You got me pegged!

- NCSU

 

Would it be at all possible to ban the next yahoo that comes on the TRUCK forum site and starts a " how can I get better gas mileage" thread? I mean honestly people. It's one thing to give advice but this is just ridiculous. Here it is in a nut shell:

1. You are young and dumb and honestly had no idea what it means to own a truck. You chose the vehicle because it was "cool". The concept of a civic getting better gas mileage than a truck never occurred to you. This is **** poor sad considering Al Gore (cough) blessed us with the internet and you now have Google where as us elders had the dewy decimal system and a card catalog. On the other hand you may have sat down and figured out that by sacking enough groceries or flipping enough hamburgers you would have just enough money to pay the note and insurance, get a 40 and still live with your parents. You did not count on economic principals like inflation, supply and demand, compound interest. Not your fault, public school blows goats.

2. You lost your job or have taken an income hit and you just so happen to commute some excessive distance to work that in all reality should have convinced you to by a more efficient vehicle in the first place. Chances are you are also one of the idiots that took out an interest only loan on a $300,000 house while making $10.50 an hour.

3. You are really bad at math and as a previous poster noted, any money you spend on mods to "increase" gas mileage will either be wasted or take years to recoup at which point your truck will be completely crapped out because you had no idea what owning a truck was all about to begin with, or simply entice you to drive faster burning more gas.

4. You believe in miracles. You have spent many a night putting your hand on the TV and sending checks to a reverend somewhere in the deep south hoping that his prayers will save you from your own lack of accountability for the decisions you have made. All the while it is the fault of big oil and the big three for not changing the laws of aerodynamics and thermodynamics and giving us trucks with the performance of a race car and economy of a 3 cylinder Geo.

Here is the reality:
1. SLOW THE F$%K DOWN!
2. DRIVE LESS
3. Airupyoutiresperformregularlyscheduledmaintenancea ccerleratelikeagrandpa
keepitunder2000rpmscleantheairfiltrechangetheplugs usegoodgasloosetheexcess
weightevenifitmeansyourfatassgirlfriend.
4.RIDE A HORSE

Cheese and rice that felt good!

 

Absolutely classic, but does the OP deserve that much abuse?

 

check out my pics I have a Technocarb LPG conversion on the truck it runs on both fuels (but only 1 at a time) it cost my about $2500 to convert the truck. I get about 16mpg on gas and about 15 on Propane. but propane is much cheaper also the truck has no power loss due to the computer of the conversion working with the truck computer. check out their web site if you want more info.

 

hgjmjm,jggjnmm.bnvmbnvm

 

Tried that and I got no gains myself.

But really just slow down, dont gun it at lights and on the highway use cruise control. Be smart.

and I liked the essays Mitch and Malexander

 

Just ignore all the tools on this forum who'd rather rip you to peices than help you out(seems to be alot of them on here).

Some of their advice is good if you can find it in their arrogant ramblings:

1- vehicle maintenance(stay up on it at all times)
2- driving style(keep it off the floorboards)
3- at highway speeds keep it within 5mph over the posted limit. After all trucks are shaped like bricks so aerodynamics are not in our favor. The faster you go the more your engine has to work to overcome drag which equals more fuel consumption.
4- run your tires toward the upper end of the recomended operating pressure. a harder tire has less rolling friction.
5- run fuel injector cleaner through your tank periodically(especially important if you run regular gas(87))
6- If you dont use your truck off road very much get a road tread tire(RT) as more aggressive (AT) style tires typically give worse gas mileage and usually wear out faster on the road.

You didnt state what "too" much money was but the following aftermarket items will give you more available power & better gas mileage by increasing the efficiency of your engine.
7- Cat back exhaust $400-600
8- after market air intake & filter(K&N) or just a drop in type will help $40-300
9- Underdrive pulleys $100-200
10- Aftermarket Tuners with an "Economy" setting. Even most performance settings are better than the stock tune. $300+

Hope this was helpful.

