). Keeping the speed to 55?

Has anyone tried any of these things? How did the mileage change?

Thanks

 

They are? I hear ranges of 8mpg to 20mpg. For instance, I get about 11 city and 12 highway on average.

First, welcome. There is a lot of info on this site and knowledgible people. Enjoy!

There are a lot of factors that affect fuel consumption including every one that you listed. I will put this quite bluntly. Like you said about adding an intake, most things that will give you better fuel econmomy will cost you and the cost of that upgrade/mod vs. savings of fuel cost will not pay off in 100k miles. We have done the math. Not that I don't recommend doing certain mods, I just warn people not to expect the fuel savings to pay off.

If you want to do mods, here are the ones that can improve engine efficiency and give better fuel economy:

Electric Fans
Intake System
Exhaust
Superchip
Bed cover

In my experience, using a bed cover helps on the highway by about 1mpg. Since I have always had a bed cover, I don't drive with the tailgate down which would be "free". With a bed cover, I also notice the truck drives better on the highway as it is less susceptible to cross winds.

The best way to save fuel is by changing driving habits. I notice about 1mpg difference between averaging 70mph than 80mph. I am sure that 55mph would be even better, I would get run off the road at 55mph on our freeways. Also, keep the foot out of the throttle. Buy a vacuum guage and keep the reading in the 5-20 range (I think). Sccully should be around soon to confirm.

 

I regularly get 19 MPG on highway with '01 XLT Scab 4x2, 5.4L.

Adding a bed cover is supposedly good for + 5 % in mileage - but do the math - it'll take you ten years to equal the cost. Course, you may want the bed lid to increase lockable storage too.

There's a link somewhere on this site to a university study on P/U mileage with gate up/down/net/bed lid. Bed lid second only to a rather odd looking custom bed fairing that the researches came up with that no one would ever want on their truck.

 

I've made several trips recently getting right at 18 mpg and in the city I get about 15 on my '01 SCab. 5.4/3.55 gear. The EPA sticker said 15/19 mpg so I'm not doing bad.

Mods are electric fans, underdrive pulleys, air intake, exhaust and SuperChips MicroTuner.

MPG is double what I got off of my old 1988 E250 Club Wagon with 5.8 and 3.54 gears. That thing got 8.8 mpg no matter how I drove it.

The pleasant surprise is that my mileage climbed 1-1.5 mpg city and 2 mpg highway with my mods.

 

I average about 13 MPG on the highway, and thats doing 70. 1997 5.4L 4X4

The truck sucks for gas mileage, but I enjoy having it. I dont use it for work, and mainly use it for running the kids to school, or my weekly trips to the dump.

 

Interesting. I have a '97 150 with 78,000 miles, a completely stock 5.4, and stock exhaust and i get 18-19 highway and country and 15-17 city.
I find my '97 gets better mileage if I use 87 octane and only 87 octane gas. IT may be that the '97 is lower compression though, because it has 30 less HP than the '98.
I also get mucho better gas mileage it I try and keep the RPM's arpund 2 grand.

 

I followed a Jeep on a 900 mile trip. This old thing would only do just 70. I had to follow it at 70, cruise off. I got 19.8 MPG for the trip. It is not normal for my 5.4l Supercrew. I typicaly get 16.

My solution to the problem was to buy a junk minivan for work and drive my wonderful supercrew for pleasure only. I don't think I will ever get the cost of the van back in mileage, but it beats racking up 40000 miles a year of hard driving on my nice truck.

 

I have made two highway trip with our truck since we picked it up in Oct. On both trips I avg about 17mpg and I only have 3400KM on the truck. I'm told my milage will improve as the motor is broken in. Not sure what the time frame on that will be. On both trips I ran between 100-110 kph (70ish) and only rev 1900RPM at top speed. Buying a new truck is not cheap on the pocket when gas bills are due!

Good Luck though

 

I've averaged between 15.4 and 18.1 (=16.98 average) since I've had the truck (thanks MS Excel). The only things that would really make a difference in MPG is that I've slightly modified the intake snorkle and added an Undercover tonneau.

The main things I try to do are keep the truck unloaded (i.e. don't carry things I don't need) and keep the RPMs under 2000 (this includes starting out at an intersection but obviously excludes passing )

Lowering the tailgate actually decreases MPG. I've seen the wind tunnel tests (I'll try to find the web site I saw another one at). Like said before, I don't lower the tailgate since I have a tonneau cover.

 

Average 16.5 mpg. 5.4, reg. cab, short bed, 4x4.

 

Just drove 1085 miles from Santa Barbara to Denver, got 17.65 MPG over that distance, doing mostly 80 MPH, couple hundred pounds of stuff in the cab with me and with 300 pounds of sand over the rear axle for winter traction. Lots of hills between Denver and Santa Barbara too ;-)

If I'm lightly loaded and hold the speed down to high 60's and use cruise control, mileage goes up to high 18's, low 19's. There's a significant penalty mileage wise once you push it above 70 MPH. But, who's patient enough to do that on wide open stretches of desolate interstate here in the west? Not me very often.

 

’02 5.4 4x4 Sport (17” wheels), Tonneau cover, 3.55 LSD, auto.

Highway (70-75 mph): 14 mpg
City: 12 mpg
Towing (4000-4500#): 10 mpg

 

Here is a link to my fuel log.

http://commencetechnology.com/truck/fuel/fuel.htm

I have been keeping tabs since the truck was new. I have the updated log at home, just haven't updated the site since Sep03.

 

From what I've heard, adding a lid to your truck bed probably does not make a measurable improvement to mileage because

1) the air rushing over the bed tends to 'ride' on the air already trapped there, and

2) The weight of the lid would add to the friction at the rear wheels.

I've also heard that, leaving your tailgate open/off actually decreases your mileage because the added turbulence and air diving into the bed causes a big increase in downward pressure across the rear wheels and therefore, more friction.

The above info was supposedly from a Langley Research Center wind tunnel study, but I have yet been able to confirm that, nor have I been able to find any documentation.

The studies I have seen deal with semis and the use of devices in front and above the cab to reduce the air resistance at the nose and to deflect air up/down and over/around the bed. I wonder if anyone has tried to apply these ideas to pick-em-ups.

 

The results aren't in yet, but here http://sitemaker.umich.edu/um.gm.truck/useful_links is a study on the topic, just the wrong brand.