Hi everyone, trying to pinpoint how bad of mileage im getting. I will put a gauge in hopefully this week. I did a fillup and top up test. It turned out to be 10 MPG city. Now, i have been working like 4-5 kms away fro mmy house and it is around -5 celcius these days. So, i let it warm up for 10-15 mins .....most of the time( and plugged in at night.) My temp gauge dosnt have time to get half way up. What do you think with idling and close to work driving in the winter? Sound normal? Thanks everyone.

 

my gues is that with 4.10 gears 10mpg is about all you will get

 

That sounds pretty low even with your gears and smaller tires...I'm sure some of the more knowledgeable in here will chime in to help...I have 4:10 gears 285/75/16 tires and I get about 16-17 in town if I take it easy...winter fuel will reduce your mileage some but I still think you're a bit low. (make sure you hand calculate it as the overhead display is often way off)

 

Thanks guys, i took the milage from the digital odometer......I am going on a highway trip this weekend....about a 1000k......i will see then i guess.....10 mpg sucks!

 

u r letting it idle longer then the actual drive time.....10 mpg sounds about right for a completly cold engine that runs cold all the time..id bet on that 1000k drive u will see a huge improvement.

 

Be sure to let us know how you mileage was on your trip. I too was a bit concerned about my mileage and then found the overhead computer was not real accurate. Currently running my first tank of 1oz of 2 cycle to 1 gallon of diesel and then will hand calculate. Waiting to see what it produces.

 

Have you tried "Drew's Brew"? I'm getting 19mpg (75%hwy drive). I'm not sure I'm allow to post links to other sites, but if I can, here's link to the "Brew"
http://www.dodgeforum.com/m_578939/tm.htm

Also, you might want to check your IAT. Here's a link to that:
http://www.smokindiesel.com/Technical.htm

I'm totally new to diesels so I've got a dozen or so other sites I've used for edg'acat'n myself...
-dan

 

what results have you seen using Drew's brew (mpg improvements both around town and hwy..any other details would help also)? Seems interesting...

 

Hey guys, i was just doing some outskirts of the city driving for about 40 miles.....I reset the overhead once the engine came up to temperature.....Doing about 80kms per hour...For 30 mins or so, the overhead stayed around 19mpg. Maybe my truck just sucks when its cold out and im only doing small city drives and the engine not getting enough time to warm up. Doing the big highway run this weekend..wil update....

 

Re "Drew's Brew", I actually can't say definitively. I've only owned the truck since Thanksgiving. Bought it in Virginia then drove it home to Texas. It ran pretty good along the way, but I seemed to notice a "tappet"-type sound as the engine was running...kinda like an old engine does when you use cheap/low octane gas. Seemed like that sound shouldn't be there since it only had 60K miles. I got it home and started reading up on it and came across that site where I would find it (brew) mentioned at times. Finally found it (ref that link earlier). Didn't know what PSD or MMO was until then. Now I do. I've used it consistently now for about 4-6 fill-ups; don't hear the tappet-sound any more. I decided the last tank that I would hand-calc the mpg; came out to about 19.4mpg (overhead said 18-something). I'm not a lead-foot though...hwy the needle generally rests between 68-72. Oh, also I noticed (during the trip from Va to Tx) that if allowed the cruise-control to do the driving, my "instant" mpg on overhead was generally better than when I was using my foot (same speeds). So I try to let the cruise work whenever possible. Regarding the IAT sensor, I really think that has some merit--website makes sense. But, when I checked mine, it was pretty clean so I can't say that was an issue for me. Again, I'm new at this, so just feeling my way around...haven't added any gadgets or gauges....yet. -dan

 

I've used Stanadyne and am trying Optilube XPD now (just on first fill up with that though)...with the Stanadyne I didn't notice any significant gains in mpg, if anything maybe 1 mpg...I'm pretty light footed also, especially with the cost of diesel here! I'll have to thin about tryin' 'ole Drew's brew sometime...

 

POwer Service is mostly diesel fuel-- and expensive fuel at that.

I wouldn't run any "drew's brew" because I think there are much better options out there.

10mpg is on the low end of reasonable for a truck that's always run cold and idles a lot-- all on winter fuel.

Removing your fan will help warmup times in winter a great deal. Heck, because I don't tow, I can run fanless almost all year! The only problem is your A/C gets warm when you aren't moving in warmer weather.

Try fanless in winter and you'll like it. It takes all of 5 min to remove than fan with the right 36mm wrench and some kind of barring tool. Take the clutch out with it, and store the fan face down. (it says on the clutch which way is proper).


Justin

 

I've noticed a substantial drop in mileage over the past two winters. The winter blend fuel is part of it and also the colder temps. I do much more local driving over the winters and less long trips and have noticed the lower mpg. Also, I plug in but don't let it idle too long before driving off. I've read this is bad for the 24V to cold idle under no load as it can lead to coking of the valve guides. Kurt

 

Hey Everyone, iover the last month or so, i have driven some long highway runs....I filled her up, added some mix and started driving. I kept under 2000 rpms, and hit cruise control. After a 200 kms, i filled up and found out i was getting a little over 19 mpg . I still would like to change gears to 3:54 's. I tow a race car all summer,(weekends) do you guys think this would hurt the truck at all with a gear change?

 

Some good points above...but, don't forget a couple important points: winter-blend fuel has far less BTUs, so your economy will suffer, and 2. the new 15ppm stuff has far less BTUs than the 'dirty' stuff, and your economy will suffer. So, couple those two factors together and the numbers get ugly.

BC