I bought a 2009 F350 utility truck about 4 months ago and i cant get over how bad the fuel mileage is!! Right now i am averaging 9.5 mpg. I understand its not going to get 40 mpg but i just got rid of a 2004 duramax and it would get 15 mpg loaded. I have been doing a little reading and i havent really ran into the magic solution for the fuel economy problem. I looked into removing the exhaust gas burner and adding a tuner but it doesnt appear that does much for economy. Has anyone ran into this before, and if so what did you do? :drinkup
A guy I work with has 09 F350 and same thing could only get 300 km to a tank. They are terrible on fuel from the factory. He got a DPF delete kit and tuner and fuel economy instantly got way better. Don't think it doubled but his example was that now he pulls his 5th wheel and can go further on a tank than he used to be able to driving empty.
I tuned and deleted mine and went from 12-13 hwy to 15-17 running a leveling kit, 35's and cruising 75 with some in town driving too.
I have a 09 F350 with the 6.4. When it was new it had more power than the previous 7.3 but was much thirstier when towing.I did the DPF delete and put an extra 210 hp in it with a Spartan tune. Fuel use dropped dramatically and it drives like a sports car.
Thanks for the info..... Any idea of the cost to do this work? Also, is this a fairly easy process, could a shade tree mechanic do the work? I saw a guy do a dodge truck and it looked pretty complex to me at least.
I swap mine in and out in about an hour and have a helper for the dpf. When I did mine 3 years ago it cost 1100. But you can't get my tuner for that price anymore with the delete pipes. Check Rudy's diesel performance or performance truck parts for the stuff you need.
Its looking like to get the H&S tuner and the delete kit is about $1650. After much more reading it seems this is the route to go. Some of these guys were saying they are now getting 17-19 mpg, sounds a little out of reach in my situation but if i can get up to 13 mpg i would be happy. When you removed yours did you saw it in half? Appears thats the way to do it.
A friend of mine is running a duramileage chip on his 6.4 and is happy with the results. He is still running the DPF and claims he gained a couple mpg's.
I'm running the h&s mini maxx. No need to saw it I'm half it comes out just fine.
Spartan tuning is the way to go on Fords.
Load up a Spartan 210 tune and either put a delete pipe in or get a flo-pro 4" exhaust and call it a day. The exhaust for it will be down-pipe back. If you want to put a different down pipe in the truck you'll need to either raise the cab or drop the trans to do so. Your fuel economy will increase, your drive ability will change more then you could ever imagine, and your motor will last a whole lot longer then leaving it factory with the dpf and regen process in place.
EGR delete would help too not sure what the gain would be, probly at least 1-2 mpg, plus your engine will live longer and have a little more power, I think the spartan can tune that out where you wont have a check engine light too
Ordered the Spartan tuner and delete pipe last week. I will update when i get this all hooked up. I was just told the other day that its highly recommended to delete the cats also.... guess it saves turbo life. Is this correct?
Yea it would help by dropping your egts, you want the least restriction possible post turbos since they are a restriction their selves. I have never heard one but I bet they aren't that loud with just a 4or5 in straight pipe since they have compound turbos
Anxious to hear how it turns out Barklee. Ive got an '08 F450 that gets 9.3 empty and will get clear down to 7.2 if you're flogging on it. Aggravating that they can even sell something so poor. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
You can thank the EPA for that burn more but is burns cleaner logic!
Ya I know. Doesn't matter how inefficient it is as long as the exhaust is clean. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
Mine sure ain't clean when the SOB goes into regen. All that white smoke will choke out a city block if I'm stuck in traffic.
That's interesting, what type of truck is it? Mine doesn't smoke during regen, but it does produce a strange and unpleasant smell.
When my 08 F350 had all that rubbish on it didn't smoke much when re generating but often threw an engine code Now with all that stuff gone its a trouble free engine and a lot cheaper to run.
08 Ford It doesn't all the time but often it pukes white smoke like at injector went out. I've shut down down sitting in traffic because it was so bad. The truck does idle a lot and had a hard life since its a company truck. 205K on it and gets 14MPG at best most of the time its 12 or less. It will be going away soon hopefully.
No doubt there..... 7.2 mpg is a mileage you would expect to see on a loaded semi! Friend of mine drives for a fleet of Volvos and thats about what he said they are getting loaded with 80,000lbs. You know its great that the govt wants to reduce the emissions but if your burning double the amount of fuel to do it where is the sense in that????? :Banghead
I have an '08 6.4 daily driver and I am disappointed every time I approach the fuel island. I would love to do a DPF delete, but I'm nervous about doing it running commercial. That truck has been a pita since I've had it. Blown head gaskets shy of 100k and cracked coolers at 125k dug in a bit. I put on Bulletproof coolers, but I am contemplating on the DPF. I'm afraid the guts may fall out of it soon and a tune comes into play. And I'm in the same boat as Dozerboy. It is flat embarrassing driving around with putrid white smoke dumping out the pipe. It at least could be black!! If I need to feel better about diesels, I'll go hop in my old Cummins. Too bad it doesn't have the same cab space.... Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
What was that about depleting the worlds oil reserves lol If there is enough oil out there for this kind of thinking then lower the price.
With those numbers you should have bought a V10 at lease gasoline is cheaper than diesel
This^^^^^ I've got a buddy that just bought a new gasser f250 and he said he'll never own another diesel. Sent from my SPH-L710 using Tapatalk 2
A friend of mine actually spent a lot of time and figured out the math and he bought a 250 gasser just for that reason Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using Tapatalk
I would not blame him for buying a gas truck. Anymore the risk of buying a diesel with the terrible mpg and way over expensive repairs just doesn't offset the loss of towing power. If I buy another diesel truck it's gonna be back to the cummins for me........ Never should have left in the first place!
Well, i finally got off my arse and did what you guys suggested. Bought an SCT tuner, EGR delete, DPF delete, and Cat delete. Replacing the exhaust parts was a breeze, the egr on the other hand was quite the project! Probably would have paid someone to do it had i known how involved it was! No real comments yet on the fuel economy but the power and drive ability are a day and night difference. That truck has got some serious power now! It is a pleasure to drive, and i have got a 400 mile trip tomorrow so we will see if the MPGs improve. One thing i will say, buy an air intake. I left the stock one on and now everytime i mash the gas it blows out the filter minder!
Enjoy it. They really go well. You won't look back
Well, after a 400 mile trip today i am definitely optimistic! The best i previously ever got was 10.2 MPG and all around start to finish today i got 14.1 mpg. That is a big improvement as far as im concerned. Just thought this might be valuable to someone in the future.....
We're fixin' to do the Spartan Tuner, Delete, etc. on a '08 F550 w/6.4 w/43,000 miles on the Clock. We'll let you know how it turns out too!
Just a suggestion.... I dont know if money is an issue but the SCT tuner was WAY less money. I got both delete pipes, egr delete, and tuner for $1075 delivered to my door. I think just the Spartan tuner is $1700. Unless your building a pull truck i just dont see the point in spending the extra money. Just my humble opinion......
I have an 08 F350 with 6.4l and I get about 4 mpg better fuel mileage since doing the dpf and egr delete four years ago. H& S mini max and dpf delete was $1500 including installation. I believe these tuners may be worth more now than they were then as the EPA has cracked down on tuner manufacturers.