better mpgs?

[bluebear15]

on average i've been getting 13mpg. i travel about 67 miles a day and just looking for some improvements i can make to get up in the range of 15-18mpg. using a 1/4 of gas a day is a bit rough when going to school and not working much. i used to have a 94 s10 blazer that got 18mpg on avg and that didn't bother me.

any way to help improve my mpgs?

 

[puckhead]

Kinda hard when You have bigger tires and a lift lol. Try watching your RPMs while driving and keep them as low as you can. Get in intake and exhaust if you have money(said your in school, know how money goes there!) Dont know if yours has removable seats, but anything that ads weight that you dont need take it out

 

[cam3439]

good tune-up with quality parts, electric fans (take drag off engine from mechanical fan), custom tune, CAI, etc.

 

[BlackedOutHoe]

on average i've been getting 13mpg. i travel about 67 miles a day and just looking for some improvements i can make to get up in the range of 15-18mpg. using a 1/4 of gas a day is a bit rough when going to school and not working much. i used to have a 94 s10 blazer that got 18mpg on avg and that didn't bother me.

any way to help improve my mpgs?

Tune up is quickest, when was the last time you changed plugs and wires?

 

[haks310]

13mpg is pretty damn good during these winter months. I got 10mpg this last tank of gas. Gotta pay to play
Just keep your 'Hoe running at its best with regular maintenance and you will be good.

 

[bluebear15]

haha people suggested they got better mpg's w/ premium well i decided to try it and ended up getting 9mpg LOL and it was similar driving conditions as w/ reg.

ya forgot about a good tune up. i bought the truck back in oct and it had newer plugs/wires and such but i wanted to do it my self to know they were good and was planning on getting around to it this summer sometime when i've got more money

how are e fans on the tahoes? i know before when i had my 94 s10 blazer it was a heavily debated topic. some people would say less drag on the engine where other people would say it needed that mech fan for other purposes saying the engine was designed to have the fan and not an efan. so my question is are the tahoes the same or do e fans improve a noticeable measure?

i've debated a BB tune. i have 211K mi and my reasoning for not getting one is that i dont want to get the tune and then shortly after down the road my engine goes and i put in a new one and need a new tune.

what does everyone suggest for a good reasonably priced CAI??

as for the tires size debate, i'm keeping the tire size. going 33s to 35s it seems (from what i've heard) you lose about 3mpg. thats over a differance of 2" about. going 285's back down to stock 265's is 10mm and saving the possible 1mpg or less isnt worth it imo. and weight reduction such as removing the seats i just not worth the effort. taking out the seats and other possible weight reduction with out losing function doesn't make that much of a difference to where it would increase my mpgs noticeably.

 

[blackcoffee]

I average 16MPG Highway and around the same on the interstate. That's with dual exhaust / CAI / 93 Octane Tune. I blame the poor gas mileage on the agressivness of my tires. I really get the best gas mileage doing about 90mph now after the BB tune haha

 

[BlackedOutHoe]

BB gives free retunes for life, if you do decide to change up bolt ons or engines.

 

[bluebear15]

BB gives free retunes for life, if you do decide to change up bolt ons or engines.

great info to know!! have to see how money plays out over the summer and see if i can get one.

i read thread on swapping in a lincoln mark VIII e-fan and i plan on doing that.

 

[stykthyn]

the lincoln fan and the taurus 3.8 fans will cool anything out there and are a great bang for the buck. There is no need to have a clutch style fan. Go electric and don't look back.

 

[arveetek]

Hmmm...I don't feel so bad now. I'm only averaging 18 mpg with my diesel, and I always thought it should be higher! My old 6.2L I used to have would break 20 mpg pretty easily.

Casey

 

[bowtiefreak]

9 here.

 

[sparg93]

buy a Prius, remove the engine and battery...stick it in your Hoe...then drive over the Prius

Aside from my useless comment, there are some great suggestions above, it just comes down to how much money do you want to spend: e-fan, custom tune, better breathing engine (intake/exhaust).

But like you mentioned above...sometimes you can find a cheap efan and the install can be done in your dirveway.

Personally i'm looking at these items for my Hoe to improve mpg's: e-fan, CAI, bb tune...i'm not going to touch the exhaust right now.

 

[bowtiefreak]

MPG and full size truck do not gowell together. My dad has a stock tahoe with a 5.3 and he averages 14.3mpg in his and does not have a heavy foot in the truck

 

[BlackedOutHoe]

it should also be added that spending hundreds of dollars on things other than a reg tune up will take a whole long time to pay off as far as money saved. 200+ CAI, 100+ exhaust, 250+ tune, 100+ efans. it would take years for the money your spending to pay off in gas savings.

just something to think about.

 

[AtomicHoe094]

i can give a rats ass about my mpgs, and considering i get 10ish is good enough for me. Ive never seen over 300 miles on my trip with a 27 gallon tank :/

 

[sparg93]

blacked out makes a good point - factor in how much you plan on driving.

+2 extra mpg on a 30g tank, is 60 extra miles on a fill...which is a little less than 4g of gas at 16mpg. This equates from $10-$12 saved per fill based on mileage.

The big variables that will change all this math is - how much better mileage will you get, the cost to get there, and how many fill ups will it take to break even. I think it's safe to assume gas is not going down in price, so you should be able to figure out your breakeven point in a worse case scenario based on price of gas (i.e. the higher the price in gas, the greater the benefit of the upgrades).

<i did this in my head while writing, so pls someone correct me if i'm wrong>

 

[bluebear15]

ya i understand the costs involved. the exhaust and tune i already wanted to do aside from caring about mpgs. i know the full size trucks get bad mpgs but i'd just like to get up into the 15-18mpg range. it seems like half of the full size world is in that range at least. the efan sounds like the best "bang for your buck" option.

as far as CAI i'm a bit skeptical. from what i've been reading it seems like its not really a CAI that gives you better mpgs but rather a good filter that does it. since most of the cheaper CAI's dont really have a heat shield they defeat the purpose of a CAI and you dont get any gains from them. spending $150+ on a good CAI just seems too steep of a price for the little gain that you may get imo. so i think i will just spend the money on a good air filter

 

[AtomicHoe094]

well if you use an intake and a good exhaust along with a blackbear, you WILLL see improvements.

I steer away from K&N filters and what not. Never liked em. The oily residue always gets all in your TB and mass air flow making things a pain in the ass. i have a volant on my truck and cant complain one bit. it sounds pretty bad ass. haha

 

[sparg93]

i'm not a big fan of K&N as well...the kit for the OBS is an airfilter w/o heat shield and you're just sucking in hot air...no way you're getting the hp improvement they claim under normal driving conditions.