 

Think about who you are helping man. In all honestly I can't imagine a truck owner having a right to complain about gas mileage. And for the "Mods" you listed, do the math "junior". You listed $1400 in mods.
If you gain 1 mpg and gas averages $3 a gallon for the next year, how many gallons of gas will you have to burn to recoup that investment?
Here I will help you:
@$3/Gal $1400/$3= 466.67 gallons
At 1mpg per tank (30 gallon tank) that is an extra 30 miles per tank of gas....
Lets say you are getting 15 MPG, it's like adding 2 extra gallons to your tank.
466.67/2 = 233.335 tanks of gas!
More math:
233.335 x 30 gallons = 7000 gallons x $3 = $21,000!
So you would have to spend $21,000 in gas to recoup your $1400 in mods.
Now lets put it into a practical light and you may understand why we would "rip" on some one.
Lets say you do increase mileage and can get that extra 30 or 40 miles on the tank of gas. We will equivocate that to 2 "extra" gallons. So you would save (@$3/Gal) $6 on the tank of gas. If $6 in gas is going to make or break you then I will digress to my prior post YOU SHOULD NOT BE DRIVING A TRUCK!
Now for some psychology: NEW ENGINE MOD SAVES GAS AND INCREASES HORSE POWER!!!!!! $20
Wow I can spend $20 now and save.....uh...NOTHING in the long run. It's crap man. It's marketing. I didn't buy exhaust for gas mileage, I bought it for sound. I didn't get an intake for MPG, I got it for POWER. I didn't get a tuner to save gas, I bought it to haul a$$.
There is no such thing as a "MOD" designed to increase mileage. Don't be foolish enough to think for one second that the auto industry hasn't spent billions in research on fuel efficiency. Most mods were designed with one goal in mind. Get the engine to make more power. Theoretically if the engine doesn't have to work as hard to get up to speed then you will save gas.
If you can't get decent mileage like the MILLIONS of other F150 owners then the issue is the driver, not the vehicle. I will bet my next pay check that if we took the MPG average of every owner on this site we would be damn close to 15-17.
It is all about driving habits. You give this kid mods to "save gas" but give him more power and his mileage will tank because he already does not have the self discipline and intelligence to keep his foot out of it.
No body is ripping on anybody. If there is no CEL and the motor is running as designed, tires aired up, fuel and air filter are clean, then its a driving habit and a suck one at that. As for tiers of gasoline, there is nothing to suggest that higher octane is a better grade of gas. Higher octane requires higher compression to optimize its thermal potential. If you are gassing up with premium in an engine designed to run on regular, you are wasting your $ because you are not utilizing the full potential of that fuel.
Here is the best tip I can give the OP:
READ THE FARKIN MANUAL!
Just a crazy idea I had.

 

LOL, like I said a bunch of tools on here. Just answer the poor kids questions, if he choses to matt the loud pedal thats his business. Personally I didnt by my truck with fuel mileage in mind either. I went from my 2002 f150 to my '08 becuz of the styling and most important to me the extra 40ponies and torque. When I do my exhaust, intake and tuner it wont be for the extra mpg, it'll be for the extra power and to let my 5.4 sing like a V-8 was meant to. As far as the mods I listed all combined many f150's out there are getting nearly 20mpg with these combined with responsible driving. I wont argue that if you're looking for a vehicle that gets good gas mileage that an f150 is the wrong one.

This is funny:"There is no such thing as a "MOD" designed to increase mileage. Don't be foolish enough to think for one second that the auto industry hasn't spent billions in research on fuel efficiency."
Do you even know why these things make more power? Well "junior" do you? Could it be making the motor more efficient? Na, couldnt be.LOL! Like I said, lots of arrogant tools here. I figured being a truck forum it'd be a little more mature,feels like a honda civic forum with all the petty bickering. If u guys really get that pissed about some clueless kid asking a dumb question then just move on to the next post.Thanx for taking the time to do the math & re-iterate everything I already know and like I said before:"Some of their advice is good if you can find it in their arrogant ramblings:"

Waiting for the next senseless rant........

Andro5.0

 

I bet you got a pretty mouth boy.................
LOL
Look man, no need for name calling here. My junior comment was directed at your posting status not your ego/age.
But I am right. Sorry.
UD Pulleys and E-Fans do not help the engine make "more power", but they do make it more efficient by freeing up parasitic drag thus helping the engine to make more efficient use of its power. Air intakes have the potential to create more power, but you must first tune the PCM and compensate for things like ambient air temperature vs. actual CFM.....blah blah blah, stuff I am sure you already know.
While a tuner may help create more power, rest assured it is at the cost of adding fuel to the mix. The air intake is the same. It does not make the engine more efficient, it increases the amount of air going into the motor and to keep from running lean the PCM must add fuel to the mix which negates "better MPG".
Again, these MODs we speak of really are not intended for gas mileage and recommending them to a person that is already getting sub-par gas mileage on the very vehicle that you get much better gas mileage in is just asinine. IT doesn't make me or anyone else arrogant, just logical. Arrogant is "I am better than you". One can poke fun at ignorance and I guess run the risk of sounding arrogant, but again you have to admit the psychology is amusing. "How can I get better mileage in my truck?". It's up there with drinking a diet coke and eating a snickers bar at the same time....
As for your 08, you are a lucky SOB. I have been looking at the FX2 trucks but have yet to find what I want locally (5.4 w/ 3.73). The prices are so low now too! I wonder if I should hold out for the 09 now? They get the 6spd Auto which I think Ford has been really late bringing to the game. But I have noticed that in the trucks, despite what they may be "slow" to bring to the market, they don't sacrifice quality and I really appreciate that. My 2000 still runs and drives like new! I really hope the 08/09s are just as well built and from what I hear people are really enjoying them. I have the little 4.6 and a 3.08 ! What a dog around town, but open road she cruises beautifully with the tach sitting at 1750 +/- running 70 (I prefer 65 but in between the cities I let her run 70-80 all the while never breaking 2000). I heard the torque curve was much better in the newer 5.4 especially from the low end. PM did a 2009 comparison on the Titan, Tundra, Chevy, Dodge and F150 with the F150 in first. While it isn't the fastest or most powerful, quality, ride, and capacity as a work truck really helped it win.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/auto...s/4287668.html
If you didn't get to read it.
Anyway, I will be nicer to the noobs and your point was well taken. It is nice to have people come on here and have good discourse and I can most definitely see my dry side rubbing others (and it has in the past) the wrong way. Stick around Andro5/0 and we will chat more.

 

hmmm..lets go through the list shall we.
i agree with the first 5. but the tires are kinda arguable. most people end up getting wider or taller tires when they get all-terrain and thats where you lose a little bit of fuel mileage. for mud-terrains they are generally heavier and bigger so thats where you lose mileage too. the aggressiveness of the tread gives an unnoticeable difference. i had highway tires on my truck and now i have all-terrains(bigger and wider) and my mileage stayed the same when going by the odometer(11-19), but by calculating the tire size in it i got better(12-22). exhaust depends on the muffler for fuel economy (magnaflow gives better results than most). for the after market air induction you would have to buy a tuner in order to make a difference in anything. and as for the tuner i noticed more people are heavier footed with tuners. besides with those mods your most likely to get heavier footed because the exhaust alone. i'd say your the one trying to get him to spend some money
there a limits to what you can do with fuel injected engines without running poorly or spending lots of money to tune it right. trucks arent meant to go fast and for almost 6000lbs they arent going to get much better mpg.

the ways to get better fuel mileage-
stay out of the throttle
lose the unnecessary weight if any
use cruise control
keep up with services and maintenance
use fuel with the lowest ethonal rating
dont ride someones bumper in traffic
control your radio volume and your anger(makes a noticeable difference)
drive it only when you need to
and if you dont need 4x4 then dont get it or use it.

 

I couldnt pass up the deal on the '08. $6500 from Ford & the dealer knocked off another $3600 + I got high trade price for my '02(as per KBB anyway). So basically I got a $35k truck for $25k where as the used '05 i was looking at was going for a fuzz over $20k so that was a no brainer. Thanx for the link, that was a good read although my co-worker that just but a new Tundra 6months ago didnt enjoy it nearly as much as I did

As for how the thread starter will us any mods he puts on.....well I'd bet your all right on but as stated, not my problem. I just answered his question and without going into technical details & writing a small book on each about how/why they work I was 100% correct with the potential of all the mods I listed for increasing both power and gas mileage.
I'm sure after I've been on these forums for a while I'll get annoyed like you guys do but for now I'll just try to be helpful to the less learned.
See ya around.

Andro5.0