After watching Banks whine about diesel smoke and how no diesel should ever smoke if tuned right I figured I'd run a little test.
Run #1:
#0 plate full foreward, star wheel cranked all the way
60MPH cruise about 1/8 of pedal travel on average
EGT at WOT easily buried at 1600+
boost at WOT 32lbs
smoke at WOT, enough to turn on automatic headlights.
Average MPG from 3 tanks: 19.8

Run #2:
stock 215 plate at original setting about half way, star wheel all the way up
60MPH cruise about 1/4 pedal travel on average
EGT at WOT average 1400
boost at WOT 28lbs
smoke at WOT lasts about 15 seconds and dies off
average MPG from 3 tanks: 17.1

Run #3:
stock 215 plate at original setting about half way, star wheel tweaked to eliminate most smoke.
60MPH cruise about 1/2-5/8 pedal travel on average
EGT at WOT 1200
boot at WOT 19lbs
smoke at WOT, if you squint and hold you mouth right you might see a puff
average MPG from 3 tanks: 12.6

Bear in mind I only drive the truck for work so it runs the same route every day, you can mapquest it if you'd like. Colorado hwy 285 from Bailey to Conifer, Pleasant Park Rd (CO rd 73) to Evergreen then CO rd 74 to I-70. It's all mtn driving, up hill, down hill, etc.
Needless to say I'm sticking with the #0 full foreward with tailgater smoke on demand. Banks can keep his overpriced junk and opinions!

 

Good to hear I love the smoke

 

Wow, those are some impressive results!

 

I think it depends on how the truck is set up.. with my truck i had the opposite results just playing with the starwheel.. tons of smoke ment i lost mpg less ment i gained it and the use of less pedal

 

I think alot also depends on driving style, if I turn it loose all the time MPG is toast but when there may be a 600lb Elk around the next turn you tend to use less go pedal. My biggest thing was cruising on the highway, I feel that was the most noticable improvement. I barely have to give it any fuel to maintain 60, up hill or flat whereas with the stock setup I was halfway into it. If I nudge it to 1/4 throttle I can go from 60 to 75 with no smoke very quickly, passing everyone effortlessly. But when I do get that clown 3' off the bumper it'll blow enough black to turn on their automatic headlights (used sparingly so I don't kill the MPG).

 

No offence but I'm always leery of people's short term mpg experiments.
The experts say day to day weather changes can make up to a 15% difference.
My feeling is the results are backwards from what they should be. I'd like to see how trying different combos over at least three months of each would pan out.

 

I don't know, but, there might be something to it. A long time ago I had a 92 Chevy S-10 with a 4.3 v6. My buddy had the same truck with the smaller v6...I think it was 2.9 liter or something like that. Anyways, the point is I always got better milage than him. Even my last truck, which was a 97 Ram with the 360 got better milage than Ram's with the 318 in them. I know there's differences in driving habits, but, my experience with all vehicles that I've owned has been more power = less foot in the pedal to keep you going. That has always ment better mpg in my case. I suspect this applies here too. Maybe not to the extent of the results that were posted above, but, it wouldn't surprise me if the findings yielded results that still showed more fuel on demand will = better mpg.

I read a study a few years back that looked at acceleration vs mpg. The study found that accelerating from 0 to 55 mph using 3/4 of available throttle gave better overall mpg than accelerating using anything less than 3/4. But, the study also showed that full throttle acceleration produced mpg that was equal to or worse than applying 1/4 throttle to reach the same speed. In the end, there's obviously a "sweet spot" that only trial and error will reveal. I've never successfully been able to try the 3/4 throttle acceleration for myself. There's simply too much traffic...I'd plow something over in the process.

 

Also if I can get the same milage out of my 3.3 v6 intrepid as i can out of my 2.0 4banger breeze. each get about 28-30 mpg, breeze has 50k miles on its motor and the intrepid has 199665 miles on its motor. I know we're talking about diesels. Also we turned the pump up on our cummins where it would smoke some on wot throttle and it raised from 20-22 mpg. and that was over 3 months almost exactly 3months stock and 3months turned up.

 

common sense fellas running 1/8 throttle uses less fuel that 1/4 throttle truck is worling harder with the stock settings use your heads its not rocket science. its a proven fack weather or not its a FACT

 

Sure but the fact is the plate only comes into play when you floor it or under heavy load. Changing the plate or it's position can't make any difference at all in mpgs or power at 1/8 or 1/4 throttle.

 

plate gives you more fuel more rack travel period, it helps, try going up a steep hill with the plate in stock position and then put the plate at full forward and you will climb the hill easier its a fact, hence the better fuel mileage as long as you dont floor board it all the time.

 

When I did this, weather would not be a factor. We had days between 66-68, nights between 28-32 with no rain or snow. What started this was when my wife got laid off I put the stock plate back in and cranked the star wheel back assuming I'd save fuel, when I filled up on Monday then had to again on Thursday I knew something was up since I usually just fill up Mon morning I then started to change and adjust things to see what was going on. Also bear in mind I there is nothing flat where I live, it's up hill then down hill, around a curve and back up hill again. It is 100% mountain driving and cruise control is only an option if you haven't filled your Elk or Deer tag. If everywhere you drive is reasonably flat like back home in WI I would suspect there wouldn't even be a noticable difference since there isn't much of a load put on the truck to climb.

 

what plate? that thing i threw in the tool box it looked like a#5 when i took it out of the ip

 

I also have a 0 plate full forward and the star wheel cranked full forward, on the highway I average 11 litres per 100km which is fantastic, and as ssii says I got smoke on demand!

 

I don't get it. It shouldn't matter how much you have to push the pedal. If the truck moves faster, then there's more fuel going into the cylinders regardless of pedal position